Different Types of Horse Hair
Below is the beginning of a classification of different types of hair on
horses, and how they react to color-modifying genes.
black tail hair -- seemingly the last to dilute, except for its guard
hairs.
red tail hair -- dilutes to white with single cream and also usually
with single champagne ; does not dilute with dun (except for its guard hairs).
-
black mane hair -- next to last (as in flaxens that are mane-only. How
many horses are flaxen-tailed only, except for when it's caused by a
spotting gene?) Same with the Silver dilution.
-
mane & tail guard hairs -- tend to go nearly white in the presence
of practically any dilution gene
-
lower leg hair -- it dilutes with double dream, even more with
champagne, but not with dun or single cream.
-
dorsal (over the spine) hair -- tends to be darker than body hair,
resists dilution more than body hair, especially when "sooty"
hairs are present.
-
regular body hair -- it dilutes a moderate, "normal" amount.
The color that we usually refer to.
-
easily-diluted body hair -- what becomes the "roaning" in a
Palomino or buckskin. Dilutes to an ivory color with only one cream gene.
-
"sootiness hairs" -- diluted by some genes and not by others.
Possibly correspond to "guard" hairs? Just a hunch.
-
dapple hairs, which have a different texture than non-dapple, and dilute
differently with cream than with dun or champagne.
-
grey hair -- seems like it can be any of the above ; ranges from a
some pigment left to completely clear, like glass.
-
markings hair -- again, any of the above ; hair in a white marking
loses all of its pigment, becoming clear as glass, like a gray hair.
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