Interesting bay coat - Never seen this before

[Hawkeye]

Hello everyone! This is just a post for documenting one of my findings. I've been working on draft horses with very dark liver chestnut base color and very light flaxen chestnut mane and tail. Well, this boy was born some time ago:

Bay Colt

Here's him from newborn to yearling:



Although the looks like any regular Bay, you can see he has bleached legs and some white on his mane (specially at the base of his mane and tail).


I think it's normal to assume each color gene has a "intensity" gene associated with it. I mean, red base can be almost orange or very dark liver, dapples can be minimal or almost full blown spots, etc... Same is with the flaxen gene. What i find interesting is that when f/f is present, it can show up even on black+agouti based horses. I believe that means that he's indeed f/f (flaxen), just has agouti (A/a) and black (E/e) masking it up. Look at his parents:

Diamond Girl
Night Away

So, if you are looking for the flaxen gene, you might be able to see it even on bay horses.

[Silverine]

Bay Colt

Here's him from newborn to yearling:

This isn't flaxen, it's plume.

[Hawkeye]

Oh wow, thank you! I will look into that later.