Horse Color Information (Genetics)

There is an excellent web site that provides easily understood information on equine color. The following is a direct quote from the beginning of the article. For the rest of the information here is a link to the site: Equine Color

"All colors are a result of at least 16 known factors that interact to produce each unique color and pattern. There are only two colors that all other colors are built off of. These are Black and Chestnut. Every horse, of every breed, will have a Black or a Red (Chestnut) base coat, regardless of it's physical apperance.

The main key when learning about color is to ignore the white. White is not important when determining the colored parts of the horse. This is because the colored parts and the white parts are not related and the genetic control of one has nothing to do with the genetic control of the other. The only time white becomes important is when you are determining if the horse has a white spotting pattern..."