Grey Horses

Did you know that all grey Thoroughbred horses
can be genetically traced back to one individual?

From the 1980's, Sara and her grey
Thoroughbred gelding, Chaucer's Knight.

I recently ran across a interesting article in the BBC News about grey Thoroughbreds. As someone who once used to own a lovely grey herself, I thought I’d share the highlights of the article with you. I hope you find it as fascinating as I did!

The Thoroughbred breed as we know it today has its origins in the early 1700s, when a small number of Arabian stallions were brought into Britain and mated with a group of native mares.

According to the BBC News, it was Alcock’s Arabian, one of these foundation Arabian sires, who single-handedly introduced the grey color into the modern Thoroughbreds.

Scientists at the Animal Health Trust in Suffolk , U.K. have used this bit of genetic trivia to help map the equine genome. Using genetic material from a modern grey Thoroughbred stallion named Paris Match, and his many offspring, the scientists have found the location of the gene that gives all grey horses their distinctive coat color.

Besides helping us understand the rather unusual color (only about 3% of Thoroughbreds are grey) this new genetic information may help us explain why a type of skin tumor, or melanoma, is common in grey horses.

Grey horses in general are more prone to melanomas than other horses. Thoroughbreds and horses with Thoroughbred blood seem to be especially susceptible. After the age of 10 nearly all grey horses develop the tumors, possibly because of a biochemical link between the development of their coat color and the disease.

Finding out if there is a biochemical link between the development of the grey coat color and development of melanomas may be a step toward learning how to stop the cancer.

"If we can actually understand the process maybe in the future it would be possible to develop drugs which would block melanoma," says Dr Matthew Binns, head of genetics on the project.

Such cancer-blocking drugs would be a huge thing for the horse world. It seems that the unsightly tumors have been a centuries-old problem for both grey horses and their owners.

Thumbs up to Dr. Binns and his colleagues for their research.

Grey owners everywhere salute you!