Roan suit of horses

The roan color of the horse is considered quite rare and belongs to the mixed type of coat color. In Russia, animals with unique colors were very expensive, and if they were given to someone, it was considered a sign of respect and deepest respect. This suit is not found in all breeds, but the Rn gene is responsible for it. It is inherited through the paternal or maternal line.

Roan

What suit is recognized as roan?

The roan suit is characterized by the presence of white hairs in the animal’s coat, which are concentrated in the torso area. The head and lower parts of the limbs are usually painted in the main color – black, brown, red.

The number of white hairs may vary. In some representatives, they are evenly mixed with the main color, in others they are located zonally, forming stripes and spots.

For people who are ignorant of the colors, determining the color of a horse is difficult, it is difficult for them to distinguish a gray color from a roan. The fundamental difference is that gray hair changes color with age.. The coat of roan horses always remains unchanged.

Attention! Horses of roan color with black legs and head are considered especially beautiful.

The Rn gene is responsible for the presence of white hair in the coat, it is inherited. If the mare has this suit, but the stallion does not, then after mating, in 50% of cases they have a foal with white hair interspersed in the coat.

Types of roan suit

There are several varieties of roan suit. Consider them:

  1. Bay roan. Horses with this color belong to different breed lines. In such animals, the lower part of the limbs, tail and mane are painted black, and the body is brown-brown. It is on this part of the body that white hair is present. They do not grow in the head area.
  2. Red-roan. The head and limbs are painted in a uniform base color, red, and the body appears lighter due to the presence of white hairs in the coat.
  3. Raven-roan. Mixed with the black hair on the horse’s body, white gives the coat an unusual ash-blue hue. At the same time, the head and legs remain dark.
  4. Nightingale-roan. This is another rare type of suit. This coat color is especially beautiful in spring, it acquires a fawn hue.
  5. Savras-roan. In animals, lightened spots and glare appear on the body. This color is inherent in the steppe and wild horses. A distinctive feature of this suit is the presence of white strands in the tail.

Varieties of roan horses

Varieties of roan horses

Roan manifests itself in different ways. There are 2 types of white hair arrangement – zonal and mixed (non-zonal). In the first case, spots and stripes of a light shade can be seen along the chest, sides, back and stomach of the animal. The second option involves the uniform distribution of white hairs throughout the body. They mix with the wool of the base tone, changing its tone.

Suit Features

Not all people are easily versed in the colors of horses, and if we are talking about representatives of a roan suit, it is even more difficult to get confused. It has several features:

  1. The eyes and hooves of animals are always painted in the main color.
  2. The color is maintained throughout life. Blond hair sometimes becomes less saturated with age, but they will not lose pigment.
  3. The coat color of dark horses becomes more saturated with age. Sometimes in older animals, light apples form in the chest area.
  4. For some representatives of the roan suit, the color changes slightly at different times of the year, and the color of the mane remains unchanged.
  5. The hair in the tail never changes color. They are painted in the main tone. Only Savras-roan horses have one or more light strands in it.
  6. Places of cuts and wounds on horses and mares of roan color are carefully hidden, thanks to a heterogeneous color. At the site of skin damage, mixed hairs grow in these animals, while in representatives of other stripes, light ones.

Difficulties in breeding

Scientists have found that the gene that carries the roan information is not tied to a particular breed or sex, but it is present only in animals with wild ancestors. To get a foal with this color, one of the parents must be the carrier of the gene.

Horse breeders do not purposefully breed roan horses. The reason for this lies in the lethality of the event. When mating a stallion and a mare that has a dominant roan gene in the blood, a dead or non-viable foal is born.

A live and healthy baby can only be born to parents of different colors, when one of them is roan, and even then the probability of a foal with an unusual coat color is 50%. For this reason, no one specifically breeds such horses.

The roan color is rare and highly valued, because it is almost impossible to purposefully obtain such an unusual foal. The dominant gene Rn is responsible for the unique color, the carrier of which is only stallions and mares, in the pedigree of which there are wild ancestors.

Author: Olga Samoilova

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