What colour is my horse?!?!

[jvanrens]

@LilDunFilly

nSty or StySty

Is this supposed to be sooty? Even Etalon doesn’t offer that test, unless things have changed recently there is no test for sooty.

[LilDunFilly]

Yes, that was what I believe the written genotype was for sooty. I have no idea about testing!

[jvanrens]

Chocolate palomino is used to describe anything from a dark red with flaxen, to silver black (aka silver dapple, silver bay is not), or dark or sooty palominos. Equine colour genetics people abhor the term, because it is used for too many different colours.

[JB]

@jvanrens

Even Etalon doesn’t offer that test, unless things have changed recently there is no test for sooty.

Right, no test for sooty

[jvanrens]

I don’t think you can write a genotype for something that is untestable and that geneticists don’t know how it works yet.

[jvanrens]

@walktrot

Treat yourself! You can get DNA testing done which will tell you the color. I used Etalon for my Paint gelding. He was a sorrel sabino but did not have the sabino gete. They have a variety of health profiles, including HYPP. I also had ancestry done, which is fun with QH and Paints because they are a hodge-podge of breeds from all over the world. I also got some perfomance info. My horse had Man o’ War in his pedigree, and he was built like a TB, but his speed was “Sprint” vs. “Endurance” which means 6-8 furlongs was about all he had in him. He also was Curious whcih was absolutely true. The other option is vigilant.

UC Davis also does color testing.

etalon horse testing

Like @JB said, Etalon has made some major errors on basic tests like Frame, Tobiano or HYPP. If your horse didn’t test as a Sabino, and it was because he doesn’t have SB1, but another Sabino like pattern. There are many that look the same, but don’t test as it.

As for the ancestry thing, that’s something to do for fun. Breed testing doesn’t work well in horses, there’s multiple threads here about it.