Kinda lost in horse colours!

[J-Wrynn]

Hi guys,

I've just started the game and was wondering if someone could help determine the colours of my three horses!
1: http://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/891814
2: http://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/891825
3: http://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/891826

Is there also somebody who could write their genetic codes? By asking a couple times, I'm hoping to learn how it exactly works!

Kinds regards, Jill

[TopazTiria]

First one is brown, the second one appears to be a perlino, and the third one is likely a buckskin.

[BlackOak2]

Hi guys,

I've just started the game and was wondering if someone could help determine the colours of my three horses!
1: http://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/891814
2: http://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/891825
3: http://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/891826

Is there also somebody who could write their genetic codes? By asking a couple times, I'm hoping to learn how it exactly works!

Kinds regards, Jill

This may not be perfect, but it should get you started. I'm sure if I get something remarkably wrong, I'll get corrected.

The color guides in our color forum will help you with this. I'll try to write down a good step-by-step to get you started on how to apply learning your color genes for yourself.
The good thing is you're starting with AC horses. They have a limited amount of genes they can have. The bad thing is there are genes that can easily hide until you have two of that particular gene.
If you start with What Color is My Horse? Quick Guide by Ancient Breed, you'll get the basic genes your NAB (North African Barb) AC horses can have:

NORTH AFRICAN BARB
A+/A+, A+/A, A+/At, A+/a (Wild Bay) | A/A, A/At, A/a (Bay) | At/At, At/a (Brown) | a/a (Black)
E/E, E/e (black-based) | e/e (red-based, chestnut)
F/F, F/f (Not Flaxen) | f/f (Flaxen)
Z/Z, Z/z (Silver) | f/f (not silver)
Sty/Sty, Sty/sty (Sooty) | sty/sty (Not Sooty)
Cr/Cr (Double Cream) | Cr/n (Single Cream) | n/n (No Cream) | Pr/n (Single Pearl) | Pr/Pr (Double Pearl) | Cr/Pr (Cream-Pearl)
P/P, P/p (Mealy/Pangare) | p/p (Not Mealy/Pangare)
D/D, D/d (Dun) | d/d (not dun)
Rn/Rn, Rn/rn (Roan) | rn/rn (Not Roan)
Ch/Ch, Ch/ch (Champagne) | ch/ch (Not Champagne)
Tg/Tg (Double Tiger-Eye) | Tg/tg (Single Tiger-Eye) | tg/tg (Not Tiger-Eye)

But what do they have?
If you look also look at Horse colours: Names and pictures it will give you visual representations of what these genes look at (please be aware this guide is currently under massive reconstruction so it's apt to change perhaps daily).

We'll look first at the genes above.
Our base colors are black and chestnut. On black and chestnut you can have agouti (that's wild bay, bay and brown).
Of these base colors, black is dominant over chestnut and chestnut is recessive (meaning you need two chestnut genes to show chestnut).
Agouti works as an over-dominant type of thing. If your horse carries agouti, it will take over both chestnut and black (you will not see either of these two base colors at all) and the agouti genes are dominant over each other as well, showing wild bay over bay over brown (so even if you were to have bay or brown, if you also have wild bay, all you'll see is wild bay).
So now you read that, I'll explain it versus the genes themselves so you can understand the breakdown above.
Chestnut is e/e (two e's), meaning it's homozygous for chestnut.
Black can be E/e (remember that dominant thing) and this would be called hetrozygous for black AND black can also be E/E (that's homozygous for black).
Hopefully you understand that, so I can break it down like this:
Homozygous Wild Bay would be A+A+
Homozygous Bay would be AA
Homozygous Brown would be AtAt
(and if your horse does not carry agouti, that would be a homozygous aa)
Don't forget about your dominant factors, so hetrozygous wild bay could also be any combination of bay, brown or black as well, so A+A, A+At, or A+a, similar goes for bay over brown and black and brown over black)

That's the quick breakdown of the gene chart above. All genes are handled this way, and generally speaking, capitalized genes are dominant and lower case is recessive. There does take a little bit of understanding or memory involved to know which expresses which way (which gene only expresses when two are there, as in recessive gene, versus only one is needed, as in dominant)

That being said, I'll briefly touch on co-dominant and part-dominant. Co-dominant means that two genes can be expressed in tandem (this example is of two different sized spots on an appaloosa coat):

Part-dominant means that the gene is expressed differently (often part-way) between being homozygous versus hetrozygous, our manes and tails are a great example for this: Short manes and tails are dominant over long manes and tails, but if you have a short mane/tail gene and a long mane/tail gene, then you'll get a mane and tail that's medium length.

Our color genes (so far) are not co-dominant or part-dominant, they're generally straight forward. Base coat is chestnut or black with the ability of agouti coverage. Roan, Dun, Silver, Pangare (or mealy) and sooty all offer partial or full coat changes. Dilutes are your Champagne, Cream and Pearl, they 'dilute' the coat in full (never partially).
So that really doesn't leave much coat genes left over. Tiger Eye is an eye color not a coat color (although eye color can change slightly when expressed on different coat colors). Appaloosa genes are expressed on top of coat colors.
And flaxen, flaxen only affects chestnut horses and silver does not affect chestnut, so that's your trade off.

Alright, so breaking down Kansas, TopazTiria is correct, he is a brown horse, so you can at least say he carries one of these genes: At/At or At/a
As for black versus chestnut base, you won't be able to tell what he may carry until he throws a couple of foals and either offers nothing but chestnut foals (then most likely e/e) or he also throws black foals (so he is not e/e, and most likely is E/e), or perhaps he throws nothing but black foals (so most likely E/E), but this also is based on what the mare is, she offers half of all genes, just like the stallion does. A chestnut can only offer chestnut based foals, but may also throw agouti or black foals only when crossed with an agouti or black partner.
Back to Kansas. We do know that Kansas cannot have (or be) silver, cream, double pearl, cream and pearl, pangare, dun, roan, or champagne.
What we don't know, is that he may be a carrier of a single pearl gene and a single tiger eye gene.
Why didn't I say anything about sooty? Because most of the horses on this game has some form of sooty and it can express itself in a wide variety of ways to a dark splash across an area of the horse (like it was standing in a shadow), to a darkening of the coat as the horse ages.
So Kansas's genetic makeup may look like this: At/At or At/a with e/e or E/e or E/E and possibly Tg/tg and possibly pr/n

Arizona is a dilute horse. She has blue eyes so she must be either double cream or cream and pearl. If you take a look at the pictures on that second guide I linked, you'll notice that she looks 'less whitish' or 'less diluted' than a double cream may be, so I would say she is probably a cream and pearl and not a double cream. She does not offer a lighter mane and tail than her body, so she is not chestnut based and she is not as dark as a black based dilute might be, so that rules out being a straight black based coat as well. She does have slightly darker legs than her body but not also a lighter stomach and nose which makes her either a bay or wild bay and not brown. Considering her legs are dark so high up, it makes her a bay versus a wild bay (wild bay has dark legs only to the knees).
So she would be known as a Buckskin Pearl.
So what does she not have?
She does not have silver (her mane and tail are not gray or near-white), champagne (they always have freckles on their nose and around their eyes), no dun (the dorsal stripe and zebra legs are missing), she doesn't have pangare (similar to brown, but also has a coloration around the eye with a line of color straight to the nose), roan (roan is white hairs intermixed with the body hair between head and legs).
Again, we do not know if she carries a single Tiger Eye gene.
So her genetic makeup may look a little like this: A/A or A/At or A/a with e/e or E/e or E/E with Cr/pr and possibly Tg/tg

Now for their offspring Phoenix. She is a buckskin (make good note of the zebra legs, this makes her mother a dun carrier, so even though Arizona doesn't seem to show any signs, they just may be too gently expressed to see. Why isn't Kansas the carrier? Because dun on basic base colors is much more readily visual. It is far more likely that her mother is the carrier.
So you can add in D/D or D/d in with Arizona's genetic makeup.

All offspring can not be something their parents aren't, so if your foal is born with something you didn't expect, one or both of the parents must also be a gene carrier for it.

As a note, Phoenix inherited her mother's cream gene, not the pearl (a single pearl wouldn't have changed Phoenix's coat color). She had to have inherited either the cream or the pearl, she can not inherit both (remember only half of the genes. But she could have brown genes under that bay coat of hers. And you still don't know if she's chestnut based or black based.

I hope this isn't too confusing.

[J-Wrynn]

Thank you very much for your trouble BlackOak2! It really helped a lot.