Dun and sooty genes

[DianneC]

Michelle and I have been having an interesting discussion on dark grullas. Several people who have them have said they felt they were not "just black" but dark grullas because their dorsals and (sometimes) leg stripes are visible at least part of the year. But there hasn't been a way to prove that they have the dun gene until now. Here is a copy of the discussion:

"That's actually perfect Michelle! Since Charro has been bred to two dozen non-duns and never produced a solid he is homozygous for dun (two dun genes so every foal gets a dun gene). The "black" foals out of the dark chestnut (Chilli) have to have a dun gene and are actually a dark grulla because of the sooty gene from the dam. Pretty convincing I think. Would it be OK for pictures of them to be used?"
DianneC

> Dianne,
>
> I had a dark chestnut HispanoArabe mare that has the sooty gene and she had six foals by Charro: 2 that appear "black", 3 red duns and 1 grullo....she never had a plain sorrel. Both the dark ones were born very grullo in appearance and you can see their striping certain times of the year. Light colored ear hair, light guard hairs on the tail, lighter colored hair over the black mane like bi-coloring and in winter the dorsal stands up higher and the hair is thicker than the rest.
>
> Charro has been bred to at least two dozen other non-dun mares, some multiple times, and never had a solid colored foal, so my guess is these "black" are the grullo with sooty.
>
> Don't know if this would be of interest...
>
> Michelle

[Michelle Clarke]

Here is a pict of the mare. She is an Hispano-Arabe and her dam was also a liver chestnut. They also both have the Rabicano gene, which produces some roaning and the coon-tails. Interestingly enough, some of hers and Charros' foals also have very distinct ventral manes (long primative hair on the underside of the belly like a psuedo-mane).



This is a pict of a filly out of her by Charro, Loba (2 yrs. old, winter pict):


This is a pict of Pache, full brother to Loba (weanling pict, late summer pict):


Both always seemed to have a "reddish" tinge to them, especially when shedding.

There are more picts here: www.Kigerquest.com/darkgrullo.html, including picts of Diannes' dark grullo stallion, Chinny.