Facial Markings and stocking, need help

[RiverCat]

Hello! I'm sorry if there is answer already.

Could somebody explain, how works a small white markings such as snips, blaze, white legs, etc.

1. If horse carry 1 marking on one leg (for example sock on a lef front) does it mean, that childs can only has chanse to get marking on this leg? I have seen a lot of horses with two stockings on two front legs, during a lot of generations. It's sad if it really so.

1.2 Does leg markings could be placed on the horse slight randomly? I have seen, that it could change it height, but may be there still is a chance to get markings on another legs?

2. Could face markings be randomly on horses with parents without it? (May be some recessive genes?) Forewhile I have seen horses with stripes only if it has at least one parent with stripe, snip or blaze.

Thank you! I would apprecate if there already is a thread with explanations, or for the all answers! <3

also, English is not my native, I'm sorry for mistakes

[Silverine]

So here's what we've been able to gather about Tobiano - which the gene that causes white markings other than appaloosa spotting.

Tobiano is the 'switch' for white markings and it is dominant. A horse only needs on copy of To for it to express white markings. There is no difference in expression of one copy of To vs two copies. (At least not on HWO - there seems to be a small difference in real life but it hasn't been fully proven.)

Once a horse has the To gene there are other hidden genes that determine how much white it will have and where that white shows up. We have not currently figured out the exact mechanisms for all of this, but there are a few theories.

The most supported theory right now is that body white (white above the legs and behind the head) is recessive and two copies are needed to express it. To be clear - I'm not talking about two copies of To, but rather two copies of a separate gene that controls body spotting. There is no name for this gene.

You can see this at play in my tobiano Hanoverians. This horse, for example, is the foal of a loudly-marked sire and a plain dam. She only received one copy of the body white gene and so her white is only expressed on her legs. But when bred to a loudly-marked stud she has a 50% chance to throw her body white gene as well and produce foals like this one that have a lot of white. Meanwhile, if you look at this loudly-marked stallion and check out his progeny you can see that every time he was bred to a loudly-marked mare the foal came out with quite a bit of white on its body.

On the other hand, you have my Tchenarani line. The only source of tobiano in these lines is from AC Turkmenes which do not carry the body white gene. Therefore there is no source for body white in my Tchenis and the most white they will ever show is stockings like these. This horse displays the most white any of my Tchenis have ever or will ever display, unless I decide to inject something with body white into the line which isn't likely to happen.

It is possible to get a body-white horse from two stocking horses, but there has to be a source for the body white gene somewhere further back in the line. This horse, for example, is the foal of two horses that only had leg and face white, yet she had body spots. This means that both parents carried a single copy of body white and happened to pass it on to their offspring. (This has a 25% chance of happening if both parents are known to carry a single copy of body white.) Here is another horse from the same cross. (There are also others hanging around in this farm.)

So, long story short, if you want body white on your horses you need to breed to horses that already have body white or that had parents with body white. You can find body white in the AC in both NABs and Shetlands. Other breeds carry tobiano, but not body white.

[RiverCat]

Silverine, thank you so much for the explanations, it's make things clear for me <3
Btw I'm not really intrested in body white, but I want to keep facial markings on my horses. Like this one:
Ell Mirit

And for turkmenes this was a quite simple, because there was ancestors with all genes need, but for akhal-tekes I was confused.
And now, I see, that any crossbreed with breed wich not carry tobiano recessive genes for markings (like Arabian) will produce offspring without visible markings. Only chanse to get white markings on face for this cross is crossbreeding in between childs and hope that thay keeped genes of white markings.
Thank you again!

[Madonna]

Silverine, thank you so much for the explanations, it's make things clear for me <3
Btw I'm not really intrested in body white, but I want to keep facial markings on my horses. Like this one:
Ell Mirit

And for turkmenes this was a quite simple, because there was ancestors with all genes need, but for akhal-tekes I was confused.
And now, I see, that any crossbreed with breed wich not carry tobiano recessive genes for markings (like Arabian) will produce offspring without visible markings. Only chanse to get white markings on face for this cross is crossbreeding in between childs and hope that thay keeped genes of white markings.
Thank you again!

I suggest you to breed more Akhal-Tekes with 2 white front legs together, for several generations and eventually you will produce foal with 3 or even 4 white legs and facial markings, that is what I did with my Lipizzaners (I have them on my other accounts Pieta and Maesta). I use several different Turkmenes with white legs and facial markings and cross them with my solid mares and then breed these horses together.
Maybe you should look that Mongolian stallion I breed. He is progeny of 2 solid colour horses but he has blaze.

[RiverCat]

Madonna, thank you for an advice!
Yes, thats what I did, and this works. I got a few foals with marks on the head from parents without it, but they all had one parent with markings. This one is the best:
Achal-Teke foal

It seems, theory about recessive genes for markings is really works. Happy with it <3