This mare has me dumbfounded!

[torbico]

Hello everyone, I may need some help with this girl's color...
Now, I'm no color genetics expert, so I can get confused pretty quickly especially once dilution genes come into play. However, I'm not very certain of this particular horse's coat:

Whisper of Sunshine


Of course, I can assume from this she just has the gray gene and that she got that from her sire. But what about her coat before it went all gray?



She seems to be dun. I can see the striping on both her and her sire's legs and dun is rather rampant within my own herd, so I am not surprised. Here are her parents, for reference:

Whispered Hour

My Honor Sunshine

(You will have to look at her younger photos, as that pesky LP has seriously discolored her!)

I took a quick look at Totina's color guide and Whisper of Sunshine looks a lot like the smoky grullo foal. My guess is that her dam is a dunalino, so at face value this checks out. But then, don't gray foals skip to their "original adult color" when they're born? Shouldn't she, then, have looked like the adult smoky grullo from the guide when she was born?

I'm very uncertain. Please tell me your thoughts!

[Emiisheartless]

I think you’re right about her being smoky grullo, but I think there’s silver there as well. Her sire seems to be a silver grullo, so she probably inherited dun from one parent (or both) as well as the cream from her dam and silver from her sire. I’m not completely sure, but I can’t think of anything else she could be.

[torbico]

I think you’re right about her being smoky grullo, but I think there’s silver there as well. Her sire seems to be a silver grullo, so she probably inherited dun from one parent (or both) as well as the cream from her dam and silver from her sire. I’m not completely sure, but I can’t think of anything else she could be.

Ah, I see. Thank you!! Seems like she has a lot going on.

[Shadow Scar]

You are correct any foals born with the grey gene are in fact born with their adult coat that will then begin to grey out as they age. Because of this identifying a single cream gene on a black based horse is difficult since the first sign is usually the foal being born with a grey coat instead of the usual black one. The next way to find out if they carry cream is simply to breed them and see if any of the foals pop out with the cream gene.

Sire = Grey Silver Grullo w/ Tiger Eye or E? + aa + Gg + Zz + D? + TgTg
Dam = Dunalino Blanket w/ Tiger Eye or ee + ?a + Crcr + D? + Lplp + TgTg

Now finally your mare is for sure Ee + aa + Gg + Zz + D? + TgTg with the possibility of Crcr. So she is either a Grey Silver Grullo w/ Tiger Eye or a Grey Silver Smoky Grullo w/ Tiger Eye. You'll unfortunately have to do a bit of experimenting to truly figure out what she's hiding.

[torbico]

You are correct any foals born with the grey gene are in fact born with their adult coat that will then begin to grey out as they age. Because of this identifying a single cream gene on a black based horse is difficult since the first sign is usually the foal being born with a grey coat instead of the usual black one. The next way to find out if they carry cream is simply to breed them and see if any of the foals pop out with the cream gene.

Sire = Grey Silver Grullo w/ Tiger Eye or E? + aa + Gg + Zz + D? + TgTg
Dam = Dunalino Blanket w/ Tiger Eye or ee + ?a + Crcr + D? + Lplp + TgTg

Now finally your mare is for sure Ee + aa + Gg + Zz + D? + TgTg with the possibility of Crcr. So she is either a Grey Silver Grullo w/ Tiger Eye or a Grey Silver Smoky Grullo w/ Tiger Eye. You'll unfortunately have to do a bit of experimenting to truly figure out what she's hiding.

Fascinating, thank you!! I'm thrilled to know she is a grullo after all. I'll definitely see if I can experiment a little!!