![]() Gray also affects spotting patterns of pintos and leopard complex horses such as Appaloosas. The gray coat color makes up about 3% of Thoroughbreds. In particular, all gray Thoroughbreds descend from a horse named Alcock's Arabian, a gray born in 1700. ![]() All of these breeds have common ancestry in the Arabian horse. Gray is also found among Welsh Ponies, Thoroughbreds, and American Quarter Horses. Many breeds of French draft horse such as the Percheron and Boulonnais are often gray as well. ![]() The vast majority of Lipizzaners are gray, as are the majority of Andalusian horses. Today, about one horse in 10 carries the mutation for graying with age. A homozygous gray horse, one carrying two gray alleles, will always produce gray foals. It is a dominant allele, and thus a horse needs only one copy of the gray allele, that is, heterozygous, to be gray in color. While gray is classified as a coat color by breed registries, genetically it may be more correct to call it a depigmentation pattern. Some horses that carry dilution genes may also be confused with white or gray. Young horses with hair coats consisting of a mixture of colored and gray or white hairs are sometimes confused with roan. White horses usually have pink skin and sometimes even have blue eyes. This is how to discern a gray horse from a white horse. However, a gray horse whose hair coat is completely "white" will still have black skin (except under markings that were white at birth) and dark eyes. People who are unfamiliar with horses may refer to gray horses as "white". Breeds with a very high prevalence of gray include the Percheron, the Andalusian, and the Lipizzaner. Some breeds that have large numbers of gray-colored horses include the Thoroughbred, the Arabian, the American Quarter Horse and the Welsh pony. Gray horses appear in many breeds, though the color is most commonly seen in breeds descended from Arabian ancestors. As they age, some gray horses, particularly those heterozygous for the gray gene, may develop pigmented speckles in addition to a white coat, a pattern colloquially called a "fleabitten gray." Some horses develop a dappled pattern for a period of time, others resemble a roan with more uniform intermixing of light and dark hairs. As adults, most gray horses eventually become completely white, though some retain intermixed light and dark hairs. Graying can occur at different rates-very quickly on one horse and very slowly on another. White hairs begin to appear at or shortly after birth and become progressively more prevalent as the horse ages as white hairs become intermingled with hairs of other colors. Gray horses may be born any base color, depending on other color genes present. ![]() Most gray horses have black skin and dark eyes unlike some equine dilution genes and some other genes that lead to depigmentation, gray does not affect skin or eye color. When gray gene is present, horse will always become gray, may be masked by white geneticsĪ gray horse (or grey horse) has a coat color characterized by progressive depigmentation of the colored hairs of the coat. Usually dark brown, unless affected by other genes which lighten eye color Usually black, except under white markings present at birth. May not gray at same rate as body, can be lighter or darker Head may be first part of body to lighten, legs may be among last parts of body to lighten Graying gene (G) dominant when single allele presentīorn any color, lightens with age until fully white, may develop pigmented speckles
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