This is absolutely incorrect, as others have already stated. And I’m not talking about whether the foal might be homozygous grey (which would be impossible because he has only one grey parent)…I’m talking about whether the foal’s dam is homozygous grey. If his dam is homozygous grey, he WILL turn grey. From the coat color described of the foal though, it sounds like he did not get the grey gene…so it’s a moot point.
If I breed a grey to a grey, I have a 75% chance of getting a grey and 25% chance of getting a non-grey. As well, there is a 25% chance the foal will be HOMOZYGOUS grey. It does indeed exist and we are currently getting a foal tested for that right now (by a grey stallion and out of a grey mare)!
[QUOTE=S A McKee;6010584]
Horses that inherit progressive Gray can be born any color, then begin gradually to show white hairs mixed with the colored throughout the body. [/QUOTE]
This is kind of interesting. My mares whole sire line are grays. Her full sibling is gray. She is a bay with a small white star. When I got her as a coming 4 year old her star was TINY (like 20 hairs) and this year as a coming 11 year old her star is big and noticeable. She also has white hairs flecked throughout her coat on her body…
If I breed a grey to a grey, I have a 75% chance of getting a grey and 25% chance of getting a non-grey. As well, there is a 25% chance the foal will be HOMOZYGOUS grey. It does indeed exist and we are currently getting a foal tested for that right now (by a grey stallion and out of a grey mare)![/QUOTE]
Well if you breed two hetrozygous greys together, there is a 75% chance of grey… 25% that the foal is homozygous. if you bred two homozygous greys together, or a homozygous and a hetrozygous, then all foals will be grey, and it changes. So w/o knowing if the dam is homozygous (possible if both parents grey, not if one was not grey)… it depends.
Here is my little grey man when he was 2 months old. He was born black as the ace of spades. I could not find a single grey hair on him anywhere and I agreed to buy him when he was 1 day old, assuming he would stay black. Ohhhhh I was so stupid. :lol: Now I am stuck with yet ANOTHER grey, and I really really really hate grey. :sigh: LOL. I love him though, he is a spectacular little man (now 6 months old). As much as I love him, and I love his full sistser whom I also own, I wouldn’t have bought him if I knew he would be grey. The mare owner said the mare (grey) had never given birth to a solid black foal before. Both stallion and dam have black behind them so I had really hoped he would stay black, or at least black bay. All the other foals she had were a light mousy bay color and they all TURNED GREY, including the filly I own. So I thought maybe I was safe with this guy. So dumb. Pffffft.
Edited to add: I forgot to say - I was talking to a lady I trim for and she told me that her pure white 25 year old was dark bay and appeared to stay dark bay with NO grey hairs until he was around 8 to 10 and then all of sudden every time he shed out in the spring he had more and more white hairs. He didn’t go white until around 15 or so.
Of course she told me that after I bought the colt…LOL.
See my profile pic for my filly. She is only 2.5 years old and she’s going to be pure white pretty darn quick. Probably in another 2 years. The grey gene is really weird!
So if I were paying 10K and NOT wanting a grey, I absolutely would do a genetic test. No questions.
Thanks everyone for all the input and advice, I wish I was better at posting pics and stuff then I could show him to you, but I agree testing is probably the best way to go.
[QUOTE=SRF1;6011667]
Thanks everyone for all the input and advice, I wish I was better at posting pics and stuff then I could show him to you, but I agree testing is probably the best way to go. :)[/QUOTE]
only way to be absolutely sure (at least for many years. usually around 8 i presume they won’t grey if their are no signs lol. Used to think it earlier… but had a 5 yo black mare start greying sigh cancelled the breeding to the blue roan lol).
Since I breed Lipizzans, who are for the most part gray, I see a lot of them. It isn’t true that the foals who are born a rich adult adult color turn gray. I have a bay colt who was born a rich bay and will stay that way–per UC Davis’ DNA test. My others have varied. Some were a mousy color and turned gray. Some were a very dark color almost black, and turned gray. Some looked brown/bay and turned gray. Legs have varied from body color to dark or even lighter, and turned gray. get the DNA test if you care. It’s $25 for just gray or any one color. http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/horse.php
[QUOTE=TouchstoneAcres;6014828]
Since I breed Lipizzans, who are for the most part gray, I see a lot of them. It isn’t true that the foals who are born a rich adult adult color turn gray. [/QUOTE]
I’ll second that. I don’t deal with many grays, but I do have many black foals, and ocassionally one is born deep, velvet black… And stays black! OTOH, my only foal that is (turning) gray was also born deep, velvet black :lol:
I totally disagree with what that website says, “when foals are born one of the first signs a horse will grey is the color of the legs, if a foal is born with black or red legs they will grey.”.
Below is a photo of our bay foal who eventually turned grey and our buckskin foal who eventually turned grey. Neither one had dark legs when they were born - both photos were taken the day they were born.
[QUOTE=MysticOakRanch;6014890]
I’ll second that. I don’t deal with many grays, but I do have many black foals, and ocassionally one is born deep, velvet black… And stays black! OTOH, my only foal that is (turning) gray was also born deep, velvet black :lol:[/QUOTE]
Hence the “generally” and “usually” in this discussion
[QUOTE=Daventry;6014975]
I totally disagree with what that website says, “when foals are born one of the first signs a horse will grey is the color of the legs, if a foal is born with black or red legs they will grey.”.
Below is a photo of our bay foal who eventually turned grey and our buckskin foal who eventually turned grey. Neither one had dark legs when they were born - both photos were taken the day they were born.[/QUOTE]
However, compared to the same color (bay, buckskin) foals who would stay that color, they are indeed “black”, or dark. It’s very obvious from their foal pics they will be gray, though I can see how one might not see it as an 'adult color" if they haven’t done a comparison between the two
