Breeding coloured foal from a solid mare?

Question

If breeding with a solid colored mare is there a particular 'type' of colored stallion you would need to use to get a colored foal? Is it possible to 'guarantee' a colored foal in this sort of situation and does it come down to a 'DNA' type thing?

I am not a breeder or wannabe breeder shall I say, I am just asking out of curiosity as would like to know, I had never really considered it and just assumed that putting a colored stallion over a mare would give a colored foal.

Thanks a lot. :)

Answer 1

If you want color, your best bet is to breed to a stallion that is homozygous for the tobiano pattern.

Keep in mind that even just white legs will count as the white patterns...but this would be your best bet for a colored baby.

(also, just a note, we have come across unreliable testing from the homozygous test).

Answer 2

Here's the info if you are talking about Paint horses.  If you are talking about Appy horses then I don't have much experience in that area.

First of all, let's discuss what a Homozygous horse is.  Homozygous means they carry two genes that are the same for a certain thing.  Some horses can be Homozygous for the tobiano gene.  This can be proven by DNA testing from UC Davis.  If they are homozyogus for tobiano, than they will always produce a foal with at least one tobiano gene, no matter what the mare carries for color genes.  This is why homozygous tobiano stallions are quite popular in the Paint world - you are guaranteed your foal will have enough color to go into the regular Paint registry (as compared to the Solid Paint Bred registry, where they cannot show with the regular Paints)  So if you breed a solid mare to a homozygous stallion you have 100% chance of getting a colored foal.  Both mares and stallions can be homozygous, so mares have as much to do with the coloring of their foals as the stallion, color is not s*x linked.  But a homozygous stallion can foal hundreds of colts in his lifetime, but a mare will likely only have a handful.

Most solid horses do not carry a color gene.  But this is not always the case.  There are many horses that appear to be solid colored, but carry a "minimual expression" of the overo gene - they will have one color gene.  Most overo horses that look solid will have a big white face, and high socks and that's all - not enough to qualify in the regular registry, but if DNA tested will show they have the gene.  You can sometimes tell by looking at them, they may even have some high freckles up their stockings like a regular Paint, but not quite enough.  Then they can pass this on to their foal.  A solid appearing overo can have a foal that is almost all white, Paint is funny that way in that most Paints have one white gene but the amount of white hair varies considerably!

Consider that Paints came from solid colored Quarter horses - that is proof that the overo gene can be hidden.  Sonny Dee Bar is a case of a talented AQHA stallion that threw many Paint offspring due to his hidden overo gene.

Tobiano is a different gene altogether - it does not appear that it can skip a generation.  So in almost every case a solid horse cannot produce a tobiano unless bred to a tobiano.  The one exception would be - a tobiano horse that is marked so minimally that you miss its white markings, but it still has the gene.  Once again you can check this through UC Davis.

Satistically if you breed a true solid mare to either a tobiano or overo non-homoygous stallion you have a 50% chance of getting color.  If you breed two non-homoygous tobianos together you have a 25% chance of getting a homogyous, 50% chance of getting a regular tobiano and 25% chance of getting a solid.  If you breed two overos together you have a 50% chance of getting a regular overo. 25% chance of getting a solid, and 25% chance of getting a dead lethal white foal (unless you have a non-lethal white parent, which is another confusing story altogether!)

Sorry, there is no short way to explain color genes!  If you want more info go onto the APHA website, or read in "The Paint Horse Journal".  The topic is long, slightly confusing but interesting to someone like me!

Answer 3

I don't know about pinto coloring,  but breeding a solid mare to a homozygous fewspot or snowcap Appaloosa will guarantee characteristics and at least a 50% chance of a spotted pattern.  

If the mare has hidden pattern genes, that will improve the chances of getting a visible spotted pattern.

It takes two genes working together to produce a visibly spotted Appaloosa.

Answer 4

Have a look at each stallions papers, and it should say what colour any foals he fathered were, then pick out the one with the best chances. You can't really guarantee, but you're best bet is to look at about 5 stallions, then pick out the one who has the highest percent of coloured foals. x

Answer 5

The mare has the same to do with the foals color as the stallion.  You could breed a homozygous tobiano and be almost guaranteed of a colored foal.  The exception is that once in a great great while a foal will be a minimal expression tobiano (the same rules go for a sabino)  This means the foal will not be marked or be barely marked and show no other characteristics.

Answer 6

Actually, mares do have a lot to do with deciding the colour the foal is going to be.  I have a chestut AQHA mare who throws to the stallion about 80% of the time.  Out of 5 foals, she's thrown 4 palominos and one chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail.  My mare has palominos in her pedigree as well.

Answer 7

There are some studs that have a colored foal guarantee, but without looking it up I am not sure what it is.  Possibly homozygous?  I can tell you that breeding color to color does not guarantee color! I bred my bay tobiano to a chestnut tobiano and got a solid chestnut.  My friends bay mare was bred to the same chestnut tobiano, and she had a beautiful bay tobiano.  My colts grandmother (also a chestnut) was bread to a black and white tobiano, and had a stunning black tobiano colt.

Answer 8

It is a DNA type of thing, if you have a solid mare and want a coloured foal then you should look at some stats of the coloured stallion's results with solid mares, some are better than others. Then if you get a coloured foal or not, if you breed it to another coloured horse then in the end you should get a coloured horse.

Answer 9

If you have a solid mare and you breed to a colored stallion there is no guarantee you will get a colored foal.  It's a fifty-fifty chance, unless the stud always throws color (I'm assuming you're talking about Paints).  The foal will get half its genes from the solid mother, and half from the colored father, but unless you know for sure whether the stallion carries two copies of the gene you want, you have a fifty percent chance at color.  Generally the more white a stallion has (as far as paints) the more likely that you'll get color.  Some Paint horse breeders will guarantee color, but that's because they know their studs.