[drivingpairs] Re: Color of Horses
- From: KDougk@xxxxxxx
- To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 09:52:05 EST
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I do not agree with Lewella that it is an "Extremely outdated book" that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
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