genetics color question

[milkmaid]

Found this ad in my local paper...

• BUCKSKIN STALLION- AQHA-NFQHA-ABRA-97 percent foundation, Homozygous Black, cannot have red foals reguardless of the color of the mare.

Can a buckskin be homozygous black? I don't know my equine genetics very well, but I'd kinda think black would be dominant... so a horse can't even be heterozygous black unless its phenotype is also black.

:???:

 

[Katie]

I think what they mean is he is homozygous for the black gene. In horses you have 2 basic colors black and red. This is like a base color and you can all kinds of variations of this. Basically being homozygous for the black gene means you will not get any red based colors only black based which includes buckskin and grulla. Here is a website that might explain it better than me.
http://www.northwesthorsepark.com/Black ... lained.php

 

[spinandslide]

I dont know how that could be possible...

A buckskin carries a creme gene and a bay gene...in order to be a homozygous black, I would think the horse would have to carry two copies of a black based color...

So, if you bred a buckskin to say a sorrel...who carries two copies of the red gene..the possablity exists of getting a palomino(which is creme and sorrel, a red gene) or a Bay with red recessive gene.

Sarah

 

[cowpunk'd]

A buckskin is a bay with a creme gene. Bay is caused by a modifier called agouti on a black based horse. A black horse can be homozygous black, carrying only black (plus agouti and creme in the case of a buckskin) or it is heterozygous black, one black and one red. Black is dominant over red and agouti modifies black to bay but has no effect on red (it can still be there, you just don't see it on a red horse). If the stallion is homozygous black he will never produce a chestnut foal even if bred to a chestnut mare.