Impossible color result or sneaky cream gene?

[equagga]

Kastanie


This is Kastanie, who appears to be a wild bay-based buckskin. He is an Akhal-Teke. This alone is not outrageous.

However, his grandsire on both sides is a black Turkmene, and his granddams are both Arabians, one grey wild bay, the other chestnut. Not smokey cream, not buckskin, not palomino. The sire was black and the dam wild bay. The sire's mane and tail never looked grey relative to his body, but he's got that extra shine so he doesn't look as black as a normally coated black. The only way this colt's color makes any sense is if the original 'black' Turkmene was smokey cream, as was his son, and that the shimmer in the son's coat masked the contrast his mane and tail should have made.

As far as I can tell, none of the Turkmene's other offspring are cream combos, but most of them, and their offspring, are black. I think I'm going to do some test crossing to see if I can get some more buckskins or palominos.

This post is less what color is it and more how on earth?

Has anyone else had 'black' shimmer coated horses throw surprise cream combos? Do shimmer coated smokey blacks just not show the grey in their furnishings?

[kidhedera]

His sire looks like smokey black to me. When regular black horses are foals they are a brownish colour, if they have a cream gene they are the greyish colour.

I just got a palamino I wasn't expecting too, from a sooty bay mare and brown dun sire. I figure the sire was carrying a cream gene, and both sides had red genes. The fact this stuff happens is why I love this game so much.

[equagga]

Welp, guess I'm glad I grabbed the horse I did when I started my Tekes! Not complaining. . .But ironically, just before this colt was born, I'd gotten some new NABs just to get the cream gene in play. Welp.

[kidhedera]

Yeah, Turkmenes can sometimes have cream. Very occasionally you'll see a palomino in the adoption centre.

I am somewhat amused by your plight though. I am breeding slowly towards walers which can have some cream, but not double cream dilutes, so I mostly grabbed brown, bay and chestnut horses from the adoption centre, and similarly discovered that a bunch of the horses I thought were 'brown' were smokey brown cream carriers! I kinda love this game. <3

[Argent II]

The difference between brown and brown +cream is pretty obvious once you look closely: brown horses have reddish light spots, brown +cream horses have tannish light spots.

[kidhedera]

Oh yeah, now I know that I can spot them a mile away, but I just thought that they were a different 'shade' of brown, like the way chestnuts can be anything from carrots to very dark.