So I’m a pretty avid Spirit and all around equine fan, and a couple things were bothering me so I decided to come here and put everything in order. I’m also a littleee tired of all these buckskin baby fanarts (as beautiful as they are, I want to show everyone all the possibilities!). I think they will end up surprising a lot of people. I guess I’ll go by character backwards through their lineage...
Spirit - The famously buckskin horse.. is not buckskin. He’s a dunskin Kiger Mustang
The stripe down his back (dorsal stripe) is considered a primitive marking that, among other things, cause the dorsal stripe to be especially pronounced. On top of a light bay, even bay dun could be *very* easily be confused for buckskin. They’re so close, even some animators and character design developers could get the two confused. The real horse Spirit was modeled after is actually a bay dun, but genetically Spirit has to be dunskin because of Spirit Jr. in riding free.
Esperanza - The golden palomino beauty! Close... she’s actually the golden dunalino beauty. Dun has to be passed down from at least one parent, and it‘s impossible it came from Strider. She genetically has to be a minimal expression dunalino (dun + palomino). On palominos, dun doesn’t always express itself as strongly as it typically does on bays. They also sometimes age into their markings slower than darker horses, so if she was under 6 in the movie it’s very likely she hasn’t grown into it yet.
Strider - The reason I say he can’t be the passer of the dun gene is because dun on black makes a grulla, which is typically a dark grey/brown with typical dun expressions. He’s plain black with no extensions.
———
Rain - She’s a flaxen sorrel tobiano/frame. Flaxen is a wild type gene that only expresses itself on chestnut/sorrel horses. It causes the mane and tail to be much lighter than average.
Sierra - Sorrel tobiano. Basically Rain but without the flaxen and frame genes, meaning she has less white markings and and “typical” red mane/tail.
Storm - Black tobiano/frame (flaxen carrier). Since Sierra can’t be the flaxen passer since it would have to be expressed, it has to be a hidden gene from Storm. It can’t express itself on black horses which is why he looks plain black.
BONUS! Bonita, Raphael, and Spirit Jr. - Bonita is a “pure white” mare... who had to be born either max white or sorrel tobiano. “White” isn’t actually a color in horses, foals born white without being affecting by the tobiano gene have Lethal White Overo syndrome and do not survive. She’s either a tobiano whose white markings cover her entire body but genetically she’s sorrel, or she was born visibly sorrel and turned white over time due to the grey gene. Considering her mane, tail and muzzle have been described as darker grey, the grey gene is more likely. Raphael is the true palomino that most people think Esperanza is! Similarly, Spirit Jr. is the actual buckskin
Notice the lack of a defined dorsal stripe? That means Spirit passed down his buckskin but not his dun (so he was a heterozygous Dun carrier)
———
Now, for the moment most people probably didn’t read far enough for..... *drum roll* BABY POSSIBILITIES!! Rain and Spirit can genetically make any one of these colors:
Bay, Bay Dun, Dunskin, Buckskin, Red Dun, Dunalino, Sorrel, Palomino, Grullo, Smoky Grullo, Black
With each of those colors, there’s also the chance of passing on Rain’s markings. This introduces four options for each color (Tobiano, Tovero, Frame Overo, None) that determine how the white markings are expressed on the foals.
Here’s the probability for each possibility:
4.10% - Bay Dun Tobiano
4.10% - Dunskin Tobiano
4.10% - Bay Tovero
4.10% - Buckskin Tovero
4.10% - Bay Dun Tovero
4.10% - Dunskin Tovero
4.10% - Bay
4.10% - Buckskin
4.10% - Bay Dun
4.10% - Dunskin
4.10% - Bay Frame Overo
4.10% - Buckskin Frame Overo
4.10% - Bay Dun Frame Overo
4.10% - Dunskin Frame Overo
4.10% - Bay Tobiano
4.10% - Buckskin Tobiano
1.56% - Red Dun Tobiano
1.56% - Dunalino Tobiano
1.56% - Red (Chestnut/Sorrel) Tovero
1.56% - Palomino Tovero
1.56% - Red Dun Tovero
1.56% - Dunalino Tovero
1.56% - Red (Chestnut/Sorrel)
1.56% - Palomino
1.56% - Red Dun
1.56% - Dunalino
1.56% - Red (Chestnut/Sorrel) Frame Overo
1.56% - Palomino Frame Overo
1.56% - Red Dun Frame Overo
1.56% - Dunalino Frame Overo
1.56% - Red (Chestnut/Sorrel) Tobiano
1.56% - Palomino Tobiano
0.59% - Grullo Tobiano
0.59% - Smoky Grullo Tobiano
0.59% - Black Tovero
0.59% - Smoky Black Tovero
0.59% - Grullo Tovero
0.59% - Smoky Grullo Tovero
0.59% - Black
0.59% - Smoky Black
0.59% - Grullo
0.59% - Smoky Grullo
0.59% - Black Frame Overo
0.59% - Smoky Black Frame Overo
0.59% - Grullo Frame Overo
0.59% - Smoky Grullo Frame Overo
0.59% - Black Tobiano
0.59% - Smoky Black Tobiano
If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed/learned something cool! I’d love to see any fanart of babies with some of these fun colors maybe some people didn’t know were viable
