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AmericanMiniature Horse.com
High Country Miniature Horses
1476 Graham Road Bellville, TX 77418
After 20 years of breeding, we receive many questions about coat patterns. Here is a very basic genetics lesson for determining if a horse will pass on the pinto gene or not. Yes, the genetics of color coat patterns is the same in miniature horses as any other breed of horse.
TT
- Tobiano Homozygous - Tobiano coat
pattern present - Will always produce the pinto coat pattern even when
bred to a solid
The miniature horse above displays obvious "paw prints",
but a homozygous pinto doesn't always show the pattern so obviously. Note fewer prints on this homozygous miniature stallion.
nT - Tobiano Heterozygous - Tobiano coat pattern present -
nn - Homozygous Negative - no Tobiano coat pattern present
This chart shows
the possibilities of offspring when mating two horses:
|
nn -
SOLID COLOR
|
nT -
PINTO NOT HOMOZYGOUS
|
TT -
HOMOZYGOUS PINTO
|
|
|
nn - SOLID COLOR |
100% nn
|
50% nT 50% nn |
100% nT
|
|
nT -
PINTO NOT HOMOZYGOUS
|
50% nT 50% nn |
25% TT
50% nT 25% nn |
50% TT 50% nT |
|
TT -
HOMOZYGOUS PINTO
|
100% nT
|
50% TT 50% nT |
100% TT
|
Tobiano coat pattern is a desirable quality for many horse owners. Tobiano coat pattern is governed by a single dominant gene meaning that there only needs to be one copy of the gene (tobiano heterozygous-nT) for the tobiano coat pattern to be present. Homozygosity of the tobiano gene (TT-two copies of the tobiano gene) may show visual clues but only genetic testing will tell you this more conclusively that there is Tobiano homozygosity rather than heterozygosity. When there is no copy of the tobiano gene (homozygous negative-nn), the tobiano coat pattern is not possible.