Black non-dun1

Appearance

Foals		Regular black foal color with primitive markings. Leg primitives may be harder to see.

Foals

Regular black foal color with primitive

markings. Leg primitives may be harder

to see.

Non-dun1 on a black base causes primitive markings. Nd1 may make horses more susceptible to sun-fading. They may also have lighter inner ears.		Adults

Non-dun1 on a black base causes

primitive markings. Nd1 may make

horses more susceptible to sun-fading.

They may also have lighter inner ears.

Adults

Mimics

Primitive markings can be harder to see on a black base.

Beige or greyish inner ears can be a clearer sign of nd1.

The dun dorsal stripe goes through the tail, while nd1 dorsal stripes don’t.
Dun is more likely to cause striping at the back of the ears than nd1.
Foals with dun tend to have a darker lower face mask, while nd1 foals have a darker forehead.

Genetics

Black non-dun1 is the result of a black base with one or two copies of nd1. Non-dun1 (nd1) is an allele of the TBX3 gene.

Black nd1:
Black (E/_ a/a) + nd1/nd1
Black (E/_ a/a) + nd1/nd2

Dun (D), located on the same gene, is dominant over nd1, so horses could carry nd1 without it being noticeable but still pass it on.

Read more:
Black | Chestnut nd1 | Bay nd1

Back to Non-dun1

Articles

Imsland, F., McGowan, K., Rubin, C. J., Henegar, C., Sundstrom, E., Berglund, J., Schwochow, D., Gustafson, U., Imsland, P., Lindblad-Toh, K., Lindgren, G., Mikko, S., Millon, L., Wade, C., Schubert, M., Orlando, L., Penedo, M. C., Barsh, G. S., & Andersson, L.; Regulatory mutations in TBX3 disrupt asymmetric hair pigmentation that underlies Dun camouflage color in horses; Nature Genetics (2015); Doi: 10.1038/ng.3475