Last Revised: March 6, 2005

Color Genetics

Still under construction!

Are you looking to breed and successfully get grullo horses from in your breeding program? Then you'd better be sure that you're breeding the right colors together! I'm sure you've done your research or are still in the process of trying to better understand how to achieve this lovely, but rare color. Just when you think you know exactly what colors will achieve this outcome, you start to see outcomes from colors that you wouldn't expect to produce a grullo!

There are 2 'primary' colors of horses (please note that I am speaking in terms of stock, or quarter horses): black and red. Gray is produced by genes that alter a red-based or a black-based horse. Whatever color a gray horse is when its born is the base color of the horse.

Other genes that alter colors are the dun gene and the cream gene. I can hardly wait till they create a test to determine whether a horse is homozygous for the dun gene! If you're looking for a silver grullo you have a good chance of achieve that by crossing a black to buckskin colored dun or a palomino to a grullo - there are a few other variables that will achieve this.