We are excited to finally have a test up and running for the Colourful Gambler line of Australian dominant white horses. This specific mutation has been assigned the name W27. Just like W22 (see previous post), W27 can cause variable amounts of white ranging from completely white horses to horses that just have a lot of bling. We would expect horses that are W20/W27 to be completely white.
W27 horses that aren’t completely white often have stunning spotted patterns.
W27 is thought to have originated in an Australian Thoroughbred mare called Milady Fair, born in 1960.
Milady Fair had one white filly, Glacial. Glacial produced a white colt, Khaleben, who went on to become a stallion and sire three more white offspring. The most prolific of those was Colourful Gambler. In addition to the Thoroughbred foals he sired, he introduced W27 to show jumpers and the Paint breed.
Out test is based on research accepted for publication in Animal Genetics – we’ll update with a link when we have one.
Many thanks to researchers in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney for their work with us to identify this and other Australian dominant white mutations. We’ll put some details up for W25 and W26 soon, they are just proving a little more technically challenging than W27!
