Dun markings
There are quite a few markings* that dun horses have in common.
Some have one or two; some have all of the, below, and more. |
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Almost every horse that is even suspected of being a dun has a dorsal
stripe. This one is very strong; wide, and with the
horizontal, or *transverse*, prongs known
as "fishboning". "Dorsal" means along the back, between mane and
tail. The color and other characteristics vary according to the
horse's other color genes, etc. This is the (sadly, deceased) mare
Charm
of Karisma Kigers.
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Leg
markings are the next thing we look for. These are typical front legs with "barring". It can also appear as
blocky, ladder-rung-like "barring", zig-zagged
finer striping, or even smudges/ mottling. Same mare/farm as above.
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Shoulder barring and dorsal stripe (interrupted) on
Marjena Bass' late stallion Go Copper Glo. (top picture)
El Duc, owned by Springwater Station Kigers;
great
shoulder and neck markings. (second picture)
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Cobwebbing - concentric circles
of very fine dark lines, on the forehead.
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Ear
barring - Missouri Fox Trotter stallion, "It Must Be
Dun", owned by Elizabeth Kopplow of Lazy
K Bar Ranch. Notice that
halfway down the length of these ears they have a wide, dark
horizontal "bar" =>
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   Body Colors
: many folks are sure they "know what a dun looks like"; this page
hopefully will enlarge all of our horizons a bit further.
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 Mane & tail frosting: this is not
exclusively a dun trait. If you are interested in studying it, many non-dun
dilutions such as buckskins do have it, and the late mare with the dorsal and leg markings in
the top 2 pictures did not. Photo, left, is of an amber cream
(non-dun) QH filly. Her mane is brown under all that frosting.
The same is true of dark ear tipping and outlining.
We are still investigating dark- topped ears with a white tip... they
may be found on duns only, but we think we've seen them on other
colors a time or two; if so, they are not an exclusively dun trait.
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* We see no reason to call a stripe or a
mark(ing) "factor". The dun gene also *dilutes* the horse's coat color where there are no
markings. This means the color will be lighter than true bay, chestnut or
black (or whatever color the horse would be without the dun gene.) There
is a consensus among dun owners that dun colors tend to have a muted, rather
than bright, color intensity to them ... sandy rather than golden, for
example. However, this is not *always* the case.
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