Do all Bays carry Black genes??

[PaintingPony]

Yes, if the horse is not a double AA - and it is Aa for bay (no way to tell unless you breed and end up with a black) there is a chance it passes down the turned off Bay gene (a) and the baby will be black then. But both bay parents will have to pass on the turned off a marker for the foal to end up black so the odds are low... but it's the only way to go.

[Ms. Trouble Maker]

Or maybe my best bet is to cross breed with a black horse and then the offspring will carry the black gene

[Ms. Trouble Maker]

This is the closest I've come. And eventually they will have feathers.
Forest Horse x Friesian


Purebred Friesian

[tussock]

Also.. If you get a foal with this color... Keep it.


Real black foals are born this color as I understand it. If a foal is born black to start with it's either really dark bay or really dark chestnut.

[Ms. Trouble Maker]

ah ok!! Cool thank you!

[CoalCraft]

EDIT: There was a whole second page of responses that I missed O.O

'black-based' means it has at least one 'E' at the extension locus, it is either Ee or EE. In simple terms, horses can have up to two pigments, black and red. A capital 'E' allows a horse to have black pigment, so it will be 'black-based', but if a horse has no 'E' and only has 'e', it will be 'red-based'. Blacks, bays, browns and wild bays are all 'black-based', as are any dilutions there of, while chestnuts and their dilutions are all 'red-based'.

Whether a 'black-based' horse is black, bay, brown or wild bay depends on the agouti locus. This is a completely independent gene to extension, at least in terms of inheritance, and it works by restricting the black pigment produced by 'E' to different degrees. For the sake of simplicity, I will just talk about bay vs black. Bay is the result of the agouti gene restricting the black pigment produced by extension to the legs, mane, tail and face of the horse, preventing the majority of it from reaching the body. This leaves the body a reddish-brown. Black is what happens when the agouti gene is completely inactive; the black is not restricted at all. 'Bay', which is represented by an A, is dominant over 'black', represented by an 'a', so a bay horse is Ee or EE and Aa or aa, while a black horse is Ee or EE and aa.

Therefore some bay horses carry black (Aa) and can produce black offspring if paired with another Aa or an aa horse, but it is not guaranteed (25% chance and 50% chance respectively), but there is no way of knowing whether a bay horse is Aa or AA except by breeding. The best thing you can do is breed your bays to black horses. The ones that carry black will then have a chance of producing black babies.

Just don't breed to any chestnuts, or you might find some chestnuts cropping up. *, this might happen anyway if the horses you use for breeding are Ee.

[Millwood]

If a foal is born black to start with it's either really dark bay or really dark chestnut.

Or grey!

[tussock]

If a foal is born black to start with it's either really dark bay or really dark chestnut.

Or grey!

Grey is just covering up the horse real color.. Like putting a white sheet on a red sofa... It's still a red sofa underneath the sheet.

[Aela]

The more bays you breed together, the higher chance you have of getting horses that are AA in agouti, meaning they never will be able to produce a black foal. Best way to get there is, even though it's a long route, through crossbreeding. Especially now, when colour testing isnt available

That's probably why you havent had a black foal yet

[Ms. Trouble Maker]

Ah ok. Thanks!! And yep I've done some cross breeding with black Belgian...so maybe soon I can get a black Friesian!