Black Horses Research Articles

VARIATION IN THE ASIP AND DUN GENES RESPONSIBLE FOR COAT COLOUR IN BOSNIAN MOUNTAIN HORSE

Within the Bosnian Mountain Horse Registry (BMH), some specific coat colours are permitted. Accurate determination of coat colours can be challenging as there are variations in coat colour shades and several dun dilution variants occur. The previously found single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within two coat colour loci, T-box 3 (TBX3) and Agouti Signalling Protein (ASIP), were genotyped in 313 BMH individuals. The obtained genotypes were then compared to the predicted phenotypes by using the observed coat colour types from the International Association of Bosnian Mountain Horse Breeders (IABMHB) database. It was found that the dark bay and black coat colours were the most representative coat colours both phenotypically and genotypically. The frequency of the dominant Dun (D) dilution allele is (0.09), and this frequency is higher than the previously predicted frequency recorded in the available BMH registers, as also demonstrated. Among the identified alleles, there was a discrepancy or inconsistency between the predicted coat colour based on genotypes and the observed coat colour in 73 horses (23%). The most frequent error concerned the misclassification of horses with genotypes aa and Aa at the ASIP gene, non-dun1/non-dun1 (nd1/nd1) and non-dun2/non-dun1 (nd1/nd2) at the TBX3 gene, which can be associated with the occurrence of slight dilution phenotypes in these individuals. In contrast to the Konik and Hucul breeds, no homozygosity of the D allele was found in the BMH. The D allele can be easily overlooked or not recognised in different phenotypic groups, such as dark bay and black horses. Therefore, the hypothesis that Dun dilution effects itself is not as strongly epistatic in the BMH as described in other horse breeds. This could be the result of an additional genetic modifier suppressing the phenotypic effect of the D allele. It also suggests that there has been a persistent selection pressure in favour of dark base colours, which may have contributed to the observed differences in BMH. Finally, a significant proportion (35%) of BMH individuals with genetically black coat colour were officially classified as dark bay. We hypothesise that the difficulty in visually distinguishing these two phenotypes is due to an independent locus upstream of the ASIP gene. This locus was recently identified as a factor that darkens the typical pigmentation in dark bay horses. The results of the study confirm the importance of molecular testing in accurately determining the coat colour of horses. This would help to avoid errors in coat colour descriptions in official breeding records and provide valuable information for selective breeding programmes aimed at producing specific and desired coat colours.

Where Are the Horses?

Mario Ortiz Robles argues that non-human animals are reduced to tropes in literature, lacking a material referent (2016: 21) and thus facilitating their systematic exploitation (Adams 2010: 69). One type of literature in which the other-than-human has traditionally been present but marginalised is Arthurian romance. During the Arthurian revival (1980s-1990s), we find Anne McCaffrey’s Black Horses for the King (1998), a text that attempts to rewrite this myth and pay homage to the equines of the genre. My aim, therefore, is to discern whether McCaffrey’s focus on horses suffices to resist their exploitation as symbols within the anthropocentric and often dualistic Arthurian tradition. Additionally, I scrutinise whether the human/non-human dualism also reinforces, and is reinforced by, the Christian/Pagan difference.

The mysterious Hebrew word שׂרקים in Zechariah 1:8

The Hebrew word שׂרקים in Zechariah 1:8 is a mysterious word. The disappearance of the Hebrew word שׂרקים in Zechariah 1:8 from the rest of the Book of Zechariah and the unknown meaning of שׂרקים itself are the reasons for this mystery. Zechariah 1:8 does not only abandon two colours: the black horses and the spotted (dappled) horses but also this verse adds שׂרקים or the sorrel ones, which are not recorded in Zechariah 6:2–3 and 6:6–7. The appearance of שׂרקים in Zechariah 1:8, therefore, creates disagreement colours with Zechariah 6:2–3 and 6:6–7. In addition, Gelston states that the Hebrew word שׂרקים is probably unknown to the ancient translators. This unknown meaning causes different translations of שׂרקים in ancient texts. This article, thus, attempts to unveil this mystery with textual criticism as its methodology.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This research emphasises on the importance of textual criticism to unveil the unknown meaning of קים in Zechariah 1:8.

157 Thoroughbred and auction characteristics that impact bid price when sold at online auctions

Thoroughbreds are best known for their careers as racehorses, a career that often concludes between the ages of 3 and 6. After racing, Thoroughbreds can perform successfully in other disciplines like eventing and dressage. However, the owner demand for off-the-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) as mounts for second careers is not well characterized. Therefore, the objective of this study is to quantify the buyer demand for OTTBs that have started second riding careers and are being marketed through a virtual auction. Horse and auction characteristics were collected on 170 Thoroughbred horses across 39 online sport horse auctions between 2012 and 2020. Data were analyzed using ANOVA (α = 0.05) and mean separations were assessed using Tukey's HSD when appropriate (STATA 16). Bids ranged from $100 to $20,000 and the average was $2,528.25 ± 3,011.37 (mean ± SD). Horse age impacted (P = 0.001) the bid price, where each additional year increased bid price by $430.50 ± 158.7. However, when the age was squared to model an aging horse, bid price decreased (P = 0.001) with age (-$22.91 ± 6.74). Additionally, geldings brought a premium of $924.08 ± 427.84 over mares, displaying buyer preference for geldings. Horse color, especially chestnuts ($1,071.07 ± 555.28;P = 0.05) and grays or roans ($1,054.05 ± 536.41; P = 0.05), brought premiums over bay or black horses. Horse height did not (P > 0.05) impact bid price, nor did Jockey Club registration (P > 0.05) or previous training in most English riding disciplines (P > 0.05). Horses listed as trail riding mounts, though, received discounts (-$1,599.46 ± 604.58; P = 0.001) compared with other disciplines. Of the auction logistics, only registration in USEF or USHJA or USEA affected (P = 0.01) bid price, where registration increased sale price by $1,967.33 ± 820.24. This interest shows that bidders value horse registration and could suggest a valuable tool for sellers to increase their horse's bid price. By characterizing the discounts and premiums for horse and auction characteristics, equine bidders can better expect what a horse may sell for, and which attributes could lend them more competition when actively bidding. Additionally, sellers can use this information to not only calculate what premiums or discounts their horse may sell with, but sellers can increase their horse's bid by enhancing their profile with registration.

Prevalence of Chronic Progressive Lymphedema in the Rhenish German Draught Horse

Chronic progressive lymphedema (CPL) is a common disease in Rhenisch German draught horses. The objective of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of this disease and its progression with age in 493 Rhenish German draught horses from different regions in Germany. We employed generalized linear models with binomial, multinomial, and normal distributions to analyse the effects of breeding association, coat colour, sex and age within sex, time of examination, limb on which CPL was recorded, and farm-related factors on disease scores. The occurrence and severity of CPL were significantly influenced by breeding area, sex, coat colour, and interaction of age by sex. Males had significantly higher CPL-scores than geldings (1.92-fold) and females (5.02-fold) as well as a faster (1.85-fold) disease progression per year of life than females (1.44-fold) and geldings (1.25-fold). Regression on age within sex was still significant when age was restricted to a minimum of 7 years in the analysis. Bay horses exhibited 1.77-fold and 2.19-fold higher CPL-scores than chestnut and black horses. Keeping horses on pasture and keeping bedding clean reduced CPL-scores, whereas feeding of hay silage and concentrates during winter increased CPL-scores. Our analysis revealed significant regression coefficients of cannon bone circumference on CPL-scores. Relationships with hoof measures and skinfold diameter at the neck were not found. In conclusion, differences among breeding districts and sexes by age had the largest impact on CPL prevalence and scores. Disease progression was evident up to a mean age of 16 years in males and 20 years in females. The identification of risk factors and their effects on CPL should help to reduce the occurrence and progression of CPL.

151 Factors influencing sale and bid price of sport-trained horses and ponies sold at online auctions

Online auctions are becoming popular as technological availability and need for virtual sale options within the United States sport horse industry increase. Private treaty has been the predominant outlet for sport horse sales, resulting in limited information on factors impacting online sale prices. Our objective was to determine factors affecting online auction sale price for horses and ponies trained in sport classified disciplines. Data was collected from online sport horse auctions spanning from 2012 to 2020 (n = 75, Professional Horse Auctions, LLC). A horse's lot number, sex, breed, registration status, breeding/lineage, and level of training were collected. Seller's ratings of the horse's disposition, professional training, and suitability for riding and training were recorded. If included in the sale description, the type and number of pictures, and video count were collected. Data were assessed using ANOVA and mean comparisons (α = 0.05), with Tukey's pairwise post hoc analysis where appropriate (STATA 16). A total of 2,454 horses were listed, but only 41.7% resulted in a successful sale (n = 1024) with a wide range of accepted bids impacting mean bid price (mean ± SD, 5164 ± 5345 USD; minimum bid = 200 USD, maximum bid = 41,250 USD). Auction month had a significant effect on sold outcome, with horses more likely to sell in March, June, and September ( P = 0.005). Color (k = 17) impacted mean bid price, with black horses (n = 66) yielding the highest price (7,559 ± 6,734 USD, P < 0.0002). Breed impacted bid price, where warmblood breeds commanded the highest bids ( P < 0.00001). Disposition did not affect sale outcome or bid price ( P > 0.05). Professional training did not affect sale outcome but did result in a higher mean bid when reported (professional training 5297 ± 6122 USD, no professional training 3901 ± 4160, P = 0.006). Horses were more likely to sell with lower levels of experience (scores of 1–5 on a 10-point scale, where 1 = least experienced and 10 = most experienced) over those with more experience ( P = 0.06), but ratings did not affect bid price. The number of pictures, ranging from 1 to 19, included in the listing impacted sale ( P = 0.006) and bid ( P < 0.00001). The number of videos increased the bid price with increasing numbers of videos ranging from 0 (3342 ± 4512 USD) to 4 (7946 ± 7806 USD, P < 0.00001). Assigning an objective value to horses is an industry-wide challenge. This information provides useful insight on successful sale and premium bid factors for sport horses in an online auction venue, and illuminates market trends for horses or ponies with specific characteristics.

Lights behind Thick Curtains: Images of Fear and Familiarity in Tolkien

Lights behind Thick Curtains:Images of Fear and Familiarity in Tolkien Bo Kampmann Walther (bio) Introduction This article looks into the landscape of tropes, figures, and themes in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Its main hypothesis is that the author is strongly in the habit of using metaphors and symbols to signify both fear and familiarity at one and the same time. Often, these imaginings are the result of a distressing and inauspicious geography. They are settings so stunning as to leave the observer speechless. When Frodo first lays eyes on Lothlórien his perception seems to be in a simultaneous state of shock and rebirth. Tolkien's descriptions are perspectives of an individual subject on the ground, as in the case of Frodo and Sam approaching the land of Mordor; and they are worlds slightly out of time and space seen through magical devices, like Galadriel's enchanted mirror. Clearly, Tolkien's imagery does not always work solely through similes or candid metaphorization, but rather, and more delicately, through animated, sensuous energies, agencies, and carefully naturalized personifications. Famously rejecting the putative allegorical constitution of his own sub-creation—and especially how it should be interpreted, the allegoresis—he relies instead on the symbolic function of writing, notably in his descriptions of nature (see Agøy).1 Goethe's dictum (in Maximen) that poetic language should at once be manifesting a literal authenticity and referencing an inner, deepened, and transferred meaning, and that it should also avoid any subtextual dependency (i.e., allegory), is very much that of Tolkien. However, as we shall see in the passage on Frodo's roused, sub-creative powers when entering Lothlórien for the first time, the rhetoric of Lord of the Rings becomes ars imitatio, a set piece designed in accordance with the classical topos of the locus amoenus, the paradisiacal site. Here, the text is constituted by an allegory (the literary subtext of the locus amoenus) but speaks of the desire of symbolization. The following will proceed very much in the footsteps of Frodo and the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring. We begin at the creepy but also familiar site of Bree, move on to picturesque Lothlórien and the [End Page 117] alarming gates of Mordor, and, finally, we stand before the Cracks of Doom. Each scene invites a close reading of rhetorical depth and tension, of fear versus familiarity, and of the sublime and the perceptible. The article concludes tentatively with a reading of the illustrious 'Tower and the Sea' dream, once again logging the dynamics of fear and familiarity and furthermore pondering a potential poetological nerve in Tolkien's fiction, a fiction about his own fiction. Inns and Mirrors During the first book of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins and three companions travel eastward from their home, the restful Shire, and arrive in Bree, an assembly of communities which house both hobbits and men. Samwise Gamgee is at first suspicious about Bree's eerie otherworldliness. He pictures "black horses standing all saddled in the shadows of the inn-yard, and Black Riders peering out of dark upper windows." Even from the outside the inn looked a pleasant house to familiar eyes. It had a front on the Road, and two wings running back on land partly cut out of the lower slopes of the hill, so that at the rear the second-floor windows were level with the ground. There was a wide arch leading to a court-yard between the two wings, and on the left under the arch there was a large doorway reached by a few broad steps. The door was open and light streamed out of it. Above the arch there was a lamp, and beneath it swung a large signboard: a fat white pony reared up on its hind legs. Over the door was painted in white letters: THE PRANCING PONY by BARLIMAN BUTTERBUR. Many of the lower windows showed lights behind thick curtains. (FR, I, ix, 164) Note the implicit expansiveness to a wider world in allusions like "black horses," "Black Riders" (obviously from Mordor far, far away), and the dim...

Estimation of genetic and non-genetic effects influencing coat colour in black horses

The aims of this study are the quantitative characterisation of the coat colour in the black variety of the Old Kladruber Horse breed, the estimation of the coat colour genetic parameters, and the determination of the factors that influence coat colour intensity. A total of 252 horses aged 1–24 years were included in the study. The colour parameters were taken using a Konica Minolta spectrophotometer CM-2500d at four different body parts during the summer and winter seasons, resulting in 1748 phenotypic records. The possible effects of sex, season, housing system, age and body part on the spectrophotometric parameters were analysed. The results confirmed that the intensity of the black coat colour can be influenced by a number of factors (sex, season, housing system, and age). The mares showed more red and yellow colour compared to the stallions. In the winter season, the horses had a lighter colour with a lower proportion of reddish-brown hairs. Horses kept outdoors, especially in the summer months, had a lighter colour with a higher proportion of red and yellow. Although the age was statistically significant, no specific trend was observed. The differences in colour found between body parts (neck, shoulder, belly, and croup) are in line with current knowledge – reddish fading in the blacks primarily occurs in the belly region. The estimated heritability values suggest possible multifactorial inheritance, especially with regards to the reddish tinge in hairs (h&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; = 0.20 to 0.29 according to body part).

Allele frequencies in loci controlling coat colour in Polish Coldblood horses

The objective of this study was to estimate the frequencies of alleles which produce coat colour in Polish Coldblood horse population, and to verify the hypothesis that coat colour is not considered in its selection. The analysis included 35 928 horses and their parents having been registered in the studbook over a half-century. Allele frequencies in Agouti (A), Extension (E), Dun (D), Roan (Rn), and Grey (G) loci, in parental and offspring generations, were estimated according to test matings and the square root of recessive phenotype frequency. The population structure is in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium only at E locus and coat colour is regarded by breeders. Black horses are favoured. Higher E locus homozygosity in blacks than in bays makes it easier to obtain black foals. Dun-diluted, roan and grey coat colours are undesirable and the population has come to consist almost uniformly of basic coat colours. These results show the importance of studies on population genetic structure, which despite no formal criteria for breeding for colour, can considerably change through generations.

Ocular abnormalities in a herd of Old Kladruber Horses: A cross-sectional study.

To screen a closed herd of the Old Kladruber Horses (OKH) for the prevalence of ocular disorders and report normal ocular variations. Two hundred and sixty-one horses, 122 Old Kladruber Gray Horses, and 139 Old Kladruber Black Horses owned by the National Stud Farm Kladruby nad Labem, Czech Republic, were included in the study with signalment and pedigree information recorded. Bilateral ocular examination of manually restrained horses was performed in a darkened environment by a single examiner (RA), using a portable slit-lamp biomicroscope, direct ophthalmoscope, and monocular indirect ophthalmoscopy using a Finnoff transilluminator and 20 D condensing lens. Fluorescein testing was performed when indicated. The animal ages ranged from 3 months to 27 years (mean 7.82 years, median 6 years). The gender ratio (males:females) was 109:152. Ophthalmological abnormalities were found in 133 (50.96%) horses; with right and left eyes affected equally. The most common abnormalities were cataract formation (35 horses), iris hyperpigmentation (29 horses), alterations in corpora nigra size (26 horses), nonsenile vitreal degeneration (24 horses), linear keratopathy (11 horses), corneal stromal haze (nine horses) and corneal subepithelial punctate opacities (nine horses). The most frequent variations of normal ocular anatomy were posterior lenticular suture lines (222 horses), tapetal hypoplasia (95 horses) resulting in a multi-colored tapetal fundus (31 horses), nuclear sclerosis (48 horses), and senile vitreal degeneration (30 horses). Ocular disorders were relatively common in OKH, but typically not vision threatening and not interfering with the quality of life.

Discriminant analysis of colour measurements reveals allele dosage effect of ASIP/MC1R in bay horses

Considering the variability of bay coat colour, we aimed to investigate the association of different shades of bay with ASIP and MC1R genotype combinations and we studied the discrimination between the bay and black coat colour. We phenotypically characterized coat colour using a spectrophotometer. The measurements were based upon international standards as defined by the CIE L*a*b* colour system and we phenotyped five different body parts (neck, armpit area, shoulder, belly, croup) of 43 bay and 14 black horses kept under standardized conditions. From the five measuring points a stepwise discriminant analysis revealed that chromacity and luminescence of armpit area and luminescence of the neck were the most important traits to differentiate between black and bay horses, whereas it was shown that the red colour spectrum of neck, luminescence of the neck, and luminescence of the armpit area grouped bay horses according to their ASIP and MC1R genotype combinations. Within the group of bay horses the analyses identified a single ASIP/MC1R genotype combination (A/a E/E) where colour variables differed significantly from the three remaining genotype groups. A/a E/E horses were characterized in all body parts except in the armpit region by significant darker shades (lower luminescence, less chromacity). Regarding classifications of coat colour, we found in the significant cluster of A/a E/E horses the coat colour categories seal brown and dark (mahogany) bay. Overall, we were able to show that the characterization of equine coat colour based upon international standards as defined by the CIE L*a*b* colour system represents a valuable tool for a precise description of colour variation and association analyses.

Regulatory pathway analysis of coat color genes in Mongolian horses

BackgroundStudies on the molecular genetics of horse skin pigmentation have typically focused on very few genes and proteins. In this study, we used Illumina sequencing to determine the global gene expression profiles in horses with white-colored coats and those with black-colored coats, with the goal of identifying novel genes that could regulate horse coat color.ResultsGenes encoding ribosomal-associated proteins were highly expressed in horse skin. We found a total of 231 unigenes that were differentially expressed between horses with white coats and horses with black coats; 119 were down-regulated, and 112 were up-regulated. Many of the up-regulated genes in black horses, such as genes related to tyrosine metabolism, may directly regulate dark coat color. Keratin genes, MIA family genes, fatty acid-related genes, and melanoma-associated genes were also differentially regulated, which suggests that they may play important roles in coat color formation.ConclusionsThese findings show that the transcription profiles from white and black horse skin provide useful information to understand the genetics underlying the control of skin melanin synthesis in horses, which may enhance our knowledge of human skin diseases, such as melanoma and albinism.

Contemporary Russian Perceptions of Ivan IV’s Oprichnina

Contemporary Russian Perceptions of Ivan IV’s Oprichnina Charles J. Halperin (bio) In December 1564, without explanation, Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible, 1533–84) left Moscow with his wife, sons, treasury, and the religious treasures of the city for an undisclosed location. He wound up at Aleksandrovskaia Sloboda, a royal hunting retreat, from which he sent epistles to Moscow informing the elite and the populace that he had abdicated the throne. When those groups petitioned him to return to Moscow, he agreed upon the condition that he could establish the oprichnina, a private appanage, state-within-a-state, under his sole authority. The elite and commons acquiesced to Ivan’s demand. The oprichnina eventually became the instrument by which Ivan imposed mass terror on Muscovite society. It also remains a highly controversial episode in Russian history, the subject of an enormous, contentious, and ever-growing historiography. Disagreements within the historiography about the oprichnina center on both specific, factual issues and broader analytical and conceptual issues. On the one hand, historians contest which territories Ivan incorporated into the oprichnina, how many oprichniki (members of the oprichnina) served Ivan, and the extent of land confiscations and deportations. On the other hand, historians dispute why Ivan established the oprichnina, whether it reflects his mental health, foreign policy or domestic political considerations, or religious ideology, and what its consequences were for 16th-century Russia and for subsequent Russian history down to the present. Whether Ivan abolished the oprichnina in 1572, and if so, why, or whether he renamed it the “household” or “court” (dvor), depends on one’s definition of the oprichnina, so the question is both narrow and broad. This article will not discuss any of these questions. However, because I define the existence of the oprichnina by the presence of its symbols—the black robes of the oprichniki, their black horses with dogs’ heads and brooms, their oaths, and their membership in a [End Page 95] pseudo monastic brotherhood, all of which disappeared in 1572—I proceed from the premise that Ivan abolished the oprichnina in 1572. Discussion of this problem lies outside the scope of the present article, but I would observe that post-1572 Muscovite sources referred to the oprichnina and oprichniki only in the past tense. This article asks how Muscovites living in Muscovy during the oprichnina perceived that institution. No historian has ever studied all references to the oprichnina and oprichniki from the period of its existence in order to derive Muscovite perceptions of the oprichnina. Some historians have commented in passing on this question. Vasilii Kliuchevskii ascribed to contemporaries a mood of deep pessimism. According to him, the oprichnina confused Muscovites, who thought that it was “strange.” Aleksandr Kopanev concluded that the oprichninacreated “uncertainty and unease” among the boyars. Ann Kleimola asserted that members of the elite thought that they had to denounce someone else first, before they were denounced. Robert Crummey wrote that the oprichnina destroyed expectations of order among the population. The excesses of the oprichnina, he wrote, rendered society numb. Isabel de Madariaga opined that Ivan’s arbitrary executions during the oprichnina “shattered public opinion” (with due allowance for projecting that term onto 16th-century Muscovy). Vladimir Ivanov observed that the bloody oprichnina campaigns, amid other factors, created a general atmosphere of uncertainty, fear, and alienation in Muscovy.1 Dmitrii Volodikhin is a rare exception to the drift obvious in all these observations. He suggests that nonprincely gentry perceived the oprichnina as an opportunity for promotion to field army commands from which they were usually excluded.2 However, all these historians fail to cite any indigenous Muscovite documentation to corroborate their conclusions. Most historians just let the atrocities of the oprichnina speak for themselves, without addressing the reaction on the part [End Page 96] of the Muscovite elite or commoners at all.3 Atrocities, it is assumed, created disorientation, moral outrage, and discontent, if not outright opposition, among Muscovites under the oprichnina regime. The nature of the extant sources profoundly complicates any attempt to analyze contemporary Russian perceptions of the oprichnina. Of course, we cannot evaluate letters to the editors of newspapers or dissect public opinion polls. We certainly do not have estimates of...

Grete Writes to Georg at War

Grete Writes to Georg at War Caitlin Bailey (bio) You’ve started to writeabout black horses again,dear, but I can only envy the mouse with his quick,imperfect heart. My ownis churlish, rimed, too slow. I’ve been drifting, lately,collecting bobbins sinceyou left. What you don’t know is that your goingwas an ocean. The hollowI could call love. I heard you saw men dead in a field. G, you might have been the prize.The salt packed in my organs,the magnificent shore. I would give myself upto your hands, finallyplanchette, your silent, dear queen. [End Page 168] Caitlin Bailey Caitlin Bailey holds an mfa from Hamline University where she served as an assistant poetry editor for WaterStone Review. Her poems have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Sugar House Review, Bateau, Carolina Quarterly, Paper Darts, and elsewhere. Copyright © 2017 University of Nebraska Press

Analýza exteriéru starokladrubského koně chovaného v NÁRODNÍM HŘEBČÍNĚ Kladruby nad Labem

The objective of the present study was a detailed analysis of the body conformation of the Old Kladruby horse in the Stud Farm Kladruby. We applied 26 body dimensions, 9 angles of extremity joints and 12 hippo-metrical indices of 167 breeding horses to analyse the population according to the colouration (grey, black), lines (9 lines), sex (stallions and mares) and age categories (4 classes). The resulting measures were analysed statistically by means of a linear model with fixed effects (GLM). Most of the statistical highly significant differences were differences detected between stallions and mares and between the Old Kladruby grey and black horses. The stallions have a significantly longer profile of the head (by more than 1 cm) and width of the cheeks. The mares have a highly significantly larger chest (longer by 2.9 cm, more deeply by 3.3 cm), width of coxae and angles of the shoulder and knee joints. The black horses have highly significantly longer profile of the head (by more than 2.5 cm) and width of cheeks, longer the blade-bone and significantly longer the pelvis (by 2.3 cm). The grey horses have highly significantly shorter arm and forearm, longer metacarpus, pastern and shinbone. The differences between age categories are highly significant by heights of body, girth and by hippo-metrical indices. The differences among the lines of the same colouration are minimal. Only white line Rudolfo is significantly small sized and the least compact.

Tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TYRP1) gene polymorphism and skin differential expression related to coat color in Mongolian horse

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association among the polymorphism of the tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TYRP1) gene, differential expression in the skin, and coat color in Mongolian horses. The polymorphisms of TYRP1 in five groups of Mongolian horse, Sanhe horse and thoroughbreds were genotyped using PCR-SSCP. The relative gene expression level of TYRP1 in the skin tissues among different coat color Mongolian horses was determined using quantitative real-time PCR. The association of the TYRP1 polymorphisms with coat color was analyzed. A missense mutation (C189T) in exon 2 of TYRP1 was detected in the Mongolian horse, resulting in two genotypes: CC and CT. The TT genotype was not observed in these Mongolian horses. Allele C was found to be the predominant allele in black, bay, and chestnut horses. The results showed the TYRP1 gene polymorphism to be closely associated with dark coat color (P=2.3×10−6). The expression level of the TYRP1 gene was the highest in the chestnut skin tissues and the lowest in the gray skin tissues of Mongolian horses. These results suggest that the allele and expression of the TYRP1 gene are associated with coat color and colored coat formation in Mongolian horses. This is the first report of the association of the TYRP1 gene polymorphism with coat color in the Mongolian horse.

Genetics of anti-EHV antibody responses in a horse population

Individual variation in immune responses to herpesviruses was observed in various species. Here, associations between polymorphic molecular markers and life-long anti-EHV-1/4 antibody immune responses were analyzed in a model EHV-infected population of the Old Kladruber horses. Two-dimensional analysis including overall mean titers and titer dynamics expressed by differences between spring and autumn titers allowed identification of low-responders. 50 randomly selected microsatellites and nine single nucleotide polymorphisms in nine immunity-related candidate genes were genotyped. Due to differences (p<0.001) in antibody titers between two color varieties of Old Kladruber horses, separate association studies were performed in the two sub-populations by using the Fisher’s exact test. In black horses, the interleukin 4 receptor and MxA protein coding genes, and the microsatellite TKY325 were associated with the responder status. In the grey population, the microsatellite TKY343 showed significant association with anti-EHV antibody responsiveness after Bonferroni corrections.

제주마의 기본모색과 MC1R과 ASIP 유전자형 조합의 상관관계

This study was undertaken to reveal the relationship between genetic variations and the basic coat color classification system in Jeju horses. Genetic variations of the melanocortinreceptor 1 (MC1R) and agouti signaling protein (ASIP) genes were investigated using pyrosequencing technique. A nucleotide substitution mutation for MC1R g.901C>T and an ASIP 11-bp deletion mutation were screened. Black horses had MC1R E + /- (E + /E + or E + /E e ) and ASIP A a /A a genotypes. In contrast, chestnut horse genotypes were MC1R E e /E e and ASIP -/-. Thus, black and bay horses have at least one dominant MC1R allele, E + , whereas chestnut horses have homozygous recessive alleles E e /E e A allele represses black coat color development in the hairs of the body, but not in the mane and all four legs. Pedigree analysis showed a consistent relationship between the genotype distribution of the MC1R and ASIP genes and basic coat color patterns, even in the F1 progeny. The results of this study revealed the relationship between the coat color phenotype and genetic background and suggested that useful information may be provided for molecular breeding of Jeju horses. (Key words : Jeju horse, Coat color, Genetic variation, MC1R, ASIP)

Astley Paston Cooper (1768–1841): anatomist, radical and surgeon

Astley Paston Cooper's father was a Norfolk clergyman who married well and lived well. When he died, an obituary tempered its praise with a suggestion that he paid a little too much attention to appearances. The family arrived at Sunday services via a coach and four; the four black horses a glorious sight, but somewhat needless given they lived next door to the church. The Reverend Samuel Cooper's sermons sold well, preaching solid Church and King values, but his wife's novels did rather better. Written in the form of letters, Maria Susanna Cooper's stories were sentimental and idealistic, pushing the values of the contemporary orthodoxy: both with and without a capital letter, the couple were conservative.

Why do white horses eat more than black horses?

Why do white horses eat more than black horses?