Colour gene

[horsemads mum]

A friend of ours has just bought a bay mare and she was told by the previous owner that it has the coloured gene and would have coloured foals everytime. This is because they say she has had 3 coloured foals so far. Someone else at our yard has said its down to the stallion if its coloured or not. I just wondered which was true.

Regards Angela

[CityLights]

the coloured gene is always presnet it snot one that can hide and 'throw back' like some others so if the mare isnt coloured she wont have a coloured foal to a none coloured stallion, you onyl need one coloured gene so im guessing she has always gone to coloured stallions and has been lucky that the stallion has always passed on one coloured gene

[XenaWarriorPrincess]

Its mainly down to chance unless the stallion or the mare are homozygous coloured.
If the stallion is heterozygous coloured so lets say Cc and the mare was solid so cc there is a 50% chance that the foal would be coloured and a 50% chance that it wouldnt. If both the mare and the stallion were heterozygous (Cc) there would be a 75% chance it would be coloured and 25% that it would be solid.
If the stallion were homozygous coloured (CC) then its 100% chance of a coloured foal.

There are ways of testing it if you want to specifically breed for colour.

ETS - just re read the post properly!! A solid mare cannot throw coloured foals unless the stallion is coloured! Previous owner was obviously talking out of her arse!

[BEX101]

As above really. I did see an advert on Dragondriving the other day for a solid mare with coloured parents advertised as "sure to breed coloureds" Xena is pretty much right with the "talking out of her arse" comment

[Lorraine]

All that others have said above is correct.

The only way "she" can throw coloureds every time is if she is homozygous coloured herself. So unless she has a white patch somewhere (ie is coloured herself) then "she" can't throw coloured foals.

If she is bay (and not coloured) then she will only throw coloureds if she is mated to a coloured stallion - ie the stallion is throwing coloureds, not her.

[horsemads mum]

Thanks for the answers. Thats what i thought.