# Interesting read: Silver dilution



## Nokotaheaven (Apr 11, 2012)

So I finally got the newest America's Horse (AQHA) magazine. They are running articles on colours lately, specifically genes and dilutions. The newest is the Silver gene, in which they have gone into good detail. I would like to share it with everyone, and if I can get some good pics I'll show examples of what they're talking about.
"Genes that lighten the colour of the hair are called dilutions. Perhaps the most familiar of these is the cream dilution, which produces palominos and buckskins. Cream dilutes hair to a gold or yellow colour. It does not change black hair, which is why buckskins have golden bodies but still have black points (mane, tail, legs). Silver is a gene that does the opposite. It dilutes black, but does not change red hair. Where cream turns red hair yellow, silver turns black hair to a colour somewhere between pale taupe and deep chocolate black. Silver also turns black hair in the mane and tail flaxen.
A black horse with the silver dilution appears taupe or chocolate with a flaxen mane and tail. These are called 'black silvers'. Because the lighter shades of black silver are often dappled, one of the popular names for the colour is 'silver dapple'. Adding the silver dilution to a bay horse, which has a red body and black points, results in a horse that has chocolate-black legs, a flaxen mane and tail, and an unchanged red body. These are called 'red silvers' or 'bay silvers'. Chestnut horses do not show the silver gene when they have it, because they do not have black hair to dilute. Sometimes they are called silver carriers, because they can produce black and bay silvers, but they do not look any different from an ordinary chestnut horse.
Silver is rare in most breeds, including the QH. Because black horses are also uncommon, the most common type of silver is bay silver. When silver occurs on a clear red bay, the result looks like a combination of bay and chestnut. These horses are often described as chestnut with black legs, or bay with flaxen mane and tail. Close examination shows that the legs are not really black. The colour is closer to chocolate, with the area near the hoof noticeably paler than the rest of the leg. The mane, too, is darker at the roots than might be expected of a flaxen chestnut. The very darkest bay silvers, known as 'brown silvers', are sometimes mistaken for liver chestnuts. Because the horse is already dark, there is less contrast between the chocolate legs and the red body. Usually the placement of darkest hairs on the legs, particularly on the backs of the hocks, is a good sign that it is really a bay horse with it's points diluted by silver, but sometimes genetic colour testing is the only way to be sure.
Black silvers can be mistaken for palomino, particularly the darker, sooty shade sometimes called chocolate palomino. Both black silver and chocolate palomino have flaxen manes and tails, often mixed with gray or black hairs, and both colours tend to be dappled. The difference between the two is the tone. Underneath the dark hairs, a chocolate palomino still has a red coat that has been diluted to yellow. The effect is a very warm, golden tone. A black silver has a black coat that has been diluted to a much cooler shade of taupe. As the name might suggest, the diluted black hair has a silvery rather than a golden cast.
Although it is a dilution, silver tends to produce deep, rich colours with pale manes and tails. It is a striking combination that many find attractive. So look closely the next time you see a bay horse with a flaxen mane, or a chocolate horse with a white mane and tail. It just might be a rare silver."

Interesting right??? This article was written by Lesli Kathman


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## Nokotaheaven (Apr 11, 2012)

Chocolate palomino:








Black silver/silver dapple:








Bay silver/red bay silver:


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