Bay mushroom

Appearance

Foals		Foals have "muted" bay color.

Bay mushrooms lack the reddish hue of a typical bay coat, often with darker countershading.		Adults

Bay mushrooms lack the reddish hue

of a typical bay coat, often with darker

countershading.

Adults

Mimics

Mushroom has a less obvious effect on bay compared to chestnut, so it can be harder to see.

Genetics

Bay mushroom is the result of a bay base diluted by two copies of mushroom. The mushroom (mu) dilution is an allele of the MFSD12 gene.

Bay mushroom:
Bay (E/_ A/_) + mu/mu

Horses with only one copy of mushroom are called mushroom carriers. They might not show a visible difference, but they can pass the allele on to their foals!

Read more:
Bay | Chestnut mushroom |

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Articles

Tanaka, J., Leeb, T., Rushton, J., Famula, T.R., Mack, M., Jagannathan, V., Flury, C., Bachmann, I., Eberth, J., McDonnell, S.M., Penedo, M.C.T., Bellone, R.R.; Frameshift Variant in MFSD12 Explains the Mushroom Coat Color Dilution in Shetland Ponies; Genes (2019); Doi: 10.3390/genes10100826