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So yesterday I gave an overview of the base colors, Black and Red. After reading that, you might be wondering why there aren't more pure black horses running around, seeing as black is dominant to chestnut. The answer is Agouti, the modifying gene that causes a black horse to be appear bay.

This is the first in a series of entries on the rainbow of horse coat colors. Behind every flashy paint, every appaloosa spotted pony and every dunalino, is a base coat of either Red or Black. From these bases of red (chestnut) and black, modifying genes are layered to create these fancier colors. Once you understand how the base colors work you can figure out the more complex genetics that cause the rarer coat colors.