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Published: 2019-04-28 16:23:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 919; Favourites: 11; Downloads: 0
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You want to add a gorgeous horse to your stable but have no ideas? You came to the right place!
This handy-dandy sheet will provide a little guide on how to randomize a random starter horse. Another guide will cover the topic of breeding. As this will also include the very basic shapes of horse genetics, it might be a bit long to read.
My main tool for this is the random.org number generator on the front page. It's not only very useful due to its shiftable minimum and maximum but also thanks to its simplicity. I prefer to write down my results for each step.
I. SexFirst of all, we determine the sex of your new horse! Set the number generator to minimum 1, maximum 100 (basically the preset settings) and randomize!
1 - 50: Stallion
51 - 99: Mare
100: Intersex (less functional sexual organ should be removed)
II. FertilityNext up is fertility, the chance of your horse being able to produce offsprings to carry on their legacy! This is optional but a nice factor to push up the realism. No matter what you get, you can always sterilize your horse if you want to.
1 - 80: Fertile / Unaltered
80 - 90: Has trouble conceiving (might need more attempts)
91 - 95: Needs Surrogate Mare, does not carry to term / Direct Insemination
96 - 100: Infertile
III. Base CoatHorses have a variety of base coats which is determined by the E & A locus. The chart below gives a short overview. - means that the locus can either be filled with the recessive or the dominant version (e.g. E- aa can either mean EE aa or Ee aa). Exceptions are Seal and Wild Bay as these genes can also be paired with a or A with the coat colour showing.
- Black: Ee aa or EE aa
- Bay: Ee or EE combined with any combination of A, A+ and At. Aa is also possible.
- Chestnut: ee aa or ee Aa or ee AA
Seal Bay and Wild Bay can only occur if either At (for Seal) or A+ (for Wild) is present. All colours can have various shades which are not displayed by the genetics. This includes but is not limited to Fading Black, Blood Bays, Dark Bays, Liver Chestnuts, Red Chestnuts, etc.
Now onto the randomizing! We randomize two times: One time for the E locus, one time for the A locus. This system makes bays the most common colour. You can adjust the numbers to your liking.
1 - 34: ee
35 - 67: Ee
68 - 100: EE
1 - 34: aa
35 - 67: Aa
68 - 100: AA
If you want to have a chance for Seal & Wild Bay, use this chart for the A locus. The chance for Wild & Seal is lower as they are seen slightly rarer in real life. Again, you can adjust the numbers to your liking.
1 - 14: aa
15 - 27: Aa
28 - 40: AA
41 - 50: Ata
51 - 60: AtAt
61 - 70: AtA
71 - 80: A+a
81 - 90: A+A+
91 - 100: A+A
IV. DilutesYou can stop after generating the base coat or you can add any number of dilutes. At this point, please check out what colours are permitted in different breeds if you want to keep it realistic.
Dilutes generally lighten up the coat of your horse and can be combined to any extent. Most commonly seen is Single Cream (Palomino, Buckskin, Smoky Black) while Pearl is extremely rare due to it being a very recessive gene. Let's start with Cream. Single Cream keeps the skin a dark colour and the eyes brown.
- Smoky Black: Black Base + nCr
- (Wild / Burnt) Buckskin: Bay Base + nCr
- Palomino: Chestnut Base + nCr
Of course, the Cream gene can also be dominant! When it is dominant, the horse's skin will become light and the eyes pale blue.
- Smoky Cream: Black Base + CrCr
- Perlino: Perlino + CrCr
- Cremello: Chestnut Base + CrCr
We randomize only one time. Numbers can be adjusted if you want a higher chance for Cream.
1 - 50: nn (No Cream)
51 - 75: nCr
76 - 100: CrCr
Next up is Champagne. This gene is limited to a few breeds and does not show up too often. Champagne is known to turn the skin light and the eyes into a hazel to green shade. Coats diluted by Champagne have special names.
- Classic Champagne: Black Base + nCh or ChCh
- Amber Champagne: Bay Base + nCh or ChCh
- Gold Champagne: Chestnut Base + nCh or ChCh
We randomize only one time again. This setup aims to be realistic but you can adjust the numbers in this category too.
1 - 75: nn (No Champagne)
76 - 90: nCh
91 - 100: ChCh
But what happens if you roll both Champagne and Cream? Don't fear, these genes can be combined as they sit on two different loci! The coat gets extremely light even with only Single Cream; if Double Cream is present, the coats will not be distinguishable from each other except through a genetic test.
- Classic Cream Champagne: Black Base + nCh or ChCh + nCr
- Amber Cream Champagne: Bay Base + nCh or ChCh + nCr
- Gold Cream Champagne: Chestnut Base + nCh or ChCh + nCr
- Double Cream Champagne: Any Base + nCh or ChCh + CrCr
Next we will cover Pearl. This gene is a little tricky as a recessive gene, it only appears if either two copies are present (prlprl) or it is paired with Cream (Crprl). Pearl and Cream occupy the same locus. This means it is impossible for a horse to be a Pearl on Perlino for example. Pearl is rarely seen as any horse who only has nprl in their genes becomes a carrier; means they have the gene but do not express it.
- Pearl: Any Base + prlprl
- Cream Pearl: Any Base + Crprl
We randomize only one time. As Pearl is one of the rarest genes in existence, the numbers are adjusted to just this. Of course, you can change it.
1 - 90: nn (No Pearl)
91 - 97: nprl (Pearl Carrier unless Cream is present)
98 - 100: prlprl (Pearl is expressed)
In the event of rolling a single Cream and a dominant Pearl, randomize again. If your number is lower than 50, the horse becomes a Cream Pearl. If the number is higher than 50, the horse becomes a pure Pearl, with Cream being erased. Same is applied in the even of Double Cream + Pearl.
Next, we will come to Dun. Dun is a very primitive and old gene and appears in most feral horses. Many breeds do not recognize it in their studbooks, so make sure to check out if you should roll this gene. The naming can be tricky, so I will include the names of every Dun-Base Coat and them combined with Single Cream. In any other case, a 'Dun' is added to the colour name (e.g. Amber Champagne Dun, Smoky Cream Dun, etc); of course, this system can also be applied to any other colour. As long as you know what you mean, it's good!
- Grullo / Grulla: Black Base + nD or DD
- Bay Dun: Bay Base + nD or DD
- Red Dun: Chestnut Base + nD or DD
- Smoky Grullo / Smoky Grulla: Smoky Black + nD or DD
- Dunskin: Buckskin + nD or DD
- Dunalino: Palomino + nD or DD
We only randomize once for this list.
1 - 50: nn (No Dun)
51 - 75: nD
76 - 100: DD
Next up is Silver; this gene usually affects only the mane, adds slight dapples and/or lightens the base colour a bit. It can only be expressed by horses with a Black or Bay base - Chestnut based colours merely carry it.
1 - 60: nn (No Silver)
61 - 80: nZ
81 - 100: ZZ
The counterpart to Silver is Flaxen; this gene can only be expressed by Chestnut based colours. Flaxen needs to be homozygous to be visible and even then it only lightens the mane. Many horses carry this gene.
1 - 60: FF (No Flaxen)
61 - 80: Ff (Flaxen Carrier)
81 - 100: ff (Expressed on Chestnut base, otherwise Carried)
Both Silver and Flaxen are mentioned before the Base Coat name if they are visible.
V. Other GenesA few genes are neither white patterns nor dilutes nor part of the E & A locus; these can be found in this category.
Let's talk about Grey first. No horse is born fully greyed out but with their regular base colour; they will slowly lose the pigmentation of their coat, turning them varying shades of Grey. Bloody Shoulder, Fleabitten and many others are simple expressions of Grey. Some horses might stop at a dark Steel Grey, some become White Grey. Greys can be only labelled as such, some prefer to write 'Grey on [BASE COAT]'. It's completely up to you.
1 - 50: nn
51 - 75: nG
76 - 100: GG
Next is Pangare, another gene often seen in feral horses as it probably functions as protective countershading in the wild. Pangare lightens up the underside of the body, the muzzle and the area around the eye to various degrees.
1 - 50: nn
51 - 75: nP
76 - 100: PP
The counterpart to Pangare is called Sooty, it darkens the top line of the horse and can also cause small dapples in the darkened areas. It can also be responsible for a faux dorsal stripe.
1 - 50: nn
51 - 75: nSty
76 - 100: StySty
VI. White PatternsAs this topic spans across a massive category, I will try to make it short: There are three kinds of marking complexes: Pinto, Roaning Patterns and Appaloosa. We will first take a look at the KIT-genes which include Tobiano, Dominant White, Roan and Sabino, then focus on the other Pinto markings. Next up are Roaning Patterns and to finish this off, we take a look at Appaloosa.
Many breeds do only permit a few patterns or even none at all - make sure to look up the guidelines before rolling anything. Most breeds allow Roan, Rabicano, Dominant White and Sabino; anything else is usually not able to be registered.
First of all, the genes for Tobiano, Dominant White, Roan and Sabino are called KIT-genes and sit on the same locus. This means that the same thing applies like to Cream and Pearl: If one of the aforementioned genes is present in its dominant form, it fills up the locus and blocks any other of the four.
- Dominant White: nW - WW causes Lethal White Syndrome.
- Roan: nR or RR
- Sabino: nSb or SbSb
- Tobiano: nT or TT
I pulled the KIT genes out first to randomize. They need three to four turns.
1 - 50: nn (No KIT)
51 - 75: One KIT Gene
75 - 100: Two KIT Genes
If you rolled 51 - 75, roll again!
1 - 50: Recessive (nTo, nW, nR or nSb)
51 - 100: Dominant (ToTo, RR or SbSb; WW is deadly!)
Now we determine what KIT genes your horse has. If you rolled two KIT genes, you can randomize two times; if the result is the same in both, the gene will be dominant - unless it is Dominant White
1 - 25: Tobiano
26 - 50: Dominant White
51 - 75: Roan
76 - 100: Sabino
Next up is Overo as it is another special case. Similar to Dominant White, it is 100% lethal in its dominant form. This makes it easier to randomize for us.
1 - 50: nn
51 - 100: nO
Left is only Splash. It is not deadly in its dominant form but is thought to be linked to hearing loss and congenital deafness. It will not be included in this roll as this issue is directly linked to the amount of pigment inside the ears which differs from horse to horse; this part is fully up to you! Splash can also be hidden, e.g. be so minimal it does not qualify as Splash.
0 - 50: nn
51 - 75: nSpl
76 - 100: SplSpl
As Roan has already been covered in the KIT-genes, let's get straight to Rabicano! It also usually comes with something called skunk tail, a ring of white hair just at the top of the tail.
0 - 50: nn
51 - 75: nRb
76 - 100: RbRb
Now to the last marking category: The Leopard Complex. This one will be quite the hassle as it includes many different markings which are related to each other and can even interact. Any kind of horse with markings from this complex can be affected by bad sight in low lighting. We will roll this night blindness as it is not connected to the pigment in certain places like in Splash.
Even fewer breeds permit Appaloosa in their horses outside of Appaloosa and related crossbred breeds; as always make sure that the pattern is allowed!
Appaloosa comes in many shapes and forms which are determined by different variations of the gene. The general rule is that if the gene is dominant, the amount of white is bigger while the spots become smaller or even non-existent. Below are the PATN-genes.
- Blanket Appaloosa: nLp (Patn1)
- Snowcap Appaloosa: LpLp (Patn1)
- Leopard Appaloosa: nLp (Patn2)
- Few Spot Appaloosa: LpLp (Patn2)
- Semi-Appaloosa: LpLp (Patn1 Patn2)
There are also two other kinds which do not increase their intensity with the presence of dominant Appaloosa but the increasing age of the horse. I like to label these genes similar to the PATN ones but this is up to you.
- Snowflake Appaloosa: nLp (snow)
- Varnish Roan Appaloosa (varnish)
Best known and most common patterns are Blanket and Leopard, so I will make sure that the numbers represent this. You are free to adjust them if needed, as always. To keep my sanity, we will roll two times: First time to see if the horse has an Appaloosa marking, the second time to see which one it has!
1 - 50: nn
51 - 100: Appaloosa
1 - 25: Blanket Appaloosa
26 - 50: Leopard Appaloosa
51 - 65: Varnish Roan
66 - 75: Snow Cap Appaloosa
76 - 85: Few Spot Appaloosa
86 - 95: Snowflake Appaloosa
96 - 100: Semi-Appaloosa
VI. EyesEye colour is closely linked to the base coat as I already stated before a few times. I'm quickly going to cover all the natural colours.
- Brown: The basic eye colour; most horses you see will have brown eyes. The colour can go from almost black to the milk chocolate.
- Blue: Only seen in horses who are double creams or have Sabino, Overo or Splash markings. Later ones can also cause partial or full heterochromia.
- Green: Only seen in horses with a Champagne or Pearl gene. Rarest confirmed eye colour in horses.
- Amber: Only seen in horses with a Champagne gene; also seen in Paso Finos, no matter their coat colour.
Of course you can also choose any colour you want!
VII. HeightThis is very simple. Simply search up the minimum & maximum height of the breed and put them as such in the number randomizer; the number you get will be the horse's shoulder height!
I'd advise using this method only for centimetres as hands are a bit hard to generate with this; if you really want the height in hands, use the list generator on the side. You have to put each option in manually but it's the best I have up to date.
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Comments: 1
Gwenwhifar [2019-04-28 19:14:56 +0000 UTC]
This is so freaking cool! Definitely using it for some adopts down the line, if that's fine for you <33
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