Lisa
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I'll take a stab at these horses
Do you have photos of Romeo's sire and dam? Looking at him in this picture, I would say he was either a seal brown or a very dark bay. I went to your website, however, and some of his other photos show the buckskin. The modifier gene, sooty, is what causes the dark colouring. It can be very minimal, causing countershading or very extensive, making the horse look extremely dark (almost a different colour like on Romeo). Countershading is a line down the back that is often mistaken for a dorsal stripe that is caused by dun. Unless I can see a picture of the parents, there's no way to tell for sure, but I would say that he likely does not have dun gene. Carolyn, you are right. If he is what I think he is he would carry black, agouti, cream, sooty. Possibly red, as well, but if he has not thrown any chestnuts, he is likely homozygous black.
That goes for his sister, too. The line down her back looks like a dorsal stripe, but I don't see anything else on her that suggests dun (cobwebbing, shoulder stripes, zebra stripes). So, unless I see her parents and they look dun, I'm going to go with countershading
His daughter looks like a classic smutty buckskin to me!
As for the blue eyes...I would say that this line has a gene for sabino, but that it is generally minimally expressed. They could have splash, but I see absolutely no evidence of it.
Do you have photos of Romeo's sire and dam? Looking at him in this picture, I would say he was either a seal brown or a very dark bay. I went to your website, however, and some of his other photos show the buckskin. The modifier gene, sooty, is what causes the dark colouring. It can be very minimal, causing countershading or very extensive, making the horse look extremely dark (almost a different colour like on Romeo). Countershading is a line down the back that is often mistaken for a dorsal stripe that is caused by dun. Unless I can see a picture of the parents, there's no way to tell for sure, but I would say that he likely does not have dun gene. Carolyn, you are right. If he is what I think he is he would carry black, agouti, cream, sooty. Possibly red, as well, but if he has not thrown any chestnuts, he is likely homozygous black.
That goes for his sister, too. The line down her back looks like a dorsal stripe, but I don't see anything else on her that suggests dun (cobwebbing, shoulder stripes, zebra stripes). So, unless I see her parents and they look dun, I'm going to go with countershading
His daughter looks like a classic smutty buckskin to me!
As for the blue eyes...I would say that this line has a gene for sabino, but that it is generally minimally expressed. They could have splash, but I see absolutely no evidence of it.
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