[drivingpairs] Re: Color of Horses

Many moons ago, I was intrigued by a clinic at U of Cal Davis about color of 
horses. In 1974, The Color of Horses by DMV Ben Green of Texas had just been 
published. That hard back version of the book became fairly rare and got to be 
over $1,000 on E-Bay and still sells in the $300 to $400 range. Recently, 
Virginia Tech thought the book was important enough to reprinted the book and 
it 
is now available in paperback for $20.00.

I do not agree with Lewella that it is an "Extremely outdated book" that 
predates genetic testing. Green's book does not discuss except in a very 
general 
way, genetics. Dr. Sponenberg's Equine Color Genetics or the website 
EquineColor.com. addresses what we see as colors, the proper names and what 
breeding 
combinations are likely to have what colors in the offspring. Green's book, 
discusses what causes what we see as a color. 

In essence, the color of all horses is determined by light refraction. "One 
pigment colors all horses." If one extracts the liquid from a horse hair, the 
color liquid is a dark amber for  ALL horses. 

The difference in color is determined in a horse hair by the distribution, 
density and pattern of the dark amber liquid. Thus light refraction determines 
the color of a horses.

"The manner in which the pigment is transmitted from the follicle determines 
the pattern and density of the various patterns that refract light to reflect 
the different known colors."

A white horse is the absence of pigment and occur over a period of years. 
This is due to the four layers of Dermis tissue gradually losing their ability 
to 
secret hair pigment. A white/gray horse will finally develop the toughest 
hide of any horse, whatever their color.

Before you revolt, ever remember riding behind a black horse and seeing, when 
looking at the rump, a brown sheen. You are looking at the ends of the hair. 

Ben Green was a wonderful character from the Trans Pecos region of West Texas 
who travel the world and wrote a number of books. And did very serious 
scientific research on the above.

Douglas Kemmerer
Hawks Hill
Middleburg, VA 20118

The Color of Horses: The Scientific and Authoritative Identification of the 
Color of the Horse (Paperback) by Ben K. Green (Foreword), Darol Dickinson 
List Price:$20.00




Li

Other related posts: