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An international team led by researchers at Uppsala University has now identified the mutation causing this spectacular trait and show that white horses carry an identical mutation that can be traced back to a common ancestor that lived thousands of years ago.White Horse Genetics Unraveled
It is a fascinating thought that once upon a time a horse was born that turned grey and subsequently white and the people that observed it were so fascinated by its spectacular appearance that they used the horse for breeding so that the mutation could be transmitted from generation to generation," says Leif Andersson who led the study. Today about one horse in ten carries the mutation for Greying with age.
So the genetics of the white, or what horse people call grey, horse have been unraveled. Isn't it fascinating that where once (apparently) the white horse was a such a rarity and so prized that it has been bred to the point where one in ten horses has the gene. Amazing. Even more so when the research suggests that all grey horses have ONE common ancestor. Incredible really.
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