Drac Cavalls share a great deal with their earthen equine cousins, among these things are their naturally occurring base coats!! All colors found in horses from Black to Creamy Champagnes can be found in the Drac Cavall breed. HOWEVER there are several specialty colors that are just within the Drac breed.
Within Drac Cavalls, there are some technical terms that are used to refer to colors and the inheritance of color genes! For those unfamiliar with them they include:
Homozygous: means two copies of the same allele/gene are present.
Heterozygous: means one of each type of allele, one dominant and one recessive.
Dominant: Color trait is expressed with 1 or 2 copies of the allele is present
Recessive: Color trait is only expressed when 2 copies of the allele are present
Within many horse breeds exist terms for genes that modify base coats by either darkening or lightening them. In most breed registries, some of these genes are unmapped and their inheritance unknown. However due to the extensive research into the Drac Cavall, several well know genes HAVE been mapped and are thus represented below:
Pangare
- Dominant Gene
- Represented by: PgPg (Homozygous) or nPg (Heterozygous)
Pangare makes the coat of the Drac lighten along it's underside by several shades. This goes from under the face all the way down the tail. The degree of lightening varies but is always a lighter form of the under coat. This affect tends to be most dramatic on cream and agouti based coats (Palomino's, Chestnuts, Etc)
Sooty
- Dominant Gene
- Represented by: StySty (Homozygous) or nSty (Heterozygous)
Sooty produces black hairs along the topline of the Drac. It makes the horse look like they rolled in something dark, thus the name sooty. This darkening of the hairs is only appears along the topline of the Drac and gradually fades away the closer to the underside you go. Sooty can often lead to dappling along the belly and flanks on lighter Dracs while it can be nearly invisible on dark Dracs.
Pearl
- Recessive Gene
- Represented by: prlprl (Homozygous) or nprl (Heterozygous)
Pearl is a dilution gene that behaves similarly to Cream and Champange in that it lightens and dilutes the base coat. This is a recessive trait meaning that it doesn't have an affect unless there are two copies of the allele. If homozygous, it lightens body, mane and tail significantly and creates pale skin. Pearl is unique in that when one copy is paired with a cream gene (Cr), it creates a false or Pseudo Double Dilute. A single pearl gene paired with buckskin or palomino mimics the color of Perlino and Cremello even if, genetically, that isn't what the real color is. Heterozygous Pearls (when they inherit 1 copy of of the allele) are referred to as Pearl Carriers.
Flaxen
- Recessive Gene
- Represented by: ff (Homozygous) or Ff (Heterozygous)
Flaxen affects only the mane and tail of Drac's and, interestingly enough, only on Chestnut based Dracs! Just like earth horses, even if two copies are inherited on a black base, it doesn't express itself! Drac's who inherit one copy (Ff genetically) or are Homozygous but black based are referred as Flaxen Carriers.
Silver
- Dominant Gene
- Represented by: ZZ (Homozygous) or nZ (Heterozygous)
Silver, much like Flaxen, is a gene that only affects the mane and tail of Dracs. Considered a 'sister gene' to Flaxen, it lightens the mane and tail of horses but ONLY on Black based coats!! Silver maned Drac's vary in appearance. Some have gradual fades where only the ends of their hair is off white to pure white. Others are almost pure white from root to end!