Brooks Equine Genetics Lab
Coat Color Genetics
Description
Coat color has been a subject of interest among horse owners for many years, likely dating back to the start of domestication. While much interest in coat color is due to aesthetics, color genes can also affect a horse’s health. Two examples of diseases that are associated with coat color are Multiple Congenital Ocular Abnormalities (MCOA) with the Silver coat color, and Lethal White Overo foal syndrome with the Frame Overo pattern. Research in other species has examined physiologic traits that vary with coat color, like response to pain and levels of stress hormone in the body.
Much of the color research in our lab focuses on white patterns, especially “new” patterns. When two horses with minimal white markings produce a foal with over half of its body covered in white markings, a new cause of dominant white patterning is often suspected. In other cases, it may be that both parents had a lowly expressed pattern and passed it on, allowing the pattern to “light up” the offspring.
If you have a horse with an interesting coat color or pattern that you would like to include in our DNA bank for possible use in future studies, please contact us at