Later this afternoon, I will officially become “Auntie Britt”, so in celebration of all things baby, I give you….
*drum roll please*
baby Riley photos!
Seriously though, Riley was such a sweet little baby. He really threw us for a loop when he first came out- I mean, the palomino Haflinger gene is strong, and then of course Ivan being grey… We all wondered if he was going to be some kind of dun or something. Those with extensive knowledge of color heredity- feel free to chime in!
Because artistic framing around a muddy photo makes it better
Oh so very bum high here
Regarding those parents, for you color theorists out there, this is mum:
And this is dad:
Happy Monday!
Red on the Right 
Cute! I love baby pics, thanks for sharing!
I kind of have a crush on Ivan. What a looker!
Eeee congrats on becoming an auntie today!!!
Oooooh color theory! ❤
I'm not an expert by any means, but I dabble. Chestnuts are actually a recessive gene (must breed two chestnuts together to be guaranteed a chestnut, otherwise you are playing roulette that you'll get two recessive red genes passed on). So, I'm assuming Ivan was a bay or a black horse before he grayed out. And obviously his gray was heterozygous (meaning, he wouldn't always pass on the gray gene). So, it's just as likely to get a gray as a bay out of that pairing, and less likely to get a chestnut.
Fun color predictor site
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. That is all.
Sooo cute! I don’t know a lot about palomino genes, but I do know they it’s pretty common for gray horses to throw bay babies.
Regarding the color (here goes the nerd) – gray is a modifier gene. The horse’s “real” color is whatever it’s base color is (bay or chestnut or black or whatever) and if the horse inherits the gray gene, it will de-pigment over time and turn gray. The gray gene is dominant, so if the horse has the gene, it WILL gray out. That said, a horse that is heterozygous gray (meaning only one copy of the gray gene) will theoretically only pass on the gene half of the time. So not all horses with a gray parent will turn gray, but if a horse has a gray gene, it will always be expressed.
As for Haflingers, they’re actually flaxen chestnut, not palomino. So here’s what probably happened with Riley…
The dam passed on a chestnut gene (since chestnut is recessive, that’s all she had to offer was a chestnut gene) and the sire passed on a bay gene (bay is dominant, so since Riley is bay, he had to have gotten that bay gene from dad). Dad did not pass on the gray gene, or Riley would have grayed.
Pretty much what Amanda said! And Ivan’s sire was bay correct? So Ivan’s either got two bay genes (from mom and dad) or just the 1 from Mountain Pearl (his sire correct?) and mom could of been whatever under the grey gene but either way the bay gene is what you got! and i love that Riley is a bright bay!
Baby Riles is really damn cute.
So much cute, ermagerd.