[lucky_pine]

I am so confused by these two terms. Knowing hardly anything about color genetics, I'm sure you can tell why. Haha. So can you explain to me (with pictures?) how a horse can be dun and palomino and dun and buckskin?

[Acme Acres]

Dunalinos are Palominos with a dorsal, dunskins are buckskins with dorsal

[lucky_pine]

Well that much is obvious, but what causes it?

[Acme Acres]

Real easy, you add a dun gene which is a modifier to either a pal or a buckskin. They're different genes so they can both be passed on (or not).

[lucky_pine]

I guess I'm still confused...if you have a buckskin how can it be dun? I thought if it had a dorsel it was dun, so where does the buck come in? Genotype correct?

[Acme Acres]

BOTH geno and pheno. Dun has to be displayed, it can't be truely hidden. A DUN does NOT have a cream gene. If you ADD the cream gene, then it becomes a DUNSKIN or a DUNALINO depending on the base color. Just like you have Tobiano and Overo, but together they're TOVERO.

[lucky_pine]

Acme, keep in mind you are explaining this to someone who doesn't know, and had never been interested, in genes. And now these pop up so I want to learn hah. So I have no idea how the creme gene works. Are they fairly common? When I looked them up most people advertised as being "rare" but if it's just cream gene thrown in there, how is it rare?

[lucky_pine]

Buckskins carry a cream gene...? So buck adds a cream to a dun, and thus you have a dunskin. So that means the palomino would carry the gene, giving a cream to a dun making a dunalino. But this doesn't happen every time, game of chances like everything else.

[Acme Acres]

Nope, not that rare, not as common as just dun or palomino though. I don't know that there's any stats on how common dunalinos or dunskins are since neither is an accepted color with APHA or AQHA.

If you were to breed a dun to a buckskin, you'd have a 50/50 chance of getting both the cream and the dun gene (providing we're not talking homozygous horses here). Breed the same dun to a palomino and you'd have the same odds of getting a dunalino.

[Acme Acres]

Originally Posted by lucky_pine

Buckskins carry a cream gene...? So buck adds a cream to a dun, and thus you have a dunskin. So that means the palomino would carry the gene, giving a cream to a dun making a dunalino. But this doesn't happen every time, game of chances like everything else.

Yep that's right! Buckskins carry a cream gene, but not a dun gene. Palominos carry a cream gene but not a dun gene, but bred to a dun, you'd get a dunskin or a dunalino