homozygous grey dressage stallions (In the USA)

Looking at him on your website, there’s no need to test – his sire was chestnut so there is no way he could be homozygous for grey.

To be homozygous, a horse needs to receive one grey gene from each parent. And since grey is dominant, then both parents must be grey.

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Thanks Furlong - I was in the car on the way to Flora Lea and realized my whoops moment! :lol: Nothing like sitting in traffic to let your mind sort stuff out! :slight_smile:

[QUOTE=sniplover;4403455]
So ~ 50% of his foals will be grey (this increases if he’s bred to grey mares, obviously)[/QUOTE]

I’m not an expert on this by any means, but I believe this really means that there is a 50/50 chance that any one foal will be grey - not necessarily that 50% of the foals WILL be grey. A heterozygous grey stallion could theoretically throw NO grey foals, or ALL grey foals. I know heterozygous grey stallions that fall into each category - one sired 5 foals before being gelded, and none turned grey, and another sired 3 foals before dying in a freak accident at 4 years of age, and all of the foals turned grey (and were from non-grey mares).

It is too bad the OP doesn’t want to consider frozen, because Royal Diamond throws a VERY high percentage of grey foals, even though he is not homozygous for the grey gene.

A few grey dressage stallions in the U.S. to consider might be Coco Cavalli, Galeno Tyme, and Stonefire. None of them are homozygous for grey, but Stonefire was by a grey sire, out of a dam with a grey sire. There is also Herzzauber, who is grey by a grey sire from a grey dam. I am not sure he is still breeding, though. He is also in Canada - not the U.S.

[QUOTE=DownYonder;4404760]
I’m not an expert on this by any means, but I believe this really means that there is a 50/50 chance that any one foal will be grey - not necessarily that 50% of the foals WILL be grey. A heterozygous grey stallion could theoretically throw NO grey foals, or ALL grey foals. I know heterozygous grey stallions that fall into each category - one sired 5 foals before being gelded, and none turned grey, and another sired 3 foals before dying in a freak accident at 4 years of age, and all of the foals turned grey (and were from non-grey mares).[/QUOTE]

Statistically speaking, 50% of all foals will be grey from a heterozygote. In your examples, the numbers of progeny fall far below anything useful in any biological regressions… so then it becomes possible for the above heterozygous stallions to sire all grey or non-grey foals. If they had continued siring foals, you’d have seen the 50/50 divide emerge… (assuming simple Mendelian inheritance for the grey gene.)

ETA: Native Dancer is a perfect example check out his progeny and their distribution of colors - he’s sired more than enough foals to hit statistical relevance :smiley:

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Well, I don’t think he’s homozygous, but Maronjo is an awesome stallion (Hanoverian). Went GP dressage and fantastic jumper. Amazing temperament.:

http://www.rhhanoverians.com/index.php/site/stallions/section/maronjo

I rode him for a year as a working student. He was a star, even as a senior citizen. I bought one of his babies for myself and trained several others.

Why are there so few grey sires? What about Hanoverian dressage grey?

According to the coat color calculator at http://www.animalgenetics.us/Equine/CCalculator3.asp
if the stallion is homozygous grey, he will produce all gray foals. There is no need for a gray dam.

This is an interesting bump of an eight year old thread. I know that in TBs, grey was not desired and it took an incredibly stellar racehorse for people to view the color in any sort of popular light. Is the same true in the various warmblood registries? If grey horses are selected against, they very quickly disappear from the gene pool.

There is also the melanoma issue. I know people who refuse to breed greys because they lost one to cancer too young.

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Dressage people bred for black. There seems to be a continuous supply of grey jumping horses.