TRUE COLORS - The Red Gene

And variations thereof:

Chestnut | Sorrel | Blond Sorrel | Liver Chestnut |
Palomino | Red Dun | Cremello | Sorrel Tobiano |
Chestnut Overo | Sorrel Appaloosa | Silver Sorrel | Sorrel Grey | Red Roan |

Red is one of the more common equine colors. Horse breeders interchange the terms sorrel and chestnut to describe red horses. The gene "e" that produces red is recessive, that allows red horses to be produced from bays and blacks quite often if both parents are carrying the recessive gene. And by breeding two reds together you will only get red foals.

TYPICAL SORREL & CHESTNUT

Many modifying genes produce various shades of red horses due to unknown modifiers, but others like the blond sorrel or liver chestnut can be explained. See illustration:

BLOND SORREL & LIVER CHESTNUT

Then there are the genes we can all recognize that affect the red coat. Genes like the "cremello" gene which when present in the heterozygous form produces the palomino and when homozygous the gene produces the cremello. The dun gene produces lineback red duns.

PALOMINO & CREMELLO

The dun gene is very similar to the cremello gene in that it dilutes the coat color but not the point color, it produces lineback duns.

RED DUN & BAY DUN

The tobiano and the overo genes that produce red pintos.

CHESTNUT TOBIANO & SORREL OVERO

The appaloosa genes.

CHESTNUT APPALOOSA & SORREL APPALOOSA

And one that confuses many Miniature Horse breeders -- the silver gene does not effect red color so although it often produces a color of bay, that most identify as chestnut (sorrel) with flax/white mane and tail that is NOT a true red color. Breeders must learn to identify this color if they will ever be able to predict the colors of their foals. See illustrations:

SILVER BAY VS. SORREL/FLAX VS. SILVER SORREL

Other genes that can affect bays are grey and roan.

SORREL GREY & RED ROAN