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color testing what will it tell me?

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#1 ·
Hi,
I'm looking at U C Davis for color testing. My pony is black, as far as I can see, one tiny white star on forehead. The color test is "red factor plus agouti". I've got to admit the word "agouti" confuses me, I used to breed pedigreed cats and agouti confused me then too.I can see with horses like with cats your two basic colors are red and black. The pony is black to look at, what kind of things can a red factor plus agouti tell me about her that I can't see? Will this tell me if she has silver or smoke genes? Just trying to understand this a little better. Thanks in advance guys.
 
#2 ·
An agouti test is a waste of money on a black horse. Only get the E/e test - the red factor.

Agouti is a set of genes - there are three variations (wild bay, classic bay, and brown). Agouti only acts on a black based horse - turning a black horse into bay etc. Since your horse is black, you can completely rule out agouti.
 
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#3 ·
As for silver and cream genes those are seperate tests. But you can rule out silver since your horse is black if it had silver it would show. As for cream you can rule that out with the horses parents colors if you know them. But like Chiilaa said the red factor test will tell you if your horse is EE or Ee and agouti is unnecessary your horse is black so its aa. Do you know your horses parents colors?
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#4 ·
I don't know the parents colors. I'm saying shes black based on she appears black. So what is EE and Ee and what would that tell me about her? Are those the red factors and would that mean she could possibly have a chestnut foal? Will a color test on her tell me anything other than she's black?
 
#6 ·
EE = homozygous black Ee = heterozygous black so the answer to your question is no it will only tell you if she is black and the likelihood of her passing black to her offspring. If she is Ee depending on what she is bred with it is possible to have a red based (Chesnut) foal.
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#7 ·
No. Any gender can be any color unlike things like orange cats tend to be male (not sure if that's a 100% always male thing or not) and calicos are always female.

And like Peppy said, if you breed your pony, EE = she will always produce a black based foal (black, bay, brown, buckskin, etc). If she's Ee = she will pass on E 50% of the time, which would still be black-based. e = red, so she could produce a red based foal depending on the color of the stallion she's bred to.
 
#8 ·
Thankyou guys. The stallion I have in mind for her is a buckskin.
and yep most orange(red) cats are males because you can only get a red female if both parents are red, which does include the calico and tortie as red. Cat color genetics can be really fun and interesting with all the colors and patterns there are and it still all goes back to red and black. Now I need to really read up on the horse color genetics although this will probably be the only equine breeding I ever do. Thanks again.
 
#9 ·
Hi,
I'm looking at U C Davis for color testing. My pony is black, as far as I can see, one tiny white star on forehead. The color test is "red factor plus agouti". I've got to admit the word "agouti" confuses me, I used to breed pedigreed cats and agouti confused me then too.I can see with horses like with cats your two basic colors are red and black. The pony is black to look at, what kind of things can a red factor plus agouti tell me about her that I can't see? Will this tell me if she has silver or smoke genes? Just trying to understand this a little better. Thanks in advance guys.
Agouti is a black (eumelanin) restrictor. In horses - like someone explained - it turns a black horse into a version of bay or brown. In cats, a non-agouti would be a cat without a pattern (think solid black cat) while one with agouti is a typical tabby cat. Both are black-based cats.

As to orange female cats - they are out there. Orange is sex-linked and only on the X chromosome. Since males only get one - if they inherit O on that X chromosome, then it automatically makes them orange. Females if they inherit only one O - then they show up as calico because the other X chromosome carries for black. But if they are homozygous for O then they are orange as well. So when you see a calico cat, you know if it was male it most likely would have been an orange cat.
 
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