Another pinto marking question

[StarRidgeAcres]

Is there any reasoning behind why some horses have just a tad of white while others are almost all white with just a spot or two of color? I'm asking because my mare Junie finally foaled and the baby is all white except for some busckin on the head and one hip/leg. Junie herself has no visable palomino color to her that I can see although her previous owner who had her for years says you can see some on her shoulder in the spring. I've never seen it but some palominos are so darn light they almost look white anyway.

Oh and she has one blue eye but the baby got two (those ice blue, freaky ones lol) - and all this is obviously from her because there is NO pinto going on with Spirit.

So, just really curious. I've never had two pinto babies before and now that I do (well, only one belongs to me) it's kind of neat, although still not really my thing.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

[walkermini]

In general, the more white a pinto has, the more pinto genes they have. A homozygous splash (two splash genes) will have more white than a heterozygous splash(1 splash gene), for example. Also, a horse with say tobiano, splash, and sabino, will have more white than one with just tobiano. It can get pretty complicated with all the various pattern genes and zygosity, these are just a couple examples.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

In general, the more white a pinto has, the more pinto genes they have. A homozygous splash (two splash genes) will have more white than a heterozygous splash(1 splash gene), for example. Also, a horse with say tobiano, splash, and sabino, will have more white than one with just tobiano. It can get pretty complicated with all the various pattern genes and zygosity, these are just a couple examples.

Who knew?!

Thank you very much for the info. I literally had no idea about that relationship between the white and the "amount" of pinto, but I wondered. Very interesting.

 

[targetsmom]

Congratulations on the pinto "baby" - are you keeping the sex a secret?? He/she sounds like it might be a medicine hat - or close to it. Can you share a picture? Please.....

I was not sure myself about the distribution of white, but do know there can be tremendous variation in the amount and that the more patterns, the wilder the patterns tend to be. I happen to like minimal pintos myself. Especially buckskin pinto fillies....

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Congratulations on the pinto "baby" - are you keeping the sex a secret?? He/she sounds like it might be a medicine hat - or close to it. Can you share a picture? Please.....

I was not sure myself about the distribution of white, but do know there can be tremendous variation in the amount and that the more patterns, the wilder the patterns tend to be. I happen to like minimal pintos myself. Especially buckskin pinto fillies....

Hi Mary,

Nope, no secrets, just not thinking. And of course...it's a BOY!!

I have no idea what has been in Spirit's water but goodness I going to put him on bottled water when he returns.

The good news is that he's probably my favorite - conformation wise aside from YOUR FILLY! He's taller than I prefer but he has such fine bones and his neckset is nice and high. His facial marking kind of makes you initially think his head isn't that pretty but when you ignore the marking and look at the actually shape of the head it's actually very nice. Hopefully pictures soon.

 

[love_casper]

Probably multiple patterns going on, but amount of white doesn't neccessarily indicate zygosity of all the patterns, or amount of patterns involved. Tobiano (heterozygous or homozygous doesn't matter) frequently by itself can make a horse with a solid head and dark tail and totally white everything else. With tobi, it's all chalked up to genetic variation. A horse with nothing but 4 socks can produce a loud foal with just a dark head. Luck of the draw.

Frame is the same way. A loud frame can produce a horse with minimal face white, or anything in between, and vice versa. And of course, they are all heterozygous.

Splash is the one that, as explained above, is incomplete dominant. You know how cremellos are homozygous cream? But they don't always produce cremellos? It's because the phenotype between heterozygous and homozygous is visible, and you need to breed them to another cream carrier to get a double dilute, or you'll just get a palomino. Splash is like that. The homozygous splash will always pass down the gene, but heterozygous splashes usually just have face white, a snip, blue eyes. Homozygous splashes are the visual ones, and you need to cross 2 splashes to get one.

And then, because horses like to be confusing, there's this whole business of sabino. It can enhance patterns, make em louder, change the color of the horse, all this fun stuff!! Multiple patterns can make patterns wilder looking, but some of those patterns can be plenty loud all by themselves. But yes, most people who breed for loud pintos mix as many patterns as they can fit in there. I think those toveros are awesome!!

Anyway, would love to see a pic of this baby! Splash and Frame are the only patterns known to cause blue eyes, so he must be carrying one of those.

 

[Becky]

Agree with Love_Casper!

And then I believe there are pattern 'restriction' or 'turn on' genes as well that can mix things up even more. Color/pattern genetics is so fascinating!