Hey guys! Are you ready to learn about horse colour genetics?
*awaits yells of enthusiastic agreement*

The Basic Base Colours
If you are, then we'll start simple - with the base colours. Think of painting. You know how sometimes you need a nice base colour that you can work with to layer more colours on top? Well, think of that for a little. That's sort of how horsey base colours work. They are what all the other dilutions, patterns and modifiers are piled on top of to get a final result.

The three equine base colours are:

~Red
aka
Chestnut
Sorrel

~Black

~Bay

I'll go into more detail about these soon! I'll also explain why there are some strange shade variations within the colours themselves. But first, let me confuse you tell you something very important!

Most mammals, including horses produce two pigments; red (or yellow but not in horses) and black.

Now, I can imagine you're asking yourself "but why are there three base colours? Chono this is really crazy!" Of course its crazy. Nature is crazy. What did you expect? Anyways, a gene called Extension controls these two pigments. Its dominant allele is E (a big scary capital letter because its dominant). When a horse has one of these big Es, this means the Extension gene will tell his cells to make lots and lots of black pigment, and a really teeny little bit of red. Yes, there will still be a little bit of red, which you don't see at all, but it will be veeery important when we talk about bay. If the horse has a big E (a dominant Extension allele) and no other funny genes to make the colour different, he will be black.

Okay, so we always must talk about alleles in pairs because they don't like hanging around alone. The dominant Extension allele's friend is the recessive e. This little e is what tries to tell cells to make lots and lots of red pigment. Because it is recessive, when it sits next to a big E like Ee, the dominant allele will be black, and lots of black pigment will be produced. To get lots of red pigment, we need two little es - ee. A horse with ee will have cells that are being told to make loads of red pigment, and will be red (or chestnut or sorrel if you like). Therefore:
EE = Black because of two dominate black alleles
Ee = Black because one dominant allele is 'stronger' than the recessive red one
ee = Red because there are no dominant alleles to tell cells to make black pigment

It's time for the fun stuff - Agouti! Agouti is the name given to the gene that determines where black pigment can go. It controls Extension. the letter that represents a dominant Agouti allele is A. When a dominant Agouti gene is present, it makes cells produce black pigment only on the points of the horse - the lower legs, mane, tail, and ear tips. A horse with this colour is called bay. If both Agouti alleles are recessive, aa, black pigment will be evenly distributed. Remember - the effect of Agouti is only seen on black pigment. If you have a red horse, ee, the agouti zygosity will have nothing to do with the horse's coat colour.
So;

AA = Two dominant Agoiti alleles mean black pigment is restricted to the horse's points only
Aa = Black pigment is restricted to the horse's point again - the effect of the dominant allele is seen
aa = Black pigment is distributed uniformly

Now we can combine these letters into real genetic codes:


EE/AA = This horse is bay. The dominant Extension genes cause the horse's cells to produce lots of black pigment, and the dominant Agouti genes restrict this pigment to the horse's points
EE/Aa = This horse is also bay. The dominant Extension genes cause the horse to produce lots of black pigment, and the dominant Agouti gene restricts this pigment to the horse's points. The effect of the recessive agouti gene is not seen
EE/aa = Not a bay! This horse is black. Extension is dominant, but there are no dominant Agouti genes to tell the black pigment where to go. It is distributed evenly around the horse
Ee/AA = This horse is bay. The dominant Extension gene causes the horse's cells to produce lots of black pigment, and the dominant Agouti genes restrict this pigment to the horse's points
Ee/Aa = Surprise! Another bay. The dominant Extension gene causes the horse's cells to produce lots of black pigment, and the dominant Agouti gene restricts this pigment to the horse's points
Ee/aa = Here we have a black horse. The dominant E allele means black pigment will be produced, but the recessive Agouti alleles mean the pigment is not restricted
ee/AA = This horse is red. Or chestnut. Or sorrel. Technically he is red, since his cells are only producing red pigment. The dominant Agouti alleles can't affect red pigment
ee/Aa = Here's another red horse. Again, the recessive e's mean red pigment is produced, which is unaffected by the dominant Agouti allele
ee/aa = Another red horse. His cells are only producing red pigment due to the recessive Extension alleles. Despite having a recessive Agouti status, those cells can't determine where the black pigment goes because there is none


It's Shade Time!
Shades refer to the strange variations in tint that horse coat colours have. Like how blue is divided into sky blue, phthalo blue, dark blue and others. Up above on my pretty drawing, you can see some shade variations. Here they are, row by row, left to right:

~Red
The first horse in this row is a bog standard chestnut/sorrel. Most chestnuts will be within a couple shades darker/lighter, and vary in tone slightly. There is usually lightening of the hair around the coronet band.

The second horse is known as a Liver Chestnut. Don't ask me why they chose the word liver. This colour is still considered red, and will still have the Extension status of ee, despite being quite dark. Little is known about the inheritance of this shade. Here is a surprisingly dark chestnut horse. Note the lighter fetlocks!

The third horse in this row is known as a Flaxen Chestnut. He has a normal chestnut coloured body, but a light straw mane and tail. This is what the flaxen gene does to chestnut. Its inheritance is confusing, and it may not be a single gene that causes this expression. Flaxen can be visible on liver chestnut horses to make Flaxen Liver Chestnut. The degree of flaxen expression can vary from super light mane and tails to only slightly lighter than the body.

JDD-Random-Adventure wrote:

From Shadow to Flora,

"WHY DO YOU EVEN LIKE READING RAINBOW :L"

Ma'at are you flying upside down?
So this is my SandWing OC, Ma'at. She's based on the Egyptian Goddess of truth, justice and order, Ma'at/Maat.

"Ever since the day I was born"


I'll finish this page later.

A fight of Kae and Lloyds

I hope this doesn't count as too bloody...

Answer to
"Hey Jack, sorry about making you almost choke on some sunglasses. You might be able to tell that sometimes I get carried away. Well, anyway, do you feel up to leading that group of people to save the princess? Or are you still a little ticked (ticked=angry\mad) that you dad didn't tell you earlier, so you would be able to prepare?" Asked by DragonGirl987

well....the real answer is....he doesn't know really....if he doesn't "Queen" Sandra will take over the Kingdom/probably the entire Minecraft world....but he's not sure because his Father is either dead or missing and he wants to know for sure.he loves his father a lot.....

"They've been calling me the monster"

OC Included: Cinder (Male) (Cat)

Home: http://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=2803655&p=90957399#p90957399

Next: noop

Cross walks and crossed hearts and hope-to-dies~

So yeah. Take a smol unstable-insane wolfie. yes.

Put on your war paint~

Probably the best humanoid I've ever drawn... I'm super happy with this. Background totally meant to be a warp (Steven Universe) as I thought It'd fit the theme. Chrysoberyl is my Gemsona and I'm really happy with this 0: So yeah!~

:Jack accidentally cuts himself:
:Jack: Ow Dang it!
:Jack's thinking: now for Cody....great.....If only i could teleport....

Page one of Daily Life will be posted on October 2nd; Check back next Friday for the page! :3

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I'm not quite sure what she is looking for but I think she's found it.
What do you mean you not sure what she looking for!You made this comic of course you know what she is looking for.
Shut up Jordan you're not even in this comic!
Thank goodness.
You know what I think for that I am gonna stick you in the background somewhere,and the first person to spot you gets five pets of their choice from my trades group.
Oh joy.I'm thrilled.

uge i hate doing comic pages but... bleh....I'M NOT QUITTING THIS COMIC HAHAHAHAHA even if very few ppl read it


:Jack: wh- where am i?...
:Jack wiggles only to find out that he's tied up..:
:Jack: oh come on////
:Jack looks up and notices a picture frame on the shelf:
:Jack kicks the shelf up against the frame and smashes the frame:
:Jack picks up glass and starts cutting and the rope:

...I forgot that I wasn't planning on doing this one, since someone already did it D:

whOOPS

DID YOU KNOW THAT LOBSTERS ARE VIRTUALLY IMMORTAL?
THEY CAN'T DIE OF OLD AGE.

How godly is that?

OKAY I'M SORRY IT'S BEEN TAKING SO LONG TO FLOP OUT PAGES Eventhoughnoone'sfollowingthiscomic BUT IT'S SUMMER, I'M REALLY DARN BORED, It should speed up a LOT.
I'll tell you what I told other people; it's not even that I'm too busy, but it's actually the fact that I'm not busy enough, and Chickensmoothie is on the absolute bottom of my list of things to do when I'm bored. But lucky for you, I've been SO BORED LATELY, it's gotten to that point.

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What Goes On wrote:Kiaton: SKIP!!!!!!!!
Skip: ;^;
You had ONE JOB! Lead the Reteraq here, why is that so hard!?
Hey-! It's not MY fault that rock was there!
ABLKSJDLFJER
ABJOIEURALKJSBOIYEOKAJSLKDJF
PKJBLUSOIUBOIUASLEKRJALKJXOI
HTUJNKDMLSHLBJNAKSLDFHNBAL
BIEUAOSLDKJBOIUASELKRUOBIUQ
UIONUOAIJSLKJALISUBOIUA;SLKDJFLOIUAOIUGTLKAJS;LKUBOIUAER
...
<insert.ReteraqTrollface.png>
I think we should run.
O-O

OH DANG
OH MAN
THOSE LETTERS
AH

EXPECT FASTER PAGES UP UNTIL VOLUME 1
WHICH AT MOST IS LIKE.... 5?
I DON'T HAVE MUCH PLOT TO VOLUME 1 PLANNED OUT. I ONLY HAVE THE 2ND AND 3RD VOLUMES OF THE SERIES PLANNED OUT WHICH DOESN'T DO GOOD TO SKIP AHEAD LOL