W16

Appearance

Foals		Foals are born with white spotting, or near-white coats. They may have some pigment on their topline, which usually disappears as they age.

Foals

Foals are born with white spotting,

or near-white coats.

They may have some pigment on their topline,

which usually disappears as they age.

The amount of white can vary from high (irregular) leg and body markings to a near-white coat with only a few specs of color.		Adults

The amount of white can vary from high

(irregular) leg and body markings to a

near-white coat with only a few specs of

color.

Adults

Mimics

Since there can be quite a bit of variety in the expression of W16, it can look similar to other white spotting patterns. Genetic testing or pedigree information may be necessary to tell the difference.

Genetics

W16 is a white spotting variation. It is a dominant allele of the KIT gene. One copy (W16/_) causes white spotting. Currently, no horses homozygous for W16 (W16/W16) have been found. Therefore (like many other white spotting alleles), it is predicted to be embryonic lethal when homozygous.

W16:
W16/_

In our game, Horse Reality, if you breed two W16/_ W16/_ horses together, the pregnancy will fail if the foal is W16/W16 (25% chance).

Presence in horses

The W16 allele is found in Oldenburg Horses and was first found in the mare Celine, born in 2003. W16 likely originated in this mare and can be seen in several of her offspring.

Back to White spotting

Articles

Haase, B., Rieder, S., Tozaki, T., Hasegawa, T., Penedo, M.C.T., Jude, R., Leeb, T.; Five novel KIT mutations in horses with white coat colour phenotype; Animal Genetics (2011); Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.2011.02173.x