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"not to hijack the thread but I have a pintaloosa who has one blue eye (as her dam has 2 blue eyes) every foal she has ever had has had at least one blue eye but she is a few spot .
The sire however was a tobiano I think ( I am kinda not up on my patterns)"
In regards to Lisa's mare:
Here are a few things I know: 1.) A horse cannot be a true few spot or a true snowcap unless BOTH parents are are appaloosa or are capable of throwing those app genes into the genetic soup. Those named patterns could result from pintaloosa x appy, by the pintaloosa throwing only her/his appy genes. I discussed this with Sheila Archer on the Appaloosa Project. I had a pintaloosa mare x a leopard stud produce a true few snowcap colt. But it can't be a "true" unless BOTH parents are app bred.
So, Lisa, your mare, if I'm reading you right, looks like a few spot, but can't be, unless she has two appy parents. There are false snow cap & false few spot horses. Parental genetics are the key. Please tell me what color patterns the mare has produced? I'm interested! If she is a true few spot, she could produce ONLY app, nothing else, regardless of what she's bred to. This is the current "suspision" by geneticists, but not yet proven. This pintaloosa mare we had ALWAYS threw an appaloosa - snowcap or blanket - when bred to a leopard.
2.) There are two ways to tell the genetic make up of a horse, testing or produce. However, the appy gene has yet to be isolated, so there is no test for it, as yet. Therefore, the only "proof" of what a horse is, is in it's offspring. And a LOT of offspring, not just 2 or 3 babies. So, it's easier to sort of determine if a stallion is "homozygous" for app (still no scientific test) because he can produce many foals. A mare, not so much because she can only make one a year. The barn-test by the way, has to be done with a mate that is NOT APP, so that the breeder can tell what the test horse is. And they are counting apps at maturity not at birth.
Sorry, I am of a different school when it comes to face/leg white and blue eyes. I personally believe the are entirely separate genes, but that's JMHO.
In regard to Viki's foal: I'd guess app. She sure looks app, but it could be determined by pinto testing or in what she produces herself.
As someone said, pinto doesn't always throw pinto (unless homozygous) and app doesn't always throw app. I think the newborn pix shows a "haze" of coloring that sometimes apps have in the beginning. I've had leopards born that were more "colored over" than that little girl, and within weeks, they are bright leopards. - karen
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