I came home to do paperwork, no time for my horses that day as the work had to be done. 

Happy boys and girls are now vaccinated, dewormed and with new shiny and manicured feet. Yesterday I bought vitamin and mineral supplements for the girls which they seem to like. 

I have been asked questions about diluted colour genes so here's a little on this theme;

Cr - Is a dominant gene and Cr is the code of one dilution gene (heterozygous), in coatcolours such as buckskin, palomino or smoky black. If we cross a stallion with one dilution gene to a mare there is a possibility the offspring will inherit the Cr gene, the gene can be transmitted or not transmitted. This gene is mostly but not always clearly manifested in the coat colours. 
In most cases a buckskin foal is registered bay in LG (PRE studbook) until corrected at APTO registration when genetype is tested through the LG ANCCE laboratory. Novedosa on the other hand is registered as a grey in the studbook, even though she is genetested buckskin without grey gene (gg). When she will be APTO registered her colour can be corrected by the ANCCE delegate. As many others she has not had her phenotype tested via the studbook lab as this test has to be ordered and paid for, and as we did not use the LG lab for her genetest she is still registered grey in the LGstudbook. 

Novedosa (Ee AA Ccr gg) buckskin 

Reina Vikinga, buckskin (Ee Aa CCr) RV also has the dungene (D) which is recognized by a dorsal stripe and/or primitive markings. 

Palomino PRE colt 

 
Smoky black PRE 
 
  

Gg - The grey gene is dominant and not a dilution gene as you probably know.  But a grey PRE can have one dilution gene without it being visible in the coat. When the genes contain the grey allele it is coded (Gg). If no grey gene exists its genetic code is (gg). As the grey gene is dominant our filly Laia was registered grey as her phenotype contained one grey gene (Gg) even though she had a coat colour of a perlino and two dilution genes (CrCr). A horse with this disposition will always bring down the grey gene, it might be visible or not, in the offspring. The foal can be born coloured and sometimes they turn grey later on like this mare below.

Buckskin (one Cr) registered mare with grey coat

Laia (EE AA CrCr Gg), registered grey  

CrCr - Two dominant dilution genes (homozygous) produces the coat colours; cremello, perlino or smoky cream. After having had Picara's fenotype registered with LG her genetic colour is proven perlino (perla). She has not had her prl gene tested. The foals with these diluted colours are normally registered chestnut until their fenotype is tested. This can seem confusing and incorrect when we are looking up the identification of a PRE in the studbook. When the fenotype test is made by LG the genetic coat colour will be represented under Genetic Coat (Capa Genética). 

Picara (EE Aa CrCr gg) perlino  

Picara's dad Revoltoso, perlino  

A perlino has a light apricot mother- of -pearl shiny coat. The eyes can be blue or green and the skin is pink. At the moment I have no example to show of neither a smoky cream or cremello. The cremello has the same pale skin colour as a perlino but is more white and without the pearl gloss. To differentiate these colours a genetest is necessary. A cremello has an ee in their genecode as they origin is from the chestnut gene (or each parent need to have at least one chestnut gene e each). Whilst a perlino have the allele EE or Ee and can come out of isabelo, perlino and buckskin. 

PrlPrl Also called pearl gene, is a recessive gene and that can only be seen in the coatcolour in a double copy. This gene is not to be confused with the totally different gene of a perlino that is a dominant double dilute (CrCr). Isabelo is the most unusual colour existing in the PRE breed. This colour gene stems from the iberian breeds, PRE and PSL. A horse with two sets of Prl (PrlPrl) is called isabelo and will have hazelnut coloured eyes and a golden coat.
Isabelo PRE stallion      

At times a isabelo is incorrectly named and confused with champange and even though there is a resemblance in coat colour, the champange is a totally different colour gene (Ch). The genecode to the offspring of Picara (CrCr) and isabelo stud (PrlPrl) will be a pseudo-double-dilute, a pseudo perlino/isabelo one copy, and the offspring will most likely have green or blue eyes. The tone of the coat colour remains to be seen.. :)