Strawberry roan, or chestnut roan, is a horse coat color consisting of a mixture of reddish-brown and white hairs in varying proportions, stable over the long term, with the head and lower limbs remaining darker than the rest of the body. Because of the wide variety of possible shades and seasonal variations, the horse coat has given rise to an abundance of poetic terminology, often inspired by the lexical field of botany, in both English and French.
Before the possibility of genetic recognition, the strawberry roan coat was described solely on the basis of the phenotype of the horses concerned. Its genetic function was hypothesized as early as the 1910s, with the identification of a Roan factor. Genetically, this coat color results from epistasis, the action of at least one copy of an allele of the Roan gene (Rn) on a chestnut base coat. The mutation responsible for all Roan coats, identified in 1999, is located on the KIT gene.
This coat color is mentioned in two horses imported to the American continent by Hernán Cortés, as well as in various works and traditional songs. It can occur in all breeds of horse likely to express Roan on a chestnut base coat, such as Dartmoor, Breton, Belgian, Quarter Horse and Criollo.
The term "red roan" can refer to strawberry roan, [1] [2] but it is more often used to describe bay roan, leading to possible confusion. "Chestnut roan" can be used instead for less ambiguity. [1] [3]
Depending on the shade, a strawberry roan horse may be called lilac roan or honey roan. [4]
The National Center of Textual and Lexical Resources (CNRTL by its acronym in French) defines aubère (strawberry roan) as "[referring to a horse]: Whose coat is made up of a mixture of white and chestnut hairs". [5] The term is found in François-Antoine Pomey's Indiculus Universalis, in Georges Guillet de Saint-George's 1678 work, [6] [7] in Gilles Ménage's 1694 Dictionnaire Etymologique, [8] [9] and in most general dictionaries of the 19th and 20th centuries. [5] Félix Lecoq and Edmond Lavalard note the existence of the incorrect spelling aubert in the second half of the 19th century. [10] [11]
In his book Les Couleurs de nos souvenirs, medieval historian Michel Pastoureau highlights the poetic aspect applied to the, historical description of horse coat colors, citing this lexical field as an example. [12] There's also the adjective auberisé (English: flecked), to designate a variegated coat with a partially auberic hue. [12] [13] Historically, a large number of French nouns refer to the color of a horse coat resulting from a mixture of chestnut and white, depending on the different shades possible: [14] [15]
"The chestnut roan has been called mille-fleurs (hypericum flower), aubère (strawberry roan), pêchard, fleur de pêcher (peach blossom), etc. The various shades of chestnut, combined with white in various proportions, give rise to a thousand varieties which it is impossible to designate by precise names, but whose particular accidents are easy to describe in the reports". – Baron de Curnieu [15]
This color of the horse coat is compared, for example, to that of the Hypericum flower. [16] The name péchard or mille-fleurs (hypericum flower) comes from the pinkish hue created by the mixture of red and white hairs. [10] [17]
The word aubère is now considered an old name, [1] although it was retained as an equivalent when the 1999 French classification was published. [18] The official term used by the Institut français du cheval et de l'équitation (IFCE by its acronym in French) is alezan granité. [19] [20] To allow genetic distinction, this coat is sometimes (rarely) referred to in English as alezan roan, firstly because the word aubère can be used to designate phenotypes of equine coats that correspond to several different genotypes, and secondly because in French, the word "rouan" historically and by default designates the only variant of the bay roan. [21]
A light strawberry roan is said to be a hypericum flower when its white hairs are separated on a reddish-red background, distinct and "resembling a thousand and one isolated flowers". [22] [17] [23] For Merche, it's the dark strawberry roan that's generally called peach blossom, [22] while for Lavalard, it's the horse with a pinkish tint that gets this name. [17] According to Pastoureau, the light-haired strawberry roan is called peach blossom and the dark-haired strawberry roan: lilac flower. [12] In the 19th century, horse dealers indiscriminately gave the name pêchard to bay-based strawberry roan and roan horses. [22]
In Walloon, the strawberry roan coat is called blanc baïet, [24] in German it is called fuschsschimmel [12] or rotschimmel, [25] and in Hungarian it is called fakó. [26] In Wolof, it is called Jeñ, Jeñ bu weex when white dominates, and Jeñ bu xonq when red dominates. [27]
In 1910, Alfred Sturtevant published a coat genetics study on a population of American carriage horses in The Biological Bulletin, in which he identified a genetic factor for roan, which he named "R"; he noted that the coat corresponding to roan chestnut was present in less than 10% of carriage horses on the streets of New York City, but that it was never identified separately. [28] Two years later, in his article A critical examination of recent studies on color inheritance in horses, he states that the roan factor causes a mixture of white hairs with another basic color of the horse, and seems dominant in its transmission. [29] In 1913, in his article The Inheritance of Coat Color in Horses, Edward N. Wentworth noted the existence of chestnut and black horses expressing the roan factor, and considered it probable that there also exists a chestnut roan. [30]
Building on the work of the aforementioned authors, Sewall Wright noted in 1917 that a horse born chestnut and becoming white as it aged would be attached to the gray family, while a horse born chestnut roan would be attached to the roan. [31]
In 1979, on the basis of birth statistics for horses expressing a roan phenotype, Harold F. Hintz and Lloyd Dale Van Vleck postulated that the gene responsible was lethal in utero in its homozygous form. [32] Dr. Dan P. Sponenberg demonstrated the epistasis of the Roan gene with the chestnut in 1984, after crossing a Belgian bay roan stallion with several chestnut mares, resulting in some thirty bay roan foals and a single chestnut roan. [25] [33] In 1999, Stefan Marklund and colleagues located the mutation responsible for all roan coats on exon 19 of the KIT gene, [34] but the causal mutation has yet to be identified. [2] [25]
The strawberry roan coat is always described as a stable mixture of brown/red/orange and white hairs, in varying proportions. [1] [35] [36] [22] [37] Some horses are virtually white, while others retain a very large number of colored hairs. [38]
The manes can also be a mixture of these two colors, or just one of them. [17] The head and extremities of the limbs are always darker than the rest of the body. [39]
The color of the coat can vary from light to dark, [22] depending on the number of white hairs and the shade of the chestnut, which can greatly vary the intensity and reflection of the coat. [10] [17] [40] It is customary to speak of a "light strawberry roan" when white hairs are the most numerous, and of a "dark strawberry roan" when, on the contrary, red hairs are in the majority. [22] [17] [40] The horse is called an "ordinary strawberry roan" when the mixture between the two coat colors is roughly equal. [22] [17] [40]
Occasionally, strawberry roan horses also show corn marks, i.e. small areas where the coat remains dark, generally due to regrowth after an injury. [41]
There is a seasonal variation in color in all horses expressing the Roan gene, but no long-term evolution as occurs with the Gray gene. [42] Seasonal variation means that the horse is generally lighter in summer than in winter, to the point where the white may no longer be visible in the winter coat. [43]
In foals, the presence of roaning can be verified by the color of the base of the coat, which should be white. [44] Foals are generally born dark-colored, and only take on their definitive color around the age of two. [43]
The strawberry roan coat is often confused with other colors, especially gray on a chestnut base, bay roan and varnish roan. [45]
Distinguishing between strawberry roan and bay roan (both due to the RN allele) can be tricky. [46] Bay roan (formerly roan), consists of white hairs on a bay base. The total absence of black hairs in the strawberry roan coat therefore makes it possible to differentiate these two coats. [22] [46]
Another very frequent confusion occurs between horses carrying the Roan mutation and those carrying the Gray mutation. [18] [47] [48] [49] During the graying process, horses with a chestnut base coat go through a phase in which they display a mixture of chestnut and white coats. [48] The distinction is made on the basis of the color of the head (which remains dark in the case of the Roan gene, whereas it contains many white hairs in the case of the Gray gene) and the evolution of the coat color over the long term, as the color of gray evolves over the years over the very long term, but not according to the seasons. [18] [47] If you wait a year, you can see if the number of white hairs tends to increase. [18]
Finally, it's not uncommon to confuse strawberry roan and varnish roan coats on a chestnut base. [1] Differentiation is based on the presence of an inverted V on the varnish roan horse head, and the characteristics of the leopard complex, such as the abundance of manes (not abundant on a varnish roan), the striated hooves, the appearance of the eye (circled in white on a varnish roan coat), and above all the evolutionary aspect, with the varnish roan horse having more and more white hair as it ages. [1]
Strawberry roan coats are found in a great many breeds of horse, [18] [25] but the founding individuals and frequency of the coat are not precisely known. [25]
Two strawberry roan horses are mentioned among the cavalry imported by the conquistador Hernán Cortés to the American Continent; one belonged to a certain Moron, from Vaimo, and the other to a certain Vaena, from La Trinidad. [50] [51] The Roan mutation, and hence the strawberry roan coat, is found in American Horse breeds such as the Quarter Horse, Criollo, Paso Fino, Peruvian Paso, Mustang, Nokota and American Miniature Horse. [1] [25] [52]
The strawberry roan coat is also found in various draft horse breeds, [25] including the Belgian Trait, but at a lower frequency than the bay roan. [33] Brooklyn Supreme, a Belgian draft that probably holds the record for the world's heaviest horse, wears this coat. [53] Ardennais can also express the various variants of roan. [1] Among European ponies, this coat is found in the Welsh, Dartmoor and New Forest breeds. [1]
Strawberry roan coat is almost non-existent in sport horse breeds, and is impossible in Arabians, where the Roan mutation does not exist. [1]
Genetically, the strawberry roan is a chestnut-based coat that has been modified by the Roan mutation, [47] thanks to an epistasis relationship. [25] All forms of Roan coat, including strawberry roan, are caused by this dominant allele (autosomal dominant transmission), the Roan allele. [25] [43] A single copy of this allele is all that's needed to express the strawberry roan coat. [25] [43] The Roan allele is denoted by the symbol RN (rn if absent). [2]
The KIT gene, which plays a role in pigmentation cells, controls the expression of roan (RN) coats. [25] The tan coat can be tested genetically. [25]
Strawberry roan coat can be combined with gray; as with all gray horses, the coat will lighten to white in appearance. [43]
Due to its location on the KIT gene, homozygous roan theoretically cannot co-exist with a number of pinto coats, such as tobiano, sabino [43] and dominant white.
Little is known about the pleiotropic effects of RN. [25] It has been suspected that the homozygous form of RN (RN/RN) is lethal, [54] [32] but this remains controversial since RN homozygous horses exist and are viable. [25] [43] The source of this error could lie in the existence of horses that are genetically roan, but whose phenotype is hardly visible. [20] It is also possible that several causal mutations will be identified in the future. [54]
Various references to strawberry roan horses can be found in the arts, heroic tales and traditional songs.
According to sinologist Françoise Aubin's translation, the Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione (known as Lang Shining, 1688–1766) painted a "white strawberry roan horse adapted for mountain walking" (in Manchu, Kulkuri suru and in Mongolian, Riditu čayan). [55] Fulanic epic tales from Mali mention a long-listed strawberry roan horse belonging to a Fulani from Djelgôdji (1705–1827). [56]
The title of the traditional Mongolian song zaalxan sarga (TGS 126 A6) translates as "The little strawberry roan horse". [57] Chor bard Vladimir Tannagašev (1932-2007) noted among his recorded epics Kyryk kulaš synnyg kara sar'attyg Kan-Mergen, or "Khan-Mergen (tr) to the dark strawberry roan horse of forty fathoms". [58]
In the US, the most popular western ballad about bucking horses (wild horses) in the 1930s is The Strawberry Roan. [59] It was composed by Curley Fletcher (1892–1954), originally under the title The Outlaw Broncho, in 1915. [59]
There are various beliefs associated with the color of a horse's coat.
For Georges Guillet de Saint-George (1624–1705), in Les Arts de l'homme d'épée (1678), "their lack of sensitivity to the mouth and flanks is the reason why they are not held in high esteem, besides the fact that they are prone to losing their sight". [6] [7] Baron Charles-Louis-Adélaïde-Henri Mathevon de Curnieu (1811–1871), professor of equestrian science at the Haras national du Pin, [60] considers the strawberry roan to be the least good of the horses he calls "roans", including the grullo, the chestnut, the strawberry roan, the buckskin, the bay and the sooty. [22]
In Yakut shamanism, according to ethnologist Wenceslas Sieroszewski, it is customary to sacrifice horses with certain coat colors to specific spirits; the Dohsoun-douïah spirit is appeased by the sacrifice of a golden-strawberry roan mare with a white head; spirits in the south of the sky that harm men are appeased by the sacrifice of light-strawberry roan horses with half-white muzzles, pink nostrils and white eyes. [61]
Roan is a coat color found in many animals, including horses, cattle, antelope, cat and dogs. It is defined generally as an even mixture of white and pigmented hairs that do not "gray out" or fade as the animal ages. There are a variety of genetic conditions which produce the colors described as "roan" in various species.
Bay is a hair coat color of horses, characterized by a reddish-brown or brown body color with a black point coloration on the mane, tail, ear edges, and lower legs. Bay is one of the most common coat colors in many horse breeds.
Point coloration is animal coat coloration with a pale body and relatively darker extremities, i.e. the face, ears, feet, tail, and scrotum. It is most recognized as the coloration of Siamese and related breeds of cat, but can be found in dogs, rabbits, rats, sheep, guinea pigs and horses as well.
A gray horse has a coat color characterized by progressive depigmentation of the colored hairs of the coat. Most gray horses have black skin and dark eyes; unlike some equine dilution genes and some other genes that lead to depigmentation, gray does not affect skin or eye color. Gray horses may be born any base color, depending on other color genes present. White hairs begin to appear at or shortly after birth and become progressively more prevalent as the horse ages as white hairs become intermingled with hairs of other colors. Graying can occur at different rates—very quickly on one horse and very slowly on another. As adults, most gray horses eventually become completely white, though some retain intermixed light and dark hairs.
The cream gene is responsible for a number of horse coat colors. Horses that have the cream gene in addition to a base coat color that is chestnut will become palomino if they are heterozygous, having one copy of the cream gene, or cremello, if they are homozygous. Similarly, horses with a bay base coat and the cream gene will be buckskin or perlino. A black base coat with the cream gene becomes the not-always-recognized smoky black or a smoky cream. Cream horses, even those with blue eyes, are not white horses. Dilution coloring is also not related to any of the white spotting patterns.
The dun gene is a dilution gene that affects both red and black pigments in the coat color of a horse. The dun gene lightens most of the body while leaving the mane, tail, legs, and primitive markings the shade of the undiluted base coat color. A dun horse always has a dark dorsal stripe down the middle of its back, usually has a darker face and legs, and may have transverse striping across the shoulders or horizontal striping on the back of the forelegs. Body color depends on the underlying coat color genetics. A classic "bay dun" is a gray-gold or tan, characterized by a body color ranging from sandy yellow to reddish brown. Duns with a chestnut base may appear a light tan shade, and those with black base coloration are a smoky gray. Manes, tails, primitive markings, and other dark areas are usually the shade of the undiluted base coat color. The dun gene may interact with all other coat color alleles.
Chestnut is a hair coat color of horses consisting of a reddish-to-brown coat with a mane and tail the same or lighter in color than the coat. Chestnut is characterized by the absolute absence of true black hairs. It is one of the most common horse coat colors, seen in almost every breed of horse.
Horses exhibit a diverse array of coat colors and distinctive markings. A specialized vocabulary has evolved to describe them.
A white horse is born predominantly white and stays white throughout its life. A white horse has mostly pink skin under its hair coat, and may have brown, blue, or hazel eyes. "True white" horses, especially those that carry one of the dominant white (W) genes, are rare. Most horses that are commonly referred to as "white" are actually "gray" horses whose hair coats are completely white. Gray horses may be born of any color and their hairs gradually turn white as time goes by and take on a white appearance. Nearly all gray horses have dark skin, except under any white markings present at birth. Skin color is the most common method for an observer to distinguish between mature white and gray horses.
Black is a hair coat color of horses in which the entire hair coat is black. It is not uncommon to mistake dark chestnuts or bays for black.
Sabino describes a distinct pattern of white spotting in horses. In general, Sabino patterning is visually recognized by roaning or irregular edges of white markings, belly spots, white extending past the eyes or onto the chin, white above the knees or hocks, and "splash" or "lacy" marks anywhere on the body. Some sabinos have patches of roan patterning on part of the body, especially the barrel and flanks. Some sabinos may have a dark leg or two, but many have four white legs. Sabino patterns may range from slightly bold face or leg white markings—as little as white on the chin or lower lip—to horses that are fully white.
Rabicano, sometimes called white ticking, is a horse coat color characterized by limited roaning in a specific pattern: its most minimal form is expressed by white hairs at the top of a horse's tail, often is expressed by additional interspersed white hairs seen first at the flank, then other parts of the body radiating out from the flank, where the white hairs will be most pronounced. Rabicano is distinct from true roan, which causes evenly interspersed white hairs throughout the body, except for solid-colored head and legs.
The Trait Breton is a French breed of draught horse. It originated in Brittany, in north-west France, from cross-breeding of local horses with various other breeds. It is strong and muscular, and often has a chestnut coat.
The Poitevin or Poitou is a French breed of draft horse. It is named for its area of origin, the former province of Poitou in west-central France, now a part of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It was formed in the seventeenth century when horses of Flemish or Dutch origin, brought to the area by engineers working to drain the Marais Poitevin, interbred with local horses. Although it has the size and conformation of a draft horse, the Poitevin has never been bred for draft abilities, and has been little used for draft work. Its principal traditional use was the production of mules. Poitevin mares were put to jacks of the large Baudet du Poitou breed of donkey; the resulting Poitevin mules were in demand for agricultural and other work in many parts of the world, including Russia and the United States. In the early twentieth century there were some 50,000 brood mares producing between 18,000 and 20,000 mules per year.
The leopard complex is a group of genetically related coat patterns in horses. These patterns range from progressive increases in interspersed white hair similar to graying or roan to distinctive, Dalmatian-like leopard spots on a white coat. Secondary characteristics associated with the leopard complex include a white sclera around the eye, striped hooves and mottled skin. The leopard complex gene is also linked to abnormalities in the eyes and vision. These patterns are most closely identified with the Appaloosa and Knabstrupper breeds, though its presence in breeds from Asia to western Europe has indicated that it is due to a very ancient mutation.
Seal brown is a hair coat color of horses characterized by a near-black body color; with black points, the mane, tail and legs; but also reddish or tan areas around the eyes, muzzle, behind the elbow and in front of the stifle. The term is not to be confused with "brown", which is used by some breed registries to refer to either a seal brown horse or to a dark bay without the additional characteristics of seal brown.
Dominant white (W) is a group of genetically related coat color alleles on the KIT gene of the horse, best known for producing an all-white coat, but also able to produce various forms of white spotting, as well as bold white markings. Prior to the discovery of the W allelic series, many of these patterns were described by the term sabino, which is still used by some breed registries.
Roan is a horse coat color pattern characterized by an even mixture of colored and white hairs on the body, while the head and "points"—lower legs, mane, and tail—are mostly solid-colored. Horses with roan coats have white hairs evenly intermingled throughout any other color. The head, legs, mane, and tail have fewer scattered white hairs or none at all. The roan pattern is dominantly inherited, and is found in many horse breeds. While the specific mutation responsible for roan has not been exactly identified, a DNA test can determine zygosity for roan in several breeds. True roan is always present at birth, though it may be hard to see until after the foal coat sheds out. The coat may lighten or darken from winter to summer, but unlike the gray coat color, which also begins with intermixed white and colored hairs, roans do not become progressively lighter in color as they age. The silvering effect of mixed white and colored hairs can create coats that look bluish or pinkish.
Corlay (1872-1897) was a stallion close to the Thoroughbred, head of the Corlay horse breed, considered in his day to be one of Brittany's most famous and influential stallions. The history of this sturdy roan horse is steeped in legend. It is generally accepted that he was the son of Flying Cloud, a Norkfolk Trotter stallion imported from England to Brittany in 1864, and a local three-quarter Thoroughbred mare, Thérésine.
The Carrossier noir du Cotentin is a large, black, pulling horse breed unique to Cotentin. It was regularly described and quoted during the Ancien Régime and may have descended from Danish horses. As its name suggests, this horse was mainly used to pull carriages, and its uniform color made it possible to form homogeneous groups.