Smoky black is a hair coat color of horses in which the coat is either black or a few shades lighter than true black. Smoky black is produced by the action of a heterozygous (single copy) cream gene on an underlying black coat color. Therefore, smoky black is a member of the cream family of coat color dilutions, and found in horse populations that have other cream gene-based colors such as palomino, buckskin, perlino and cremello. All smoky blacks must have at least one parent with the cream gene, and a smoky black can be verified through DNA testing. Smoky black has been mistaken for faded black, dark bay or brown, grullo or even liver chestnut.
A smoky black horse usually appears to be a black horse and the dilution gene dilution factor is not visible. However, the coat may be somewhat more prone to fade to a brown shade if weathered or sun-bleached. Conversely, just because a black horse may fade in the sun does not necessarily prove or disprove that it is a smoky black.
Two copies of the cream gene on a black base coat produce a smoky cream, a cream-colored horse which is visually difficult to distinguish from a perlino or cremello, but can be identified through DNA testing.
Read more about Smoky Black: Identification, Smoky Black Mimics, Genetic Identification
Famous quotes containing the words smoky and/or black:
“A lustreless protrusive eye
Stares from the protozoic slime
At a perspective of Canaletto.
The smoky candle end of time
Declines.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“the black wings
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—William Carlos Williams (18831963)