Appearance
| Foals |  |
Foals are born with white spotting, "mottled"- or near-white coats."Roaning/mottling" tends to increase with age. |
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The amount of white can vary from high (irregular) socks, blazes and belly spots or a "mottled" coat to near-white with only a few specs of colour. |
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Adults |
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Mimics
Since there can be quite a bit of variety in the expression of W8, it can look similar to W21, the other white spotting pattern present in Icelandic Horses. Genetic testing or pedigree information may be necessary to tell the difference.
More minimal expressions of W8 might be confused with splashed white 1, which is also present in the breed.
W8 causes markings with jagged edges and white ticking.
Splashed white patterns have well-defined, crisp edges.
Genetics
W8 is a white spotting variation. It is a dominant allele of the KIT gene. One copy (W8/_) causes white spotting. Currently, no horses homozygous for W8 (W8/W8) have been found. Therefore (like many other white spotting alleles), it is predicted to be embryonic lethal when homozygous.
W8:
W8/_
In our game, Horse Reality, if you breed two W8/_ W8/_ horses together, the pregnancy will fail if the foal is W8/W8 (25% chance).
Presence in horses
The W8 allele is found in Icelandic Horses and was first found in the mare Þokkadís vom Rosenhof. W8 likely originated in this mare.
Articles
- Haase B, Brooks SA, Tozaki T, Burger D, Poncet PA, Rieder S, Hasegawa T, Penedo C, Leeb T.; Seven novel KIT mutations in horses with white coat colour phenotypes; Animal Genetics (2009); Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.2009.01893.x
W8 references
Islandpferde Recherbusch - owners of Þokkadís vom Rosenhof and W8 breeding
Learn while playing! Discover how genes shape colors and patterns in our realistic horse breeding game, Horse Reality
