Gene
Silver (Z) is a dominant allele of PMEL on chromosome 6 that dilutes only black pigment: a black mane and tail turn flaxen or silver gray and a black body turns chocolate. It has no visible effect on a chestnut, which can carry it hidden. The same variant causes eye changes called multiple congenital ocular anomalies (MCOA).
One copy is enough to show Silver; one and two copies look the same.
The coat color is dominant; the eye condition is dose dependent (milder with one copy, more severe with two).
Multiple congenital ocular anomalies have been reported with one or two silver copies, including in chestnut horses. One-copy horses generally have milder findings; two-copy horses tend to have more severe abnormalities that can affect vision.
The silver test and the MCOA test are the same assay.
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Guides and articles for Silver horse owners.
A horse can cost anything from a $125 federal adoption fee for an untrained wild horse to more than $300,000 for an elite yearling, but the middle half of horses sold at recent catalog auctions brought between $4,250 and $16,500. In the Creatures horse auction price guide, which covers 2,733 catalogued sales through July 2026, […]
A horse should eat mostly forage, roughly 1.5 to 2.5 percent of its body weight in dry matter every day, with hay or pasture making up at least half the ration and always the base of it. Feed by weight, not by the scoop or coffee can, offer forage before any grain, keep clean water […]
Horses are pregnant for about 340 days, a little over 11 months, with a normal range of 320 to 370 days. See our foaling date chart, plus ponies and minis.
A coat color prediction is only as informative as the evidence entered into it. A photograph, a laboratory result and a remembered description are different inputs. Keeping the report behind each result makes it easier to explore possibilities without later forgetting which values were tested and which were assumptions. Creatures offers a coat color calculator […]
Most domestic horses live 25 to 30 years, according to the Merck Veterinary Manual, and plenty now reach their 30s with good care. A well-kept miniature horse can live past 40. Where a particular horse lands in that range has less to do with luck than most owners assume, and more to do with a […]
An animal listing alert is most useful when its filters describe a real buying decision. On Creatures, a saved search looks for new listings that match your chosen filters; a watchlist keeps individual listings you want to revisit. Start with the marketplace, set the filters that matter, and inspect the results before saving the search. […]
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