- Aug 14, 2011
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If you really happen to like a gray stud, simply research his parents and grandparents. If they have skin issues nix that stud. If not use him. AQHA has plenty of grays too, but melanomas rarely seem to be a major issue.
Gray genes are extremely dominant. Horse colors basically work in layers, with the most basic layer either black (dominate) or red (recessive) then all the other genes layer on and modify the base color. A bay is a black horse with the bay gene over top. A buckskin is a black horse with the bay gene and the cream gene layered on top. A palomino is a red (chestnut) with the creme gene on top. A gray gene just layers over everything. You see the foals born black or chestnut or brown. Then with age gray out.
As a personal note my one friend has a TW stud - black roan, a black mare and a gray mare (black base coat). The three foals are 1 chestnut out of the black mare, 1 black roan out of the black mare and 1 gray (black base coat) out of the gray mare. Not a single black baby like she wanted.
Gray genes are extremely dominant. Horse colors basically work in layers, with the most basic layer either black (dominate) or red (recessive) then all the other genes layer on and modify the base color. A bay is a black horse with the bay gene over top. A buckskin is a black horse with the bay gene and the cream gene layered on top. A palomino is a red (chestnut) with the creme gene on top. A gray gene just layers over everything. You see the foals born black or chestnut or brown. Then with age gray out.
As a personal note my one friend has a TW stud - black roan, a black mare and a gray mare (black base coat). The three foals are 1 chestnut out of the black mare, 1 black roan out of the black mare and 1 gray (black base coat) out of the gray mare. Not a single black baby like she wanted.
