and what was a hobby at first grew into scientific work. I started my own research concerning the rare Silver gene in horse breeds originating in Russia. By 2015 I had discovered the Silver gene mutation and silver colors in Soviet Heavy Draft and Byelorussian Harness breeds. I can say that because of my work, the Soviet Heavy Draft stallion Ratoborets 2011 (Reketir—Rezonerka) became the first Russian horse registered in the studbook as silver bay (see p. 28). Such discoveries are very important for the rare or threatened horse breeds, as they can increase interest and thus the breeds’ chance of survival.
My research continues today. As of 2016, I became a post-graduate student at the Russian State Agricultural University named after K.A. Timiryazev, the oldest and the best agrarian university in my country. My thesis, of course, is devoted to my favorite subject—horse color identification.
I am so glad that my book is now published in the English language. When I first began studying horse color, most of my sources were in English because of lack of information in Russian. That is why my first aim was to tell something new to my native horsemen. Now I hope to say something new to English-speaking horsepeople around the world.
Writing and publishing a book is never an easy matter, and I am grateful to all the people who helped me with this process. I thank my husband for his patience, faith, and support. Thank you to Yevgeniy Matuzov for his interest in horse color genetics and generous support of my Silver gene research, and to Tatyana Zubkova for her Dun gene research, which is really important for the conservation of Russian Don and Budyonny breeds.
I especially thank Dr. Michal Prochazka, who respected my book enough to be so kind as to translate it into English. The English edition you are holding in your hands now would have been impossible without his participation.
I also thank Barbara Kostelnik for the effort she puts into her website devoted to rare horse color dilutions and for her kind help with the DNA test for the Iberian stallion Oro Mafiozo (see p. 37), Lee Patton and Holly Zech for their contribution to Oro Mafiozo’s test, and Yelena Volkova for her questions, which were always very difficult to answer, but I did my best, and they made me go out of my comfort zone and move far forward.
I thank all the owners, breeders, breed associations, and photographers from around the world who helped provide the photos for this book, and of course, I thank Trafalgar Square Books for making my book available for English-speaking horse people.
Vera Kurskaya
CHAPTER 1:
Introduction to Horse Color
What Is Horse Color?
To begin, it is necessary to offer my own definition of horse color. A horse’s “color” is genetically determined as the sum of color characteristics of the entire integument (natural outer covering of the animal), including hair, skin, hooves, and eyes.
I must emphasize that, first of all, we must both consider and come to understand the genetic approach to horse color. Second, it is important not to limit ourselves by paying attention to the horse’s hair (coat) color only. Of course, you need to look at the horse in order to determine his color, but simultaneously, for a precise determination, you must also understand the genetic mechanisms of the formation of color, special features of pigment production, and how pigment is distributed over the body. (The latter especially helps during determination and differentiation of colors connected with the admixture of white hair.) Finally, an analysis of a horse’s ancestry helps further when faced with unresolved questions regarding color and pattern.
The color in horses and other mammals is stable over the course of the animal’s entire life. Changes that can modify the color characteristics of the hair cover (coat) of an individual horse during his lifetime are simply variations in one and the same color. While it is difficult to determine “final” coat color in a foal, specific diagnostic regularities (characteristics) can be observed, even at a very young age. In fact, color is a combination of several signs and characteristics. This is true regarding any color, even if its description seems deceptively simple. For example, pigmentation of hooves must be considered in coat color determination, since in certain cases Appaloosa color can be verified only with the help of a visible pattern of stripes on the horse’s hooves.
COLOR VARIATIONS
Each color has its own variations, which are called shades and differ from each other in terms of the color nuances of hair. Unfortunately, many horse people completely overlook this aspect: While figuring out a horse’s color, they try to find a photograph that exactly corresponds to his exterior appearance. Finding two animals that completely match each other in all details is extremely difficult, if not impossible, so many people, in the end, cannot determine the color of their horses and remain confused. This is the wrong way to go about color identification, since the majority of colors can be described with the help of several characteristics, regardless of variations in shade (see p. 68 for more on color shades).
TYPES OF HAIR
In horses, the hair on the body can be divided into several categories:
Body (soft, short).
Guard (mane, tail, feathers, and also “beard” on the lower jaw, although usually meant only to describe the hair of the mane and tail, which serves for the protection from insects, sun, and cold).
Tactile (whiskers, eyebrow).
Color Terms
The nomenclature I’ll rely on for colors is influenced by the traditional names long prevailing in the Russian color science and practice, and in equestrian pursuits, supplemented to reflect popular usage in the world at large. American geneticist Dr. Dan Philip Sponenberg (2009) stated that “the ideal nomenclature of the names of colors of horses can be that, in which each unique name of color corresponds with the specific genotype, and each specific genotype has a unique name of the corresponding color. Such precise connection between the genotypes and the colors is absent from all systems and nomenclatures. This happens sometimes for biological reasons, but it is much more frequent for cultural and historical reasons.” As an example, “red” coat color in the English language is a single category, and all variations are built on the basis of the word “chestnut.” But there are three concepts of chestnut in the Russian language—“red,” “brown,” and “flaxen chestnut”—and there are also three in Spanish.
Classification of Colors
Dr. Sponenberg (2003) separates the base colors black, bay, and red, and Dr. Anne Bowling (2000) calls the base colors black (including bay) and red, with both scientists relying on genetics. In principle, both their versions are accurate, since black and bay are determined by identical alleles of the Extension gene (see pp. 14 and 108 for more on this). In this book, I basically adhere to Dr. Sponenberg’s classification—with small changes and refinements. I divide horse colors as follows.
BASE COLORS
Bay
Black
