Rabicano
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Rabicano is a horse coat color that is a partial roaning pattern. Rabicano horses usually have white hairs intermingled with the base coat color in limited areas, not over the entire body. This roan-like effect is caused by a genetic modifier that creates a mealy, splotchy, or roaning pattern, usually limited to the belly, flanks, legs, tailhead, or any combination thereof.
Unlike a true roan, most of the horse's body will not have intermingled white and solid hairs over the entire body, nor are the legs or head significantly darker than the rest of the horse. Instead, the rabicano pattern can appear in a number of limited ways. The most minimal form is when a few white hairs occur on each side of a horse's tailhead. More common is a slightly more extensive expression of the gene resulting in the so-called "skunk-tail" along with roaning along the lower flank at the junction of the barrel and the stifle. In extensively expressed rabicanos, the roaning can extend forward along the barrel, appear as ticking or roaning inside the upper forelegs, and extend in extreme cases as far as the ears and jaws.
Rabicano is thought to be a dominant gene, according to the equine geneticist Sponenberg. See Equine coat color genetics.
[edit] References
- Bowling, Ann T. "Coat Color Genetics: Positive Horse Identification" from Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis. Web site accessed February 9, 2007
- "Rabicano,"Web site accessed February 9, 2007.
