Saturday, February 22, 2014

pangare

I pretty much know nothing about color genetics because 1) it is so complicated and I don't really have the time to learn and 2) all Haflingers are chestnut so there really is not much reason to learn. 

But I have been interested in Shyloh's light "eyeliner" and what that was. I was sure it had a name and after very little interweb research, I found it.
See the lighter color under her eye?
It is called pangare. It is a coat modifier that can lighten the hair around the muzzle, eyes, belly, lower legs, and inner legs. Ah ha! Makes a ton of sense. Shy does not have much pangare on her underside, but some Haflingers do.
Not my Haflinger, this one was borrowed from the interweb. He shows lots of pangere effect.
But it does explain the lightness that goes down her legs. She only has a slight sock on the inside of one of her back legs. Socks in Haflingers are discouraged; one leg is okay, but socks on all four legs or white going above the knees or hocks are strongly discouraged from breeding, per the American Haflinger Registry. Shy's legs get noticeably lighter all the way down. It's pangare (like when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, it's pangare. . .).

Pangare can be seen on Shy a little bit in the following photos:
Can see a little bit the the lighter color under her chest.
Lighter going down her legs.
Lighter on the muzzle and eyes, harder to see under her belly. She does not get too much lighter there, though. Not sure if it is because she is a darker/redder Haflinger, as the ones with the most pangare seem to be lighter/golden. Actually, the blog banner has some clearer photos of pangare on Shy.
The purpose of pangare is thought to be a a form of camoflauge or countershading. It is found mostly in pony and draft breeds like Fjords, Haflingers, Exmoor Pony, Belgians and donkeys. This modifier can act on any coat color and varies in how intense it it. It is also thought to be a multi-gene effect.

A little interesting tidbit for your Saturday night. 

14 comments:

  1. I find genetics fascinating and actually took a basic genetics course in college. You and Shy are going to make us all Haffie experts. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I enjoy learning about color genetics ~ thanks for the lesson :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love color genetics! This was fascinating, as it was one thing I'd never heard of before!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Most interesting. Learned something new tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love color genetics!! I used to spend hours upon hours reading up on the stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  6. So interesting. I love learning about coat color genetics!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well now, I never knew that! That's very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, looking at these pics I realized how truly chestnut Shy is! That's super interesting about coat genetics - I can now sound quite sophisticated when discussing Haffie coloring, lol! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She is really red, it is different. They even have chocolate Haflingers, saw one at Equine Affaire a couple years ago.

      Delete
  9. Learned something new :) Camryn's isn't very significant either. I think it's lovely though

    ReplyDelete
  10. Learned something new! Very neat. Color genetics are crazy difficult. The girl who owns the cremello QH mare has taught me a lot in recent years re:cream genes and what to expect. Her mare has a double cream gene, so as long as she's bred to a horse with NO cream gene (solid black, bay, or brown) her foals are guaranteed to be buckskin (and maybe palomino, too, but I feel like she told me that was if the stallion had one cream gene). As a result, the mare has had a slew of buckskin babies! Including that Gypsy Vanner sporthorse filly last year!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Photo is Mitch of Between Golden Ears!

    Shy really does have minimal pangare shading - compared to Mitch my mare doesn't have much, but she's definitely got more of it than Shy, though a similar chestnut otherwise. Interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Equine Genetics was my favorite class in college, I've always been fascinated by it. That's really cool! I did not know about that modifier.

    ReplyDelete

Share your thoughts or comments, I love to read them!

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.