A Study in Dappling: the Silver Gene

[BlackOak2]

This is a long post, please attempt to refrain from quoting the entire thing. A simple 'ping' is more than adequate. Thank you.

Check out my other study:
A Study in Dilution: the Dun Gene

I did this study for myself, really for future use, however I offer it to the community to utilize and also build upon. I used only my own horses nominally because I could track them myself and I could semi-control the outcomes.
As of posting this study, there are three ways that a horse can acquire the dappling effect in this game: if a horse has the graying gene, if the horse has a particular type of sooty gene (known as sooty dapple) and if the horse carries both the silver gene and the black gene. This study is strictly about the silver and black gene dappling effect.
Dappling in this game happens when you have a black coat with the silver gene (either homozygous or heterozygous for Z). This can also happen for dilutes which offer dapples on creamy-colored, or yellow-colored coats (can also make the dappled coat appear pinkish). I do not have any dilutes to work with, so I cannot offer any at this time. However, I do have some plans in the future to perhaps add dilutes into my herd, so I may update this in the future to reflect dilutes as well (that’s if somebody doesn’t beat me to it first).
In order for the dapples to appear, the horse must have a black coat (E), but can be heterozygous or homozygous for black and also as long as the coat carries no agouti, along with at least one gene for silver. A horse that has no black or is negative for black would be ‘ee’ and would be a chestnut and appear with a red coat. In addition, the black, agouti negative horses can carry the dun gene and still express dapples, sometimes called dappled grullo. However, any horse carrying agouti or chestnut will not express dapples; chestnut cannot express silver regardless of being a carrier or homozygous, they can however, express flaxen and is the only coat able to do so.
I will use a scaling for dapples from 1 to 5, where 1 is silver black with no dapples showing and 5 is as prominent as dapples can appear. Dapple scaling is influenced a bit by how dark or how light the coat is, as dapples against a lighter background won’t appear as prominent as dapples appearing against a darker background. There are a few different foal colorations for silver, I’ll name them Gunmetal; Sooty Red; Creamy; & Pale Red. Please keep in mind this is how I can explain the coats of these foals and not actual names of the colors. Some of these foals perhaps could be listed under another foal coloration; often creamy and pale red are almost interchangeable, so I fit them in to where I thought they should be.

Gunmetal is defined as a dark gray color that may already be showing dapples. These foals seem to keep their coat coloration with little to no change. To date I have had very few of these born and in fact, have only one recorded for this study.

Sooty Red is defined as a reddish or yellowish tinge under a sooty or black ash with mealy (pangare). When dappled, seems to usually scale 3 and up. Sooty Red can also shed out to be silver brown (I did not capture any for bay or wild bay, so I do not know if they could also shed out as these). Please bear in mind that when I use the word sooty, I do not do so to indicate the sooty gene, just to help describe the sooty coloration.

Creamy is defined as lightly tinged from pale red or pale yellow to almost white-cream usually with a pink coloration and no sooty or black ash or mealy (pinkish coloration is often found along the base of the mane and the base of the tail, it can also look like the hair roots are red, this is usually an indication of a racing stripe for the dun gene). Creamy looks to shed out to a light ‘silver’ with no to light dappling, usually scaled 1 to 3. Creamy can also shed out to be silver brown (again, I did not capture any for bay or wild bay, so I do not know if they could also shed out as these).

Pale Red is defined as definite reddish or yellowish tinge with mealy (pangare) and no sooty or black ash (mealy may only be defined by the lighter coloration on the nose and again, I use this to describe the foal coloration and not to give an indication that the foal has the mealy or pangare gene). Pale Red can also shed out to silver bay, silver wild bay or silver brown (all able to show dun). It seems that most of the Pale Red foals are actually not a black horse, but rather an agouti carrying horse, at least it seems that way in my herd.

Gunmetal

Gunmetal (Splendid Blue Throne)

(dark gray with slight dappling already apparent, scaled 2)

(very little change to color and still sporting scaled 2 dapples, with graying gene)


Sooty Red

Sooty red (Storms Over Bell Toll Hill)

(looks like sooty flaxen chestnut/sooty mealy palomino)

(by one year, dark silver with prominent dapples, scaled 3)


Sooty red (Strong Blueblood)

(very yellow in color, less red and much more palomino, but clearly sooty-looking)

(one year, mid-silver grullo with clear dapples, scaled 2)


Sooty Red (Wild Son In Blue)

(very bright red with slightly sooty and mealy, other side of the spectrum)

(at one year, silver brown)


Sooty Red (Blue Bell Hill Red Wine)

(medium colored)

(at one year, medium to dark silver with medium dapples, scaled 3)


Sooty Red (Princess Crusader In Blue)

(classic sooty red, in darker pigmentation)

(at one, no dun, none to pass on from parents, no dapples, scaled 1)


Sooty Red (Chime An Earthly Blue Throne)

(a good sooty yellow coloration)

(sheds out to a dark silver with dapples scaled at 3)


Sooty Red (Curious Blue Crown)

(a dark sooty yellow coloration)

(sheds out to a very dark silver with dapples scaled at 4)


Sooty Red (Sapphire Veil Hiding Crowns)

(a very nice solid sooty over yellow-red coloration)

(sheds out to a medium-dark silver with bright dapples scaled 5)


Creamy

Creamy (Bell Toll Hill Duchess)

(almost cream in color, with a dull pink coloration in the tail)

(at one year, light silver with a hint of dappling and dun, scaled 2 to 3)


Creamy (Sapphires And Bluebells)

(less pinkish, but definitely creamy)

(light silver, even considered a pink-tinged silver. Grullo dun, scaled 1)


Creamy (Trusting The Blue Crown)

(light yellow cream)

(at one year, a very light brown dun is evident, possibly showing metallic)


Creamy (Light On The Blue Throne)

(could almost be defined as slightly sooty, but not)

(at one year, very light silver color, with the barest hint of dapples, scaled 2)


Creamy (Find The Sapphire Throne)

(another example, perhaps darker than the others)

(medium light silver color with dapples scaled from 2 to 3)


Creamy (Guarding The Blue Throne)

(good cream color)

(silver grullo with no dapples, scaled 1)


Creamy (Living In A Blue Bloodline)

(yellowish)

(very light grullo, dapples scaled 2)


Creamy (Constellations Over Bell Toll Hill)

(another yellowish coloration)

(bright silver grullo, dapples scaled 3)


Creamy (Strike The Blue Throne)

(a good pale silver, creamy coloration with the barest hint of a red stripe)

(shed out to a nice light silver grullo with a dappling scaled 3)


Creamy (Dignified Sapphire Crown)

(a nice light coloration with a clear pinkish tinge)

(shed out to an almost medium silver with dapples scaled at 2)


Creamy (A Bluebell Crown)

(a decently dark yellow-cream color)

(sheds out to a light medium silver with dapples scaled at 2)


Creamy (Crowned For Tolling Bells)

(a light cream with just the hint of red)

(sheds out to a nice light silver that is no darker than the foal coat, scaled 2)


Pale Red

Pale Red (A Juniper On Bell Toll Hill)

(a dull, red chestnut or a pale, dark palomino with perhaps a hint of mealy)

(at one year, displays a distinct brown dun with silver)


Pale Red (Tolling For The Blood)

(pale red, pale palomino)

(one year, silver grullo, which is silver on black with dun, and perhaps a hint of dapples. Scaled 2)


Pale Red (A Blue Shadow Falls)

(other end of the spectrum, showing the yellow-red)

(at one year, distinctly a medium brown dun with silver)


Pale Red (Danger To The Blue Throne)

(probably as close to creamy without being it as possible, no pink)

(at one year, silver wild bay probably with metallic)


Pale Red (A Throne In Blue)

(showing a hint of mealy)

(perhaps the mealy foal is actually revealing the brown of the adult coat; silver dun brown)


Pale Red (Mornings Over Bell Toll Hill)

(showing a hint of mealy)

(brown dun probably with sooty)


Pale Red (Petals On Bell Toll Hill)

(very mealy, light and pale)

(wild bay dun that may carry sooty)


Pale Red (The Gentleman Of Bell Toll Hills)

(mealy barely visible)

(silver brown dun)


Pale Red (Legendary Blue Throne)

(mealy on reddish coloration)

(wild bay dun)


Pale Red (Blue Crown Romance)

(probably the lightest mealy coloration possible)

(silver brown dun)


Pale Red (Courage Of The Blue Crown)

(barely mealy)

(silver brown dun)

[Silverine]

Edit: Nvm, saw that he is grey. Grey horses are born with their adult coats, which explains why he was the gunmetal color from birth. So it seems rare to have foals that color because they need the grey gene to show their non-grey adult color as a newborn.

Very nice study on the silver dapples. Also nicely illustrates how pure-black foals have the more reddish color to their newborn coats (barring the grey one of course) while not being in-your-face red like browns and bays. Though you've done a lot more with duns than I have.

[BlackOak2]

Edit: Nvm, saw that he is grey. Grey horses are born with their adult coats, which explains why he was the gunmetal color from birth. So it seems rare to have foals that color because they need the grey gene to show their non-grey adult color as a newborn.

Very nice study on the silver dapples. Also nicely illustrates how pure-black foals have the more reddish color to their newborn coats (barring the grey one of course) while not being in-your-face red like browns and bays. Though you've done a lot more with duns than I have.

Thank you. I wanted dun in my herd... well, I was aiming for silver blacks and silver grullos. But I got really curious if the foals had contrasting colors for foal coat versus adult coat and this does show that there is a definite relation.

I'm hoping to do another study like this in the future (including adding pearl to this herd). But I'm not close to either just yet.

[Baranduin Brewster]

Very interesting, if your interested in doing the Champagnes and Dilutes, I have a few different ones (though some are with Lp), that I'm playing around with.

[BlackOak2]

Very interesting, if your interested in doing the Champagnes and Dilutes, I have a few different ones (though some are with Lp), that I'm playing around with.

I'm a far cry from tackling those anytime soon.
They're low on my priority list right now and I will need to finish some of these other projects first before I consider doing the dilutes line.
However, they are on my list (unless somebody gets to them first).

[Argent]

I'm confused by what your intent was with this study. You're grouping multiple genes (silver, cream, dun, agouti) but seem to be under the impression that the horses are expressions of one single gene (silver).