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Jimmy Gray on Maid of Cotton

The Basics of Color Genetics

Because the gentlemen who formed the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders Association of America in 1935 were focused on the running walk gait, they were not concerned that the horses the association registered adhere to any strict color. The Studbooks published to record the pedigrees of the breed listed nine color options, but others were not precluded. For this reason, a large number of colors, dilutes, and patterns are found in the walking horses of the 21st century.  All of these, however, are built upon the color foundations of three basic coat colors.

All horses, with the exception of those within certain breeds like the Friesian or the Palomino associations, have three basic coat colors. These three begin with the foundation of two colors, black and chestnut/ sorrel. A black horse is truly black all over, with no areas of brown. Some black horses appear blue black, and will not even fade in the sun. Black horses have the genetic code of E-, and their color is dominant to the chestnut and sorrel coat colors. The varying shades of chestnuts and sorrels have the genetic code of ee, for it takes two of the gene to produce a red-coated horse. When two ee horses are mated together, the resulting foal always has a red base coat.

The third basic coat color is the result of the interaction of the agouti (or wild) gene on the black coat. The agouti gene modifies the black hair pigment so that it changes to a red shade everywhere on the body but not in the mane, tail, ear tips, and lower legs. The horse with a rich red body and black points is called a bay. A chestnut horse may carry the agouti gene, but it has no impact on any color other than   black. For that reason, a chestnut horse carrying the unseen agouti gene when mated to a black horse may produce bay foals as well as black and chestnut ones. The cross of two true black horses may produce black or chestnut foals, but never bay. This cross will result in homozygous blacks that always produce black offspring about 25% of the time. Two bays crossed together, or a bay crossed with a chestnut/ sorrel, may also produce black foals. Such a cross resulted in the first World Grand Champion that was a stallion - Midnight Sun.

A fourth color seen in many breeds, but often ignored in nomenclature in the walker breed, is the brown horse. At this time, most color genetics experts agree that brown is a variation of the bay horse, with the bay's usually rich red coloring modified    to shades ranging from very light to dark seal brown to shades that look black to the inexperienced eye.

The three basic coat colors with the brown variation of bay form the basic background coat colors, often referred to as hard colors,  upon which  the other color genes act. The Tennessee Walking Horse can be found in grey, true roan, palomino,        buckskin, several shades of champagne, and two spotting patterns.





GREY

All Tennessee Walking Horse foals arrive in one of the three basic hard coat colors. With grey foals, these basic colors become   the most exciting, as they arrive with intensely dark variations of the base color. Sorrel foals generally come a deep burgundy red with red-black manes and tails. Chestnut foals are extremely dark versions of chestnut, sometimes with grain staining on the lower legs extending past the knees and hocks. Grey foals with bay base coats come in rich shades of bay with black stockings already   in place, while ordinary bay foals have heathery light brown camouflage color on their lower legs. Black foals carrying the grey gene are perhaps the most exciting of all, as they come in startling true black shades rather than the mousy dark brown of most black foals. In some instances none of these extraordinary colors mark the entry of a grey foal  into the world, but the presence     of grey hairs on the  eyelids assures the breeder that he has indeed struck silver!

Grey is a dominant gene found in most horse breeds. Its presence results in a horse that had an increasing mixture of grey        hairs in its coat with each spring shedding until the animals turns so grey that it appears white. Because grey is a dominant gene, one parent must be grey in order for  the foal to be grey. Grey cannot skip a generation, and since it is so strongly dominant, its presence cannot be masked by another color gene. Due  to its nature, grey can mask the dilution genes in older horses that have turned greyed out, and with   its darkening effect in younger horses, it can provide the illusion of black roan when blended with the roan gene even if the base coat is not black! Horses carrying both grey and true roan in  the Tennessee Walker breed, however, are extremely rare.

                                                                                                   FOAL POSSIBILITIES

grey X black --grey foaled black, grey foaled chestnut, black, chestnut

grey X bay --grey foaled bay, grey foaled black, grey foaled chestnut/sorrel, bay, black, chestnut, sorrel

grey X chestnut--same as above if grey has black or bay base coat

grey X chestnut (grey with chestnut base coat) --grey foaled chestnut/sorrel or chestnut/sorrel

grey X palomino --grey (black, bay, chestnut basecoat), palomino, buckskin,grey on palomino,buckskin, hard colors    of black,   bay, or chestnut/sorrel (depending on base coat of the grey parent). A chestnut basecoat grey will never      sire a black bay, or buckskin with a palomino mate.

grey X buckskin--same as above



ROAN

The term "roan" has been erroneously used for decades in the Tennessee Walking Horse breed. The breed does indeed       have roan horses, but they are not found in large numbers. Most of them are among the most beautifully colored roan horses to be found anywhere, in any breed.

The roan gene is a dominant gene, like grey, bay, and black. In order for a foal to be roan, one parent must also be roan. This gene cannot skip a generation and then suddenly appear as if out of nowhere. According to most scientists, the gene generally exists in the heterozygous state, because embryos inheriting it from both parents also inherit a defect that leads to death in utero and no living homozygous roan foals.

The roan gene causes a very even distribution of white hairs in the coat of a horse's body. The roan hairs do not extend to the head, which remains dark, nor to the lower legs. The roan gene also appears to suppress white markings. Roan horses most frequently have no markings. If some are visible, they are very small, like a star on the forehead or one tiny coronet behind.

Roaning can be minimal, so that    the horse has only the barest silvering, or more extensive, so that the horse' s coat shines with a silver cast. The roan gene can combine    with other color genes as well.    It is one of the few genes that masks the      characteristics of the ubiquitous sabino gene (see the sabino section below). It can also mask some of  the effects of grey in     a foal, although a grey roan will eventually turn white like any other older grey horse.



                                                                                                            FOAL POSSIBILITIES

roan X black ---- black roan, bay roan (if both parents are not black), chestnut roan, black, bay(if both parents not black), chestnut/ sorrel

roan X bay ----same as above if both parents heterozygous for bay

chestnut roan X chestnut/ sorrel ----chestnut roan, chestnut, sorrel. Same as above if roan parent is bay roan or black roan

roan X grey ----roans as above, greys as in grey section, also black, bay, or chestnut foals that are both roan and grey,      depending   on base coats of parents

roan X palomino---- same as in grey section above only substitute "roan" for grey

roan X buckskin---same as in grey only substitute "roan" for grey

CREAM DILUTION GENE

  One of the nine colors listed for the breed in the TWHBAA Studbooks was "yellow". It was over fifty years into the history of   the registry  before science aided observant breeders in the categorization of the golden horses within the breed into two different dilution groups. The largest of these two, in terms of numbers of horses, is the cream dilution group.

A dilution gene lightens two of the three basic coat colors by affecting the color of the hair follicle without adding white hairs to  the coat.   The general effect is similar to using creamy white paint to blend with a darker color and create something brighter.  The cream dilution gene lightens red pigment only. It has no effect on black pigment.  The presence of one cream dilution gene does not affect either the eye color or the  skin color of the horse carrying it. Eyes will generally be dark and lustrous,   while the skin will be  gray except where white markings are present.

The general name accepted to describe the presence of the cream gene in a horse with a sorrel or chestnut base coat is palomino.   Palominos have golden bodies ranging in shade from pale, creamy gold, to light gold to the classic" color of a newly minted gold coin" to darker hues sometimes confused with flax sorrels. Manes and tails of palominos are white, cream, or silver. Various terms are  heard to describe the shades of palomino, but the term "chocolate palomino" does not always designate a horse carrying the cream gene.

A cream gene interacting on the bay base coat results in a buckskin horse. Due to the wide variations of bay colors, buckskins can  be a very pale gold, often termed buttermilk buckskins, a rich gold with black points, or a shade so dark         that it looks bay. Buckskin color is sometimes confused with dun, but a dun horse will have a dorsal stripe and usually           primitive markings on the   legs. Crossing a palomino on a bay never  produces a dun. Duns are extremely rare, if they exist   at all, in the Tennessee Walking Horse gene pool.

The golden colors that result from crossing chestnuts and bays with palominos and buckskins fail to appear when black       becomes part of the equation. The cream gene has minimal to no effect on black pigment. When a black also has a cream gene,    the term used is smokey black, which  can be a misnomer as some smokies look like ordinary black horses. It is only when a smokey is crossed with a hard color and produces a dilute foal that its true genetic potential becomes apparent. A smokey  black always hasone cream dilute parent, or if one or both parents are black, at least one dilute grandparent.            DNA tests are now available to check for the cream gene  in a possible smokey.

When two horses carrying the cream gene are mated, golden foals result 50% of the time. About a quarter of the matings are expected to result  in ordinary chestnuts, bays, or blacks. The remaining 25% of foals present an odd picture to the eye, though. Neither golden nor in basic colors, these foals arrive with pale coats, sky blue eyes, and pink skins. These are the double dilute foals that will, when mature, produce golden babies most of the time. Two cream genes on a red base coat results in cremellos. Two cream genes on a bay base coat results in perlinos. The two are often difficult to distinguish, as the double cream gene reduces black to a pale, rusty color. Cremello on red always results in palomino. With bay or black in the mating, however, smokey black can result unless a bay parent carries a pair of agouti genes, or the cream parent is          double agouti. Smokey cream is a rare, but viable, possibilty as well when crossing two dilutes, one with the E-gene.

Palominos, buckskins, and smokey blacks require one parent that carries the cream gene. An unbroken line of palomino and "yellow" horses should march across a pedigree back to the foundations of the TWHBAA. Cream dilute horses do not       "crop out of nowhere" from a line of sorrel, bay, black, roan, or grey horses.

FOAL POSSIBILITIES

cream X chestnut/ sorrel-- palomino, chestnut/sorrel

cream X bay ----buckskin, palomino, smokey black (looks black, but has a cream gene to pass along),chestnut, bay, black

cream X black-----same as above, but with fewer chances of getting a buckskin or palomino foal

cream X grey----same as cream on sorrel or cream on bay or black, but 50% probably of getting a grey overlay of the          above possibilities

cream X roan-----same as cream X grey

cream X palomino ----palomino, cremello

cream X buckskin----palomino, buckskin, cremello, perlino. smokey black, smokey cream

cream X smokey black----palomino, smokey black, cremello, smokey cream. If the cream-only parent carries one agouti gene, buckskin and perlino are also possible. If the cream-only parent has two agouti genes, there will be no smokey black      nor smokey cream foals.

Below are some color charts explaining the colors. Special THANKS to Dianne Little & The Canadian Walking Horse Registry for this information!! Check out the photos of Heritage Walking Horses and Outcrosses modeling the colors!

SOLID or BASE COLOURS

COLOUR

BASE COAT

MANE and TAIL

SKIN

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS

BAY

Light to dark brown, often a reddish hue

Black

Dark.

Pink under white markings.

Points are black – mane, tail, the lower half of legs, tips of ears, and nostril edges.

BLACK

Black

Black

Dark.

Pink under white markings.

Often born mousey gray and darkens with age. True black is a uniform colour with no light areas.

BROWN

Very dark, nearly black, no hint of red

Dark brown or black

Dark.

Pink under white markings.

Black points may be defined; hair in ears, on muzzle and on flanks lighter than hair on body.

CHESTNUT

or

SORREL

Light to dark brown, often with a red hue

Red, dark brown, mixed or flaxen.

Dark.

Pink under white markings.

No dark points; skin around eyes may look pink at birth but becomes dark soon after.

BAY

   This gorgeous bay mare is Her Majestia, also known as "Tia", owned by Stephanie Murphy, Michigan. Bay results when there  is an agouti gene present. The agouti gene regulates the distribution of the black pigment. A dominant agouti gene will restrict the black coloring to a points pattern so any black on the horse will be found on the lower legs, mane, tail,  and ear rims.

BLACK

Go Boy's Windwalker shows the true non-fading black color. "Larry" is a Heritage stallion owned by Bates Gaited Horses in     Melba, Idaho.

CHESTNUT

Star's Lady Chocolate, a Heritage Walking mare, models the chestnut color. In some breeds this is also called  sorrel. Star's Lady Chocolate belongs to Diane Bromenschenkel of Nampa, Idaho. Since chestnut is a recessive gene, it can appear in almost any cross  but it would never appear in the mating of a cremello with a chestnut or sorrel horse.

SORREL

    Bud's Lady Ann depicts the flaxen sorrel color. Annie is a nice example of a Heritage Outcross. She belongs to Andrea Benson     of Tomah, Wisconsin

DILUTE COLOURS

COLOR

BASE COAT

MANE and TAIL

SKIN

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS

BUCKSKIN

Some shade of tan (from cream to dark bronze)

Black to very dark brown

Dark.

Pink under white markings.

Points are black or dark brown; dorsal stripe not required; does not usually have primitive markings.

CHAMPAGNE

Varies from ivory to yellow to chocolate brown

Varies from ivory to yellow to dark brown

Pink, becoming dusky/mottled with age and sun exposure.

Eyes often blue at birth becoming green, gold hazel or brown later; no dorsal stripe;legs may be darker than body. One parent must be Champagne.

CREMELLO

PERLINO

SMOKYCREME

cream/white

darker cream

smoky cream

white/cream

tan/orange

smoky

Pink

Pink

Pink

Eyes are blue; little difference between the 3 types. Both parents must be Buckskin, Palomino or Cremello or Blacks that carry crème gene.

PALOMINO

Yellow, shades from very pale to copper gold

White or flaxen

Dark,

Pink under white markings.

Usually born light and shedding out darker OR occasionally born red and shedding to gold.

BUCKSKIN

Lady's Got the Gold, a Heritage Walking mare, owned by Pinefolly Farms, Tennessee, demonstrates the buttermilk buckskin color. Buckskin is a dilute of the bay achieved, in this case, by crossing a cremello stallion, Chance's Goldmine MF   with Bucki's bay dam, Red Bud's Lady Scarlet. Buckskin can also result from crossing bay on palomino, buckskin on chestnut, buckskin on palomino, and sometimes by crossing palomino, buckskin, or cremello on black. Buckskins have dark skin and  dark eyes.

CHAMPAGNE

Leon Oliver's American Cream Draft horse, Danny, illustrates the gold variation of the champagne gene, a result of diluting a chestnut/ sorrel basecoat with the champagne gene.Champagnes have mottled skin and amber eyes. The champagne color is not seen in today's Heritage Walking Horses, because so few of the champagne horses today can trace their coloring back to the Studbooks. One parent must be a champagne in order for the foal to carry the gene, and unlike the cream gene, which is basically hidden by a black basecoat and can appear to "crop out", the champagne gene is always expressed in a horse carrying it. A pair of horses that are black, bay, chestnut, or any combination of them cannot produce a champagne foal.

CREMELLO

Tanasi Topaz Goldmine, a Heritage Walking mare owned by Jim Holmes, Sikeston, Missouri, models the cremello color. Topaz is an example of a horse with a double agouti gene which means regardless of what color she is bred to, she will never produce a solid black or smokey black foal. Cremellos are the result of breeding cremello to palomino or palomino to palomino, although the second option has a smaller percentage of resulting in a cremello. Cremellos have pink skin and ice blue eyes.

PALOMINO

Remember Prayer Warrior, a Heritage Walking stallion owned by Carol Warwick of Colorado, portrays the very unique expression of golden palomino with silver mane/tail color. Palominos come in a variety of shades from light golden yellow, sometimes referred to as isabellas, to dark, sable palomino. Palominos result from crossing the cream dilution gene on a sorrel or chestnut base coat. Palominos have dark or hazel eyes and normal gray skin, as opposed to gold champagnes, often incorrectly registered as palominos, which have light amber eyes and pink skin marked with darker mottling.

Tanasi Gold, a Heritage Walking mare owned by Pinefolly Farms, Tennessee, provides an example of the lighter variation of the palomino color

COLOUR PATTERNS

PATTERN

BASE COAT

MANE and TAIL

SKIN

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS

GRAY

Any colour at birth except white. Fades to gray/white with age.

Dark at birth, fading to gray, sometimes to white

Dark.

Pink under white markings

Horse lightens to dapple gray, flea-bitten gray and sometimes white; fades around eyes and flanks first. One parent must be Gray.

ROAN

Any colour, silvered with white hairs. Dark head and points

Any colour including white or bicoloured

Dark.

Pink under white markings

Foals are born Roan or shed to Roan after foal coat; head, mane, tail, and lower leg are usually solid coloured. One parent must be Roan.

SABINO

Any colour, often mixed with white hairs throughout coat including head and lower legs

Any colour including white or bicoloured

Dark.

Pink under white markings

Often have lacey belly spots, high white on legs, large face markings, and chin spot; horse may be almost white. The Minimal Sabino may have only face and leg markings (often with jagged edges). The maximal Sabino is almost pure white with dark eyes.

Grey - Mature Color

Bud's Sterling Bullet, a Heritage Walking stallion, owned by Leon Oliver, Tennessee models the grey color in a mature horse. Grey horses are not born this color. Bullet was born chestnut and turned grey as he matured. This is what is meant by the phrase "grey foaled chestnut", in his case. What you can't see in this photo are the flecks of chestnut coloring in his grey coat.

Grey - Not Mature

Sterling's Jolie Allure, sired by Bud's Sterling Bullet, and raised by Pinefolly Farms, Tennessee, models the grey coloring of a young horse. Jolie was born black as night, the type of grey horse that turns grey slowly and retains the beautiful dappled pattern for a long time. The grey coloring in this photo reflects changes in her coat at three years old.

True Roan

Go Boy's Jetsettin', owned by Bob Long, Tennessee, models the true roan pattern.Commonly she would be called a red roan. She has the darker points, lighter body, dark legs, head, mane and tail. True roans have very minimal, if any, white markings.

Black Roan - April Velvet models the black roan pattern. This is sometimes mistakenly called "blue roan". Velvet shows the bluish coloring with black points, black head, mane, tail, legs. Thanks to Allanna Jackson, Lakeville, Arizona.

Sabino or Roan???

This is Sam's Blue Blze, photo courtesy of Allanna Jackson, Lakeville, Arizona. Blue is one of the rare horses who possesses BOTH the roan and sabino gene. Evidence of this is the filly above, April Velvet, who is Blue's daughter sired by a non-roan stallion. Check out Blue's sabino filly in the Sabino section!

SABINO
Minimal Brown Sabino

This filly is Backyard Cinnamon, sired by Lucky's Koko Prince, a non-roan horse. Cinnamon is the daughter of the mare above, Sam's Blue Blaze and offers proof that Blue does indeed carry both the sabino and the roan gene. Cinnamon's sire, Koko, was a brown horse. Cinnamon inherited her markings from her dam.

Minimal Black Sabino

Slush Creek's Jubal S., a Heritage Walking stallion, from Slush Creek Walkers, Montana, models the black minimal sabino pattern. Jubal's face is turned away so you can't see his big blaze but you can see the chin spot in this photo as well as the socks on his hind legs, as well as the lack of "white ticking" in his coat, typical markings for minimal sabinos. Jubal has sired several maximal sabinos with the mares at Slush Creek.

Black Sabino

Sun's Smokey Midnight, Elk River Farm, models the sabino pattern on a black base coat. The sabinos have long been mistakenly listed in the registry as roans. Sabinos, the original spotted walking horse, come in a variety of colors and usually sport loud markings such as high stockings, knee spots, belly spots, chin spots, blazes, as well as the white "ticking" in their coats (lighter hairs mixed in with the darker base coat color). Here we can see Smokey has the high rear stockings, blaze, and a knee spot on his front leg. The "ticking" shows up in his coat in this photo. The 2000 foal crop was the first one that distinguished the sabino pattern on a foal's registration certificate.

Maximal Sabino

NFF Wilson's Iceman, a Heritage Walking gelding from Bailey Farms, Alturas, California, is a classic example of a horse that inherits a sabino gene from each parent. The white is covering whatever base coat color Iceman has (he has one black sabino parent, one red sabino parent). Iceman has dark blue eyes and pink skin.

Bay Sabino

Echo's Miss Dixie, a nice Heritage filly from Confederate Hills Farm, Tennessee, models the sabino pattern in bay.

Sorrel Sabino

NFF Wilson's Society King, a Heritage Walking stallion from Northern Foundations Farm, Wisconsin, models the sabino pattern in sorrel. King gets dark red in the winter and the white "ticking" is almost invisble. King has the classic high stocking in the rear and bald face.