SORREL COLOR IN HORSES 
Although It May Be Only a Light Chestnut, Evidence Indicates that It Is Inherited 
Separately and Is Therefore a Distinct Unit—Sorrel Color the 
Easiest One for the Breeder to Produce at Will 
L. P. McCann 
Assistant in Animal Husbandry, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 
HE sorrel color in horses is not 
officially recognized by most stud 
books. The following, however, 
are exceptions to this: The Na- 
tional Registry of Belgian Draft Horses, 
The National Registry of French Draft 
Horses, and The American Shetland 
Pony Stud Book. All others consider 
sorrel to be a light shade of chestnut. 
Since the inheritance of all other 
colors has been found to accord with 
Mendel’s Law, it occurred to the writer 
that there was a possibility of determin- 
ing whether sorrel is a true color. With 
this point in mind the matings in The 
National Registry of Belgian Draft 
Horses were examined as a source of 
information. ! 
More than half of the records in the 
Belgian stud book were covered in 
order to obtain evidence for, or against, 
the question at hand. A large pro- 
portion of the animals recorded in these 
books have been imported, and not 
bred in the United States, and it was 
therefore impossible to learn the color 
of the sire and dam of such animals. 
Work was begun on the most recent 
volume published, and the preceding 
volume taken up as the information in 
the succeeding one was exhausted. 
Finally a point was reached in the 
records where the number of animals 
recorded, that had been bred in this 
country, was so small that the informa- 
tion gained by going over these records 
was almost negligible. It was then 
deemed advisable to stop the work and 
analyze the data compiled. 
At the outset the color of all matings 
together with the color of offspring of 
such matings was recorded for compar- 
ison with the results compiled by W. S. 
Anderson.? After 400 matings had 
been tabulated it was apparent that, 
not considering sorrel, the findings were 
as nearly like Anderson’s as would be 
expected. From this point only such 
matings were recorded as were consid- 
ered of value in determining the inherit- 
ance of sorrel. 
The final number of matings tabulated 
is 427, which involves the color of over 
1,250 animals. This seems a sufficient 
number from which to draw conclusions 
as to the inheritance of sorrel color. 
In previous work done on the inherit- 
ance of coat colors all other colors were 
found to be dominant to chestnut. 
However, the records from which those 
data were compiled entirely disregarded 
sorrel as an individual color. 
In the tableon p. 371 it is seen that 
from the sixty-three sorrel by sorrel 
matings sixty-one sorrel, one bay, and 
one roan offspring resulted. Upon in- 
quiry, the breeder of the bay animalmade 
the following statement as to its color: 
“Both the sire and dam were sorrel in 
color but of a very light shade, and the 
colt was so light in color that after the 
coat had been shed once the animal 
was so light as to make it impossible to 
distinguish whether it was bay or 
sorrel.” 
However, he failed to state whether 
the mane and tail were light in color, 
which is characteristic of sorrel, or 
whether they were black, which is 
characteristic of bay. 
The roan pattern being dominant, it 
is readily seen that the one roan animal 
‘Much valuable assistance was received from Prof. W. M. Barrows, Department of Zoology 
and Entomology, Ohio State University, under whose direction this work was carried on. 
* Anderson, W. S., “Coat Color in Horses,’’ JouRNAL oF HEreEnity, V, 482-488, November, 
1914; and in more detail in Kentucky Experiment Station Bulletin 180. 
370 
