Genes? Coloring?

[RoanOak]

https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3350648


I would like to know what color genes he has.
Base color?
What gene are his dapples?
Recessive or Dominant?
Is he Heterozygous or Homozygous?
I'm doing some deep diving into genealogy with these guys so I can create the horse I need. Anyone up to partner up or help define some of my horses so I can continue and learn how to do it myself?

[BlackOak2]

I would like to know what color genes he has.
Base color? Chestnut e/e
What gene are his dapples? Sooty & Sooty Dapple Sty/- ... I haven't yet seen, or remember the one we're using for sooty dapples... so... StD/-
Recessive or Dominant? Chestnut recessive, sooty & dapples both dominant
Is he Heterozygous or Homozygous? Already answered above.
I'm doing some deep diving into genealogy with these guys so I can create the horse I need. Anyone up to partner up or help define some of my horses so I can continue and learn how to do it myself?

So here's a quick recap of the sooty genes.
Dominant
4 master switch genes found in 3 breeds and very rarely in 4 other breeds
4 expression genes (area of coverage), found in 3 breeds and rarely in 4 others
4 strength genes found 'in most breeds to varying degrees'
1 progression gene, fastest found in 5 breeds, but slowest found in all breeds

And one for the sooty dapples.
Dominant
master switch in only one breed
3 strength genes also in just that one master switch breed
must have both sooty and dapples to appear
master switch breed rarely appears sooty & 1 in 4 horses will carry the gene.

The links to sooty and sooty dapples can be found in my quicklinks of you want to look at some other studies that people have done on it. The recap is from my own notes, but I haven't done my own study on it... well... maybe I haven't done one yet.

Do you need more information or to talk it out? Or is that enough info for you to fly free?

[EclipticEnd]

https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3350648


I would like to know what color genes he has.
Base color?
What gene are his dapples?
Recessive or Dominant?
Is he Heterozygous or Homozygous?
I'm doing some deep diving into genealogy with these guys so I can create the horse I need. Anyone up to partner up or help define some of my horses so I can continue and learn how to do it myself?

BlackOak went over it pretty well, but I'll add what I can.

I write my gene sequences linearly, so instead of writing e/e, A/A, for example, I'll be doing ee/AA.

Base color's Chestnut, which means no extension genes (Black) as Chestnut is recessive to Black. I write this as ee, with Black being either Ee or EE depending on the number of genes. Yours is homozygous for no extension genes.

Agouti doesn't show up unless the horse has a Black gene, which yours doesn't. The best way to check would be breeding him to a pure Black mare a few times to see if a Bay pops up; Black horses that aren't Bays have no Agouti genes, so any Bays would be from his side. It looks like he's mainly been bred to Chestnuts, Bays, and perhaps a Brown Pearl Dun. Wild Bay is dominant to Bay, which is dominant to Seal.

Of his foals, you either have Chestnuts or Bays. As the Bays come from Bay pairings, it's not clear whether he has Agouti genes or not. His ancestry would suggest that he might, as his Sire is a Wild Bay, but as the Sire similarly wasn't bred to a pure Black, it's hard to say if he's heterozygous or homozygous. Someone more experienced might be able to make a better guess, but I'm going to say A? as I feel he has one gene, but I'm unsure about the other. Selective breeding might make this clear; try breeding him with a black horse a few times. You can always rehome the foals if you're focusing on a Chestnut/Bay lineage.

There's no Cream genes, else you'd be looking at a Palomino or Cremello instead of a Chestnut.

There is, however, possibly Pearl involved. Alaskan Shore and Queen My Walnut are both Pearls, and are your horse's siblings. The father must have one Pearl gene and nothing more, as a single gene of Pearl is invisible unless another gene of either Cream or Pearl is involved. It's possible, but not confirmed, that your horse might have a Pearl gene. The best way to test would be with a horse with two Pearl genes, though breeding with a double Cream would work as well. Cream and Pearl are variants of the same gene, so you can only have either CrCr, CrPrl, or PrlPrl with all the genes filled. In any case, I'm going to guess that he doesn't have Pearl and, as he doesn't have Cream, that'd be nn and could be left out of the sequence, to be added later if it's confirmed that he has Pearl.

He doesn't have Champagne and it's also doubtful that he has Silver, therefore nn for both of those. He's also not a Dun.

Although I don't think he has Flaxen, I've recently learned that it can be extremely subtle. I would personally say no Flaxen genes, but it's worth double checking because of that.

He doesn't look Mealy (Pangare, I prefer to use Mealy instead). He is certainly Sooty which BlackOak knows more about I think. They suggest StD for Sooty Dapples, and I'm inclined to follow their lead. I'm not sure what his Dam looked like but since all of his foals seem to be very Sooty, I'd guess maybe StDStD; two pairs of Sooty Dapple genes.

Next is Tiger Eye, which is colored eyes not caused by Cream or Champagne. Hawaiian Lad is one of his foals and has them, therefore your horse has one gene. These require two genes to be visible, meaning the foal has two genes and so one was passed from both parent. I use T for Tiger Eye, so your horse would be Tt. Another way of writing it is tN, as t is recessive to N.

Your horse is also definitely Metallic. Metallic's a bit confusing because there's different variants of sheen to it. I've had horses that were only barely noticeable, and I've had ones that were very obviously Metallic. I'm not sure, therefore, if two genes make a difference as opposed to one. I'm also not sure if the Sire of your horse is faintly Metallic or not Metallic, and the Dam's picture is only a foal photo so I'm not sure about her either. I'm going to just assume double Metallic genes: MM.

There's no white markings and no Roaning, so I think that's pretty much it.

The total gene sequence as far as I can tell would be: ee/A?/StDStD/Tt/MM

I'd love to help figure out some genes if you'd like. I'm still learning, especially with Champagnes, but I think I have most of the non-Champagne colorations mostly understood. Regardless, I hope this is informational.

[RoanOak]

https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3350648


I would like to know what color genes he has.
Base color?
What gene are his dapples?
Recessive or Dominant?
Is he Heterozygous or Homozygous?
I'm doing some deep diving into genealogy with these guys so I can create the horse I need. Anyone up to partner up or help define some of my horses so I can continue and learn how to do it myself?

BlackOak went over it pretty well, but I'll add what I can.

I write my gene sequences linearly, so instead of writing e/e, A/A, for example, I'll be doing ee/AA.

Base color's Chestnut, which means no extension genes (Black) as Chestnut is recessive to Black. I write this as ee, with Black being either Ee or EE depending on the number of genes. Yours is homozygous for no extension genes.

Agouti doesn't show up unless the horse has a Black gene, which yours doesn't. The best way to check would be breeding him to a pure Black mare a few times to see if a Bay pops up; Black horses that aren't Bays have no Agouti genes, so any Bays would be from his side. It looks like he's mainly been bred to Chestnuts, Bays, and perhaps a Brown Pearl Dun. Wild Bay is dominant to Bay, which is dominant to Seal.

Of his foals, you either have Chestnuts or Bays. As the Bays come from Bay pairings, it's not clear whether he has Agouti genes or not. His ancestry would suggest that he might, as his Sire is a Wild Bay, but as the Sire similarly wasn't bred to a pure Black, it's hard to say if he's heterozygous or homozygous. Someone more experienced might be able to make a better guess, but I'm going to say A? as I feel he has one gene, but I'm unsure about the other. Selective breeding might make this clear; try breeding him with a black horse a few times. You can always rehome the foals if you're focusing on a Chestnut/Bay lineage.

There's no Cream genes, else you'd be looking at a Palomino or Cremello instead of a Chestnut.

There is, however, possibly Pearl involved. Alaskan Shore and Queen My Walnut are both Pearls, and are your horse's siblings. The father must have one Pearl gene and nothing more, as a single gene of Pearl is invisible unless another gene of either Cream or Pearl is involved. It's possible, but not confirmed, that your horse might have a Pearl gene. The best way to test would be with a horse with two Pearl genes, though breeding with a double Cream would work as well. Cream and Pearl are variants of the same gene, so you can only have either CrCr, CrPrl, or PrlPrl with all the genes filled. In any case, I'm going to guess that he doesn't have Pearl and, as he doesn't have Cream, that'd be nn and could be left out of the sequence, to be added later if it's confirmed that he has Pearl.

He doesn't have Champagne and it's also doubtful that he has Silver, therefore nn for both of those. He's also not a Dun.

Although I don't think he has Flaxen, I've recently learned that it can be extremely subtle. I would personally say no Flaxen genes, but it's worth double checking because of that.

He doesn't look Mealy (Pangare, I prefer to use Mealy instead). He is certainly Sooty which BlackOak knows more about I think. They suggest StD for Sooty Dapples, and I'm inclined to follow their lead. I'm not sure what his Dam looked like but since all of his foals seem to be very Sooty, I'd guess maybe StDStD; two pairs of Sooty Dapple genes.

Next is Tiger Eye, which is colored eyes not caused by Cream or Champagne. Hawaiian Lad is one of his foals and has them, therefore your horse has one gene. These require two genes to be visible, meaning the foal has two genes and so one was passed from both parent. I use T for Tiger Eye, so your horse would be Tt. Another way of writing it is tN, as t is recessive to N.

Your horse is also definitely Metallic. Metallic's a bit confusing because there's different variants of sheen to it. I've had horses that were only barely noticeable, and I've had ones that were very obviously Metallic. I'm not sure, therefore, if two genes make a difference as opposed to one. I'm also not sure if the Sire of your horse is faintly Metallic or not Metallic, and the Dam's picture is only a foal photo so I'm not sure about her either. I'm going to just assume double Metallic genes: MM.

There's no white markings and no Roaning, so I think that's pretty much it.

The total gene sequence as far as I can tell would be: ee/A?/StDStD/Tt/MM

I'd love to help figure out some genes if you'd like. I'm still learning, especially with Champagnes, but I think I have most of the non-Champagne colorations mostly understood. Regardless, I hope this is informational.

Oh wow! Thank you so much! I learned a lot. Yes, we should partner up, I've been very curious about horse genes, especially in this specific bloodline that I'm creating. For the longest time, I've been so curious about chestnut dapple and I was determined to create the best chestnut sooty dapple stud. But I knew nothing about how those genes were connected and it was really hard to determine what one sire would pop out in his foals. I have a quite a few mares, but I want to narrow down to one or two that are going to get the best results. I have a question for you actually, if you look through my Dapple Broodmares pasture (Dapple BM) which mares do you think would be best to try and breed a full body dapple stud? I think the next step is weeding out the best mares. I think I'm not going to breed to the bay or wild bay mares anymore, so I know for a fact I'll get chestnuts only. Also, I'm quite confused with Finder's Champagne, she seems to have a full body covering of sooty. How does that happen? Is it with two sooty dapple genes? Homozygous? Not quite sure. But, I really like that outcome and what to try and replicate that and refine that look. Would you like to work on this project with me? I'm a very good trainer as well and am planning to train up my finishing foal and send him over to my stud farm, you as a reward can stud to him as much as you want for free and even choose a stud on there that I'll let you breed for free as well. But, I think I'd be nice to do this with someone who knows their horse gene better than me, that way I'll learn along the way to become a better TB breeder.

[RoanOak]

I would like to know what color genes he has.
Base color? Chestnut e/e
What gene are his dapples? Sooty & Sooty Dapple Sty/- ... I haven't yet seen, or remember the one we're using for sooty dapples... so... StD/-
Recessive or Dominant? Chestnut recessive, sooty & dapples both dominant
Is he Heterozygous or Homozygous? Already answered above.
I'm doing some deep diving into genealogy with these guys so I can create the horse I need. Anyone up to partner up or help define some of my horses so I can continue and learn how to do it myself?

So here's a quick recap of the sooty genes.
Dominant
4 master switch genes found in 3 breeds and very rarely in 4 other breeds
4 expression genes (area of coverage), found in 3 breeds and rarely in 4 others
4 strength genes found 'in most breeds to varying degrees'
1 progression gene, fastest found in 5 breeds, but slowest found in all breeds

And one for the sooty dapples.
Dominant
master switch in only one breed
3 strength genes also in just that one master switch breed
must have both sooty and dapples to appear
master switch breed rarely appears sooty & 1 in 4 horses will carry the gene.

The links to sooty and sooty dapples can be found in my quicklinks of you want to look at some other studies that people have done on it. The recap is from my own notes, but I haven't done my own study on it... well... maybe I haven't done one yet.

Do you need more information or to talk it out? Or is that enough info for you to fly free?

Hang on, so basically there are different sooty variations of the gene and that's how much it covers the body? I have some horses that have partial sooty and others that cover the whole body and it makes then super dapply. How can I tell if one horse will pass on a different variation? This is kinda confusing. Is there a way to simplify it, I'm having a hard time following. But, I'd love to get a good idea of what I'm dealing with. Once I fully understand it that is.

[EclipticEnd]

Oh wow! Thank you so much! I learned a lot. Yes, we should partner up, I've been very curious about horse genes, especially in this specific bloodline that I'm creating. For the longest time, I've been so curious about chestnut dapple and I was determined to create the best chestnut sooty dapple stud. But I knew nothing about how those genes were connected and it was really hard to determine what one sire would pop out in his foals.

I have a quite a few mares, but I want to narrow down to one or two that are going to get the best results. I have a question for you actually, if you look through my Dapple Broodmares pasture (Dapple BM) which mares do you think would be best to try and breed a full body dapple stud? I think the next step is weeding out the best mares. I think I'm not going to breed to the bay or wild bay mares anymore, so I know for a fact I'll get chestnuts only.

Also, I'm quite confused with Finder's Champagne, she seems to have a full body covering of sooty. How does that happen? Is it with two sooty dapple genes? Homozygous? Not quite sure. But, I really like that outcome and what to try and replicate that and refine that look.

Would you like to work on this project with me? I'm a very good trainer as well and am planning to train up my finishing foal and send him over to my stud farm, you as a reward can stud to him as much as you want for free and even choose a stud on there that I'll let you breed for free as well. But, I think I'd be nice to do this with someone who knows their horse gene better than me, that way I'll learn along the way to become a better TB breeder.

You have some of the most sooty dappled horses I've seen, so I'd say you're doing a good job.

I can't say that I'm super familiar with sooty, but it's possible that she managed to get the best genes from each parent to evolve the sooty, if that makes sense.

From what BlackOak said, there's numerous deciding genes of sooty that alter how it looks and progresses. There's a master switch that turns dapples on/off for sooty. Think of this like the LP gene; one LP switch makes the blanket/leopard pattern and two LP switches make the snowcap/fewspot pattern. I'm not sure, however, if this means that one dapple switch would be obviously different from two.

There's then three genes that mess with how strong the dapples are, which is how dark the dappling is in the areas which it appears.

According to the posts, you also need the base sooty in order to show the dapples variant. Base sooty seems more complicated, but from what I understand is there's four switch genes, four expression genes, four strength genes, and one progression gene. The switch genes decide if the horse shows sooty or not, but I'm unsure if having multiple switch genes for sooty turned on would change anything. Expression genes choose where the sooty spreads to on the body of the horse; I assume the more of those that the horse has, the better for dapples. Strength is akin to the opacity of the sooty; the stronger it is, the darker it is. Lastly, the progression gene changes how fast sooty appears over the horse.

With this in mind, it's possible that the sire and the dam each had different expression genes that they passed to the foal, which made the sooty appear further on the foal's body than the sire and equal to the dam. They both also passed different strength genes, so the sooty became darker and more apparent.

I'd be more than happy to help with genealogies, though I'm not sure that I'd be able to go super in depth with sooty as to say how many sooty strength genes a horse has, for instance, as I'm not sure how to tell that. I'm currently doing a Belgian breeding project, so if you don't mind your stud having mixed Belgians in my farm, that'd work for me. It'd be interesting to try to get some sooty dapples in the mix. If you'd like you can make a farm log for your horses and I'll go through with genes for you.

[BlackOak2]

Hang on, so basically there are different sooty variations of the gene and that's how much it covers the body? I have some horses that have partial sooty and others that cover the whole body and it makes then super dapply. How can I tell if one horse will pass on a different variation? This is kinda confusing. Is there a way to simplify it, I'm having a hard time following. But, I'd love to get a good idea of what I'm dealing with. Once I fully understand it that is.

I will attempt my best to simplify it for you, insofar as my own knowledge extends.

Again, EclipticEnd, does have a fair understanding of it.

So... there are two basic styles of sooty.
These are Static and Progressive.
Static is the type that comes in very suddenly and then doesn't change much or at all throughout the horse's life.
Progressive, on the other hand, is a sooty that slowly (or kind of quickly) comes in darker and darker as the horse ages.

For your project, working with the static form would probably be best.
You can also breed for static to come in really fast, within the yearling year (so shortly after blowing the newborn coat at 1 year).
You do this by just favoring and breeding to the horses that bring their sooty coats in faster than their siblings.

The second part of this is choosing which type of sooty coverage you want. There's part's, half & half's, from-the-top, from-the-bottom and full-body. They're pretty self explanatory, but I'll go over them anyway.

Part's are those that sooty only a certain area, like the neck, or the legs or just the butt. Think if it like a big Lp blanket that chooses just one spot on the horse. Often times, these are quite bland and light, just enough to cover some area to make you think sooty is there, but not enough to be certain.

Excellent example of a part's with multiple areas. This horse was a static-style. Came in sometime between 5 and 10 years and then never changed thereafter. Theoretically, this horse could also be considered both a from-bottom and a from-top, but I always considered him a part's.



Half & half's are a bit more apparent. They take a huge swath of the body and paint it almost like a different color. Half & half's follow along the same lines as Part's but often take multiple part's and marry them together.

Here is an excellent Half & half.



From-the-top is a sooty that starts from the top of the horse (neck, back, ears, rump) and colors downward, like you sprayed a hose onto the top of the horse and the hair gets dark from the wet as it runs off.

These two from-the-top aren't the best examples for it, but they're acceptable representations.





From-the-bottom acts just the opposite, but coloring the horse from the legs up. Almost like a reverse pangare.

A nice gentle example of from-the-bottom. You can even see some dapples coming in.



Full-body is as it says. Although many people may call a full-body which is more like a from-the-top or a from-the-bottom style. And maybe it is. It's a bit hard to say where the cutoff might be and it also may be hard to say IF there is a cutoff.

This is an example of a full-body progressive.
As a yearling:

At five years:

And the horse's last image:
Pseudo-black


Your project should be aimed at the bottom three options, from-the-top or -bottom or the full-body.

And finally, the strength of the dapples themselves.

Now... sooty acts like a fill-able style gene. A lot like Lp and To (tobiano) in this manner. You keep filling your little sooty cup until it flows over into another section. So you can theoretically make a Part's sooty eventually turn into a Full-body sooty. However, you will need to ensure you have the genes to do so. So new blood with hidden genes will be essential from time to time (if working with high-COI breeding tactics).

As for the dapples... the seem to also ask like the same fill-able style gene. So as your sooty progresses, you'll see your dapples progress as well. But the strength genes for the dapples... I think they're co-dependent.
A co-dependent gene works as follows.
There are white roses and red roses (this is only an example).
A white rose has two white alleles: Wh/Wh
A red rose has two red alleles: R/R
But if you combine a red and a white: Wh/R
You will end up with a pink rose that is neither white or red. This is called co-dependent.

The dapple strength appears to be this type of gene (though it's not be confirmed). Though we don't know which one is dominant over the other (strong dominant over weak or vice versa), the following can still be theorized for breeding use.
In this sample, S will stand for strong, W will stand for weak and D will stand for dapples.
SD/SD = strong dapple strength
SD/WD = medium dapple strength
WD/WD = weak dapple strength

Now... which one is which? If you look at that one post from the original release, you should be able to pick out the dapple coats that barely express dapples, these would be weak... and the ones that are quite strong, these are the strong variety. But the strength genes for dapples IS SEPARATE from the strength genes for sooty. So you can have a very mildly sooty horse with a very strong dappling.

And finally, two examples to inspire you with what other members of our HWO has come across with the dapple genes:






Does that help? Incite more questions?
I may still have some more answers.

[BlackOak2]

Oh, and because I saw it and failed to tackle it in my previous post... an add-on.

One master switch or two master switches don't appear to change anything with the occurrence of sooty or sooty dapples. So it's not like Lp where you'll have leopard spots or fewspots.

[RoanOak]

Oh wow! Thank you so much! I learned a lot. Yes, we should partner up, I've been very curious about horse genes, especially in this specific bloodline that I'm creating. For the longest time, I've been so curious about chestnut dapple and I was determined to create the best chestnut sooty dapple stud. But I knew nothing about how those genes were connected and it was really hard to determine what one sire would pop out in his foals.

I have a quite a few mares, but I want to narrow down to one or two that are going to get the best results. I have a question for you actually, if you look through my Dapple Broodmares pasture (Dapple BM) which mares do you think would be best to try and breed a full body dapple stud? I think the next step is weeding out the best mares. I think I'm not going to breed to the bay or wild bay mares anymore, so I know for a fact I'll get chestnuts only.

Also, I'm quite confused with Finder's Champagne, she seems to have a full body covering of sooty. How does that happen? Is it with two sooty dapple genes? Homozygous? Not quite sure. But, I really like that outcome and what to try and replicate that and refine that look.

Would you like to work on this project with me? I'm a very good trainer as well and am planning to train up my finishing foal and send him over to my stud farm, you as a reward can stud to him as much as you want for free and even choose a stud on there that I'll let you breed for free as well. But, I think I'd be nice to do this with someone who knows their horse gene better than me, that way I'll learn along the way to become a better TB breeder.

You have some of the most sooty dappled horses I've seen, so I'd say you're doing a good job.

I can't say that I'm super familiar with sooty, but it's possible that she managed to get the best genes from each parent to evolve the sooty, if that makes sense.

From what BlackOak said, there's numerous deciding genes of sooty that alter how it looks and progresses. There's a master switch that turns dapples on/off for sooty. Think of this like the LP gene; one LP switch makes the blanket/leopard pattern and two LP switches make the snowcap/fewspot pattern. I'm not sure, however, if this means that one dapple switch would be obviously different from two.

There's then three genes that mess with how strong the dapples are, which is how dark the dappling is in the areas which it appears.

According to the posts, you also need the base sooty in order to show the dapples variant. Base sooty seems more complicated, but from what I understand is there's four switch genes, four expression genes, four strength genes, and one progression gene. The switch genes decide if the horse shows sooty or not, but I'm unsure if having multiple switch genes for sooty turned on would change anything. Expression genes choose where the sooty spreads to on the body of the horse; I assume the more of those that the horse has, the better for dapples. Strength is akin to the opacity of the sooty; the stronger it is, the darker it is. Lastly, the progression gene changes how fast sooty appears over the horse.

With this in mind, it's possible that the sire and the dam each had different expression genes that they passed to the foal, which made the sooty appear further on the foal's body than the sire and equal to the dam. They both also passed different strength genes, so the sooty became darker and more apparent.

I'd be more than happy to help with genealogies, though I'm not sure that I'd be able to go super in depth with sooty as to say how many sooty strength genes a horse has, for instance, as I'm not sure how to tell that. I'm currently doing a Belgian breeding project, so if you don't mind your stud having mixed Belgians in my farm, that'd work for me. It'd be interesting to try to get some sooty dapples in the mix. If you'd like you can make a farm log for your horses and I'll go through with genes for you.

That's wonderful, thank you so much! I think I'm starting to get a grasp of the sooty gene and dapples between you and BlackOak. I absolutely don't mind if you have mixed Belgians, only thing is to keep them at your farm. I'm all about cool gene pools in different breeds. Perfect, I would love to go through the genes of my different horses.
I'll go make a farmlog.

[RoanOak]

Hang on, so basically there are different sooty variations of the gene and that's how much it covers the body? I have some horses that have partial sooty and others that cover the whole body and it makes then super dapply. How can I tell if one horse will pass on a different variation? This is kinda confusing. Is there a way to simplify it, I'm having a hard time following. But, I'd love to get a good idea of what I'm dealing with. Once I fully understand it that is.

I will attempt my best to simplify it for you, insofar as my own knowledge extends.

Again, EclipticEnd, does have a fair understanding of it.

So... there are two basic styles of sooty.
These are Static and Progressive.
Static is the type that comes in very suddenly and then doesn't change much or at all throughout the horse's life.
Progressive, on the other hand, is a sooty that slowly (or kind of quickly) comes in darker and darker as the horse ages.

For your project, working with the static form would probably be best.
You can also breed for static to come in really fast, within the yearling year (so shortly after blowing the newborn coat at 1 year).
You do this by just favoring and breeding to the horses that bring their sooty coats in faster than their siblings.

The second part of this is choosing which type of sooty coverage you want. There's part's, half & half's, from-the-top, from-the-bottom and full-body. They're pretty self explanatory, but I'll go over them anyway.

Part's are those that sooty only a certain area, like the neck, or the legs or just the butt. Think if it like a big Lp blanket that chooses just one spot on the horse. Often times, these are quite bland and light, just enough to cover some area to make you think sooty is there, but not enough to be certain.

Excellent example of a part's with multiple areas. This horse was a static-style. Came in sometime between 5 and 10 years and then never changed thereafter. Theoretically, this horse could also be considered both a from-bottom and a from-top, but I always considered him a part's.



Half & half's are a bit more apparent. They take a huge swath of the body and paint it almost like a different color. Half & half's follow along the same lines as Part's but often take multiple part's and marry them together.

Here is an excellent Half & half.



From-the-top is a sooty that starts from the top of the horse (neck, back, ears, rump) and colors downward, like you sprayed a hose onto the top of the horse and the hair gets dark from the wet as it runs off.

These two from-the-top aren't the best examples for it, but they're acceptable representations.





From-the-bottom acts just the opposite, but coloring the horse from the legs up. Almost like a reverse pangare.

A nice gentle example of from-the-bottom. You can even see some dapples coming in.



Full-body is as it says. Although many people may call a full-body which is more like a from-the-top or a from-the-bottom style. And maybe it is. It's a bit hard to say where the cutoff might be and it also may be hard to say IF there is a cutoff.

This is an example of a full-body progressive.
As a yearling:

At five years:

And the horse's last image:
Pseudo-black


Your project should be aimed at the bottom three options, from-the-top or -bottom or the full-body.

And finally, the strength of the dapples themselves.

Now... sooty acts like a fill-able style gene. A lot like Lp and To (tobiano) in this manner. You keep filling your little sooty cup until it flows over into another section. So you can theoretically make a Part's sooty eventually turn into a Full-body sooty. However, you will need to ensure you have the genes to do so. So new blood with hidden genes will be essential from time to time (if working with high-COI breeding tactics).

As for the dapples... the seem to also ask like the same fill-able style gene. So as your sooty progresses, you'll see your dapples progress as well. But the strength genes for the dapples... I think they're co-dependent.
A co-dependent gene works as follows.
There are white roses and red roses (this is only an example).
A white rose has two white alleles: Wh/Wh
A red rose has two red alleles: R/R
But if you combine a red and a white: Wh/R
You will end up with a pink rose that is neither white or red. This is called co-dependent.

The dapple strength appears to be this type of gene (though it's not be confirmed). Though we don't know which one is dominant over the other (strong dominant over weak or vice versa), the following can still be theorized for breeding use.
In this sample, S will stand for strong, W will stand for weak and D will stand for dapples.
SD/SD = strong dapple strength
SD/WD = medium dapple strength
WD/WD = weak dapple strength

Now... which one is which? If you look at that one post from the original release, you should be able to pick out the dapple coats that barely express dapples, these would be weak... and the ones that are quite strong, these are the strong variety. But the strength genes for dapples IS SEPARATE from the strength genes for sooty. So you can have a very mildly sooty horse with a very strong dappling.

And finally, two examples to inspire you with what other members of our HWO has come across with the dapple genes:






Does that help? Incite more questions?
I may still have some more answers.

Thank you so much!! If I have any more questions I'll ping you personally.