Horse Color Explained: A Breeder's Perspective

By Jeanette Gower and Jeanette Gower

Book Overview

A simple yet thorough guide to horse colour and equine colour inheritance, featuring 185 colour photographs.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570761620
• ISBN13: 9781570761621
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: Trafalgar Square Books
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.5" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Helps me a lot...

As breeder with only a few mares, in a variety of colors, using outside stallions, this book is great to help me figure out what I might or might not get crossing certain colors. I knew my old chestnut mare always gave me the color she was bred to- the baby picture of the palomino would have helped me last year know he would turn gold as he grew, which he did. I find it very helpful ,and can use my discretion on "absolutes" of expected colors. Includes colors I never heard of, nor am likely to see in my quarter horses. Not too interested in breeding paints anyway...

Review of Horse Color Explained by Jeanette Gower

I really enjoyed the book and felt I got a lot of information out of it. It was explained in a way I could easily understand and explanations were followed up with a lot of pictures. This is a very important book for horse breeders interested in color.

Best I have ever read!

As a breeder of quarter horses this book has become a fundamental resource for our breeding program to evaluate potential crosses to ensure that certain color issues (i.e., too much white, rn to rn issues, etc) do not occur. Well written and illustrated, it is by far the most comprehensive and useable book on this subject I have ever come across. Highly recommended for breeders in particular.

One of the best books I've found on Horse Color!

Horse Color Explained is well organized and rich with charts, diagrams, drawings and many color photographs. Jeanette Gower does an excellent job of explaining the subtleties and variances of horse color, even if the terms and descriptions are new to you, you will find this book fascinating and easy to read!This is an exceptional book; well written, well presented and a great value for the price. This is a must have book for every horse lover's reference library.

The title says it all - a great horseman's reference book

The thing that grabs your attention when you first see this book is the photos on the cover. You may think to yourself: "Wow, is that really a brindled horse? - weird." Then you notice the photo of the Paint, and the other horse's picture above the brindled one. Hint: it isn't a grullo. At least the fourth horse on the cover is simple, it's black, but then look closer, it isn't, it's brown. These are just a few of the surprises that you'll find in this most fascinating book about horse coat color and the genetics that determines it. For most breeders defining color is important, and this comprehensive, very easy to read book is a must. The everyday horseman will enjoy this book for it's wonderful color photos, including some surprising color patterns, as well as the easy to read explanations. The first part of the book is the most important to read thoroughly. The author does an excellent job charting and explaining genetics, making it uncomplicated and easily understood. It is so well done that anyone involved in breeding horses will be able to make better decisions based on the probabilities of certain crosses and even how to avoid undesirable traits such as CID, HYPP, and lethal white syndrome. The whole book is filled with numerous charts, tables, diagrams and such excellent pictures that it's very easy for the reader to learn the subtleties of horse coat color and patterns. The appendices are very thorough, though I did find one typo in table A that was mildly confusing. Table C corrects the problem.The author is Australian, an authority on genetics, as well as knowing the various requirements for many breed and color registries. Although there seems to be an emphasis on the Australian breeds, which shouldn't surprise, there are many photos and descriptions of the genetic make-up of European and American breeds, too. As a Quarter Horse breeder, myself, I found all the information extremely useful for my program, as should all horseloving people. I definitely recommend this book. By the way, the true genetic color of the "grullo" on the cover is explained on page 112.