Black color in horses

The Black Gene

Black Color in Miniature Horses

And variations thereof:

Black | Dense or Non-fading Black | Smoky Black | Grullo | Black Tobiano | Black Overo | Black Appaloosa | Silvered Black (Silver Dapple) | Greyed Black | Black (Blue) Roan

A true solid black is one of the rarer, though popular equine colors.

FADING AND DENSE BLACK

BLACK "B- E-"	DENSE BLACK "B- Ed-"

Note sunburned color	Note jet black color

Many modifying genes produce various shades of black horses. Just as we saw on the red and bay horses, the cremello gene is a popular one.

SMOKEY BLACK & SMOKEY CREAM

SMOKEY BLACK "B- E- CRcr	SMOKEY BLACK "B- E- CRcr

Note off-black color, they usually have lighter hair inside the ears.

Genes like the dun gene produce lineback grullos. The dun gene is very similar to the cremello gene in that it dilutes the coat color but not the point color, it works better on eumelanistic colors than the cremello gene does.Some great dun and grullo photos are at http://www.dilutes.iinet.net.au/Duns.html

BLACK DUN or GRULLO

GRULLO "B- E- D-"	GRULLO "B- E- D-"

Note darker head, mouse grey	Note dorsal stripe

Though there are a lot of similarities, don't confuse a grullo with a blue roan or grey.

BLACK/BLUE ROAN or GREY

BLACK ROAN "B- E- Rnrn" (RnRn is lethal)	BLACK GREYED "B- E- G-"

Note dark, "normal" base color on head	Note greying of the color on head

And one that confuses many Miniature Horse breeders -- the silver gene with black produces a color that most identify as "grey" with flax/white mane and tail. Breeders must learn to identify this color if they will ever be able to predict the colors of their foals. See illustrations:

SILVER BLACK (Silver Dapple) VS. GREY

SILVER DAPPLE "B- E- Z-"	BLACK GREYED "B- E- G-"

Note typical shadings on head and dapples on body, the mane and tail will always be silver	Note consistent grey color on body and head, mane and tail can be any shade of black to silver

Pinto Genes

The tobiano and the overo genes that produce the very popular black pintos. There are other genes that result in pintos like the sabino and splash, but usually they are in combination with the tobiano.

BLACK TOBIANO & BLACK OVERO

BLACK TOBIANO "B- E- T-"	BLACK OVERO "B- E- On"

Note black on solid areas	Note black on solid areas

BLACK WITH APPALOOSA PATTERNS

The appaloosa pattern genes are more complicated than we choose to go into at this time on the website.

BLACK APPALOOSA	BLACK APPALOOSA

Note black on solid areas	Note black on solid areas

Back to Mini Horse Colors

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