Appearance

Foals

Bay non-dun1 foal

Regular bay color with primitive

markings. Leg primitives may be

harder to see.

Non-dun1 on a bay base causes

primitive markings. The dorsal

stripe is usually the most notable.

Bay non-dun1 Adults

Mimics

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The dun dorsal stripe goes through the tail, while nd1 dorsal stripes don’t.
Dun is more likely to cause striping at the back of the ears than nd1.
Foals with dun tend to have a darker lower face mask, while nd1 foals have a darker forehead.

Genetics

Bay non-dun1 is the result of a bay base with one or two copies of nd1. Non-dun1 (nd1) is an allele of the TBX3 gene.

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Bay nd1:
Bay (E/_ A/_) + nd1/nd1
Bay (E/_ A/_) + nd1/nd2

Dun (D), located on the same gene, is dominant over nd1, so horses could carry nd1 without it being noticeable but still pass it on.

Read more:
Chestnut | Chestnut nd1 | Black nd1

Articles

  1. Imsland, F., McGowan, K., Rubin, C. J., Henegar, C., Sundstrom, E., Berglund, J., Schwochow, D., Gustafson, U., Imsland, P., Lindblad-Toh, K., Lindgren, G., Mikko, S., Millon, L., Wade, C., Schubert, M., Orlando, L., Penedo, M. C., Barsh, G. S., & Andersson, L.; Regulatory mutations in TBX3 disrupt asymmetric hair pigmentation that underlies Dun camouflage color in horses; Nature Genetics (2015); Doi: 10.1038/ng.3475

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