Silvers and Golds of the Sand Wash Basin "Irma and Isabella "Challenge Painting #62



Isabella and Irma are the featured Golden Horses of the Sand Wash Basin tonight. 



"Irma and Isabella"
6" by 9" Watercolor
By Linda L Martin Artist

They are from Centauro’s band. This mother and daughter are palominos meaning they are golden, or blond, in color with white manes and tails.

The dapple gray stallion, Centauro, has mares that throw their own color. Whatever the dam’s ( or mare’s) color, that is the color the foals seem to be. It’s only been since the round up in 2008 that Centauro has had these mares. So far none of his offspring have shown the trait to gray. His mares were part of the on-going PZP birth control study at Sand Wash Basin HMA so they had no live foals among this band in 2010. When this photo was taken by Nancy Roberts  there were 4 mares and 4 yearlings. Notice how the yearlings all look like their mothers.





Here is what our guest blogger, Debra More McGuire  has to say:

“The gray stallion must not be homozygous gray or his foals would gray. The fact that his foals tend to be the mares’ color would mean that his base color would not be a dominant one. He would most likely be a red base.
Homozygous would be dominant. That the horse could only pass that gene on for color (or trait). As in a HZ tobiano would always have a spotted foal regardless of the other parent. It is supposed to be 99.9 percent accurate. So a Homozygous gray horse would always produce a gray offspring regardless of  the color of the other parent.“

Would you like to  know more about horse color genetics? Deb recommends this web site to widen your knowledge: http://www.equine-color.info/gallery