Cayenne - A Sabino Roan

Cayenne is an adorable miniature colt that is going to be weaned soon. Up to this past Tuesday, I have been thinking and thinking about his coloring, and trying to figure it out. Just to make things clearer for you, right now he appears to be a chestnut roan sabino.

As a foal, his owner and I thought he would just be a light chestnut with a fair amount of chrome (in the Miniature horse world, this means white or markings). After a bit of maturing we could tell that yes, he will have high lacy stockings on his hind legs, an apron face, and perhaps more. Then, we got to what puzzled me- he appeared to have roaning in his phenotype (appearance)!

Myself being into horse genetics and knowing the coloring of Cayenne's parents, here are some facts.

• Roan is a dominant gene. If a horse has it, it'll show up.
• To get a true roan, one of the parents has to be a roan.
• Neither of Cayenne's parents were a roan.
• Pepper, the late sire, was a buckskin sabino.
• Birdy, Cayenne's dam, is a light solid palomino.

What I didn't remember until last Tuesday was that the sabino gene can include the roan gene (even if it isn't a true roan). Apparently Pepper had seemed roan until he was a yearling, at which time he lost the roaning, but still was sabino. (Not sure if that'd affect much or not though.)

My current hypothesis is that a sabino horse can yield a sabino foal with roaning, even if the parent was a roan-less sabino. I'm still trying to figure out how a different friend got a chestnut roan out of her two solid chestnut Walkers, but perhaps I'll discover the reasoning behind that one later. Or perhaps it was a freak accident, who knows? *shrugs*

To close, if you want to see a picture or few of Cayenne, here're a few from last Tuesday. :)

Cayenne *finally* standing still for a picture.

And walking, which was rare for his energetic little self.

Eatin' grass with Mommy.

I got an itch, and I just gotta get it!