Snowcap

Appearance

Foals		Foals are born with a snowcap blanket. The blanket may change or increase in size with age. Foals can already show mottled skin, striped hooves and white sclera. They may lack foal camo and show goggles similar to grey horses.

Foals

Foals are born with a snowcap blanket.

The blanket may change or increase

in size with age. Foals can already show

mottled skin, striped hooves and

white sclera. They may lack foal camo

and show goggles similar to grey horses.

Snowcap is a white area on the hips. The size of the blanket may vary from being very small to covering a large part of the horse. As horses age, they may "varnish out": white hairs mix into the colored area of the coat. Horses have mottled skin, striped hooves and white sclera.		Adults

Snowcap is a white area on the hips.

The size of the blanket may vary

from being very small to covering

a large part of the horse. As horses

age, they may "varnish out": white

hairs mix into the colored area of the

coat. Horses have mottled skin,

striped hooves and white sclera.

Adults

Genetics

Snowcap is the result of two copies of the LP allele, with one copy of PATN1 or other modifying alleles. LP is a dominant allele of the LP gene.

Some horses only test positive for LP, without any PATN1, yet they have a spotted blanket pattern. There are likely (many) other alleles that affect how spotted patterns are expressed we haven't identified yet.

Therefore, in our game, Horse Reality, we use PATN2 as an extra (untestable) modifier that can cause small blankets etc. The existance of PATN2 was once theorised, but was never proven.

Spotted blanket:
LP/LP
LP/LP + PATN1/patn1

Back to Spotted Coat Patterns

Articles

Bellone RR, Holl H, Setaluri V, Devi S, Maddodi N, Archer S, Sandmeyer L, Ludwig A, Foerster D, Pruvost M, Reissmann M, Bortfeldt R, Adelson DL, Lim SL, Nelson J, Haase B, Engensteiner M, Leeb T, Forsyth G, Mienaltowski MJ, Mahadevan P, Hofreiter M, Paijmans JL, Gonzalez-Fortes G, Grahn B, Brooks SA; Evidence for a retroviral insertion in TRPM1 as the cause of congenital stationary night blindness and leopard complex spotting in the horse; PLoS One (2013); Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078280
McFadden A, Vierra M, Martin K, Brooks SA, Everts RE, Lafayette C; Spotting the Pattern: A Review on White Coat Color in the Domestic Horse ; Animals (2024); Doi: 10.3390/ani14030451
Terry RB, Archer S, Brooks S, Bernoco D, Bailey E; Assignment of the appaloosa coat colour gene (LP) to equine chromosome 1; Animal Genetics (2004); Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.2004.01113.x