All horses, with the exception of those within certain breeds like the Friesian or the Palomino associations, have three basic coat colors. These three begin with the foundation of two colors, black and chestnut/ sorrel. A black horse is truly black all over, with no areas of brown. Some black horses appear blue black, and will not even fade in the sun. Black horses have the genetic code of E-, and their color is dominant to the chestnut and sorrel coat colors. The varying shades of chestnuts and sorrels have the genetic code of ee, for it takes two of the gene to produce a red-coated horse. When two ee horses are mated together, the resulting foal always has a red base coat.

The third basic coat color is the result of the interaction of the agouti (or wild) gene on the black coat. The agouti gene modifies the black hair pigment so that it changes to a red shade everywhere on the body but not in the mane, tail, ear tips, and lower legs. The horse with a rich red body and black points is called a bay. A chestnut horse may carry the agouti gene, but it has no impact on any color other than black. For that reason, a chestnut horse carrying the unseen agouti gene when mated to a black horse may produce bay foals as well as black and chestnut ones. The cross of two true black horses may produce black or chestnut foals, but never bay. This cross will result in homozygous blacks that always produce black offspring about 25% of the time. Two bays crossed together, or a bay crossed with a chestnut/ sorrel, may also produce black foals. Such a cross resulted in the first World Grand Champion that was a stallion - Midnight Sun. 

A fourth color seen in many breeds, but often ignored in nomenclature in the walker breed, is the brown horse. At this time, most color genetics experts agree that brown is a variation of the bay horse, with the bay's usually rich red coloring modified to shades ranging from very light to dark seal brown to shades that look black to the inexperienced eye.

The three basic coat colors with the brown variation of bay form the basic background coat colors, often referred to as hard colors, upon which the other color genes act. The Tennessee Walking Horse can be found in grey, true roan, palomino, buckskin, several shades of champagne, and two spotting patterns.

Grey is a dominant gene found in most horse breeds. Its presence results in a horse that had an increasing mixture of grey hairs in its coat with each spring shedding until the animals turns so grey that it appears white. Because grey is a dominant gene, one parent must be grey in order for the foal to be grey. Grey cannot skip a generation, and since it is so strongly dominant, its presence cannot be masked by another color gene. Due to its nature, grey can mask the dilution genes in older horses that have turned greyed out, and with its darkening effect in younger horses, it can provide the illusion of black roan when blended with the roan gene even if the base coat is not black! Horses carrying both grey and true roan in the Tennessee Walker breed, however, are extremely rare.

FOAL POSSIBILITIES

grey X black -- grey foaled black, grey foaled chestnut, black, chestnut

grey X bay -- grey foaled bay, grey foaled black, grey foaled chestnut/sorrel, bay, black, chestnut, sorrel

grey X chestnut -- same as above if grey has black or bay base coat           

grey X chestnut (grey with chestnut base coat) -- grey foaled chestnut/sorrel or chestnut/sorrel

grey X palomino -- grey (black, bay, chestnut basecoat), palomino, buckskin, grey on palomino, buckskin, hard colors of black, bay, or chestnut/sorrel (depending on base coat of the grey parent). A chestnut basecoat grey will never sire a black  bay, or buckskin with a palomino mate.

grey X buckskin -- same as above

The roan gene is a dominant gene, like grey, bay, and black. In order for a foal to be roan, one parent must also be roan. This gene cannot skip a generation and then suddenly appear as if out of nowhere. According to most scientists, the gene generally exists in the heterozygous state, because embryos inheriting it from both parents also inherit a defect that leads to death in utero and no living homozygous roan foals.

The roan gene causes a very even distribution of white hairs in the coat of a horse's body. The roan hairs do not extend to the head, which remains dark, nor to the lower legs. The roan gene also appears to suppress white markings. Roan horses most frequently have no markings. If some are visible, they are very small, like a star on the forehead or one tiny coronet behind. Roaning can be minimal, so that the horse has only the barest silvering, or more extensive, so that the horse' s coat shines with a silver cast. The roan gene can combine with other color genes as well. It is one of the few genes that masks the characteristics of the ubiquitous sabino gene (see the sabino section below). It can also mask some of the effects of grey in a foal, although a grey roan will eventually turn white like any other older grey horse.

FOAL POSSIBILITIES

roan X black --- black roan, bay roan (if both parents are not black), chestnut roan, black, bay(if both parents not black), chestnut/ sorrel

roan X bay --- same as above if both parents heterozygous for bay

chestnut roan X chestnut/ sorrel --- chestnut roan, chestnut, sorrel. Same as above if roan parent is bay roan or black roan

roan X grey --- roans as above, greys as in grey section, also black, bay, or chestnut foals that are both roan and grey, depending on base coats of parents

roan X palomino --- same as in grey section above only substitute "roan" for grey

roan X buckskin --- same as in grey only substitute "roan" for grey

Cream Dilution Gene

A dilution gene lightens two of the three basic coat colors by affecting the color of the hair follicle without adding white hairs to the coat. The general effect is similar to using creamy white paint to blend with a darker color and create something brighter. The cream dilution gene lightens red pigment only. It has no effect on black pigment.  The presence of one cream dilution gene does not affect either the eye color or the skin color of the horse carrying it. Eyes will generally be dark and lustrous, while the skin will be gray except where white markings are present.

The general name accepted to describe the presence of the cream gene in a horse with a sorrel or chestnut base coat is palomino. Palominos have golden bodies ranging in shade from pale, creamy gold, to light gold to the classic" color of a newly minted gold coin" to darker hues sometimes confused with flax sorrels. Manes and tails of palominos are white, cream, or silver. Various terms are heard to describe the shades of palomino, but the term "chocolate palomino" does not always designate a horse carrying the cream gene.

A cream gene interacting on the bay base coat results in a buckskin horse. Due to the wide variations of bay colors, buckskins can be a very pale gold, often termed buttermilk buckskins, a rich gold with black points, or a shade so dark that it looks bay. Buckskin color is sometimes confused with dun, but a dun horse will have a dorsal stripe and usually primitive markings on the legs. Crossing a palomino on a bay never produces a dun. Duns are extremely rare, if they exist at all, in the Tennessee Walking Horse gene pool.

The golden colors that result from crossing chestnuts and bays with palominos and buckskins fail to appear when black becomes part of the equation. The cream gene has minimal to no effect on black pigment. When a black also has a cream gene, the term used is smokey black, which can be a misnomer as some smokies look like ordinary black horses. It is only when a smokey is crossed with a hard color and produces a dilute foal that its true genetic potential becomes apparent. A smokey black always has one cream dilute parent, or if one or both parents are black, at least one dilute grandparent. DNA tests are now available to check for the cream gene in a possible smokey.

When two horses carrying the cream gene are mated, golden foals result 50% of the time. About a quarter of the matings are expected to result in ordinary chestnuts, bays, or blacks. The remaining 25% of foals present an odd picture to the eye, though. Neither golden nor in basic colors, these foals arrive with pale coats, sky blue eyes, and pink skins. These are the double dilute foals that will, when mature, produce golden babies most of the time. Two cream genes on a red base coat results in cremellos. Two cream genes on a bay base coat results in perlinos. The two are often difficult to distinguish, as the double cream gene reduces black to a pale, rusty color. Cremello on red always results in palomino. With bay or black in the mating, however, smokey black can result unless a bay parent  carries a pair of agouti genes, or the cream parent is double agouti. Smokey cream is a rare, but viable, possibilty as well when crossing two dilutes, one with the E-gene.

Palominos, buckskins, and smokey blacks require one parent that carries the cream gene. An unbroken line of palomino and "yellow" horses should march across a pedigree back to the foundations of the TWHBAA. Cream dilute horses do not "crop out of nowhere" from a line of sorrel, bay, black, roan, or grey horses.

FOAL POSSIBILITIES

cream X chestnut/ sorrel -- palomino, chestnut/sorrel

cream X bay --- buckskin, palomino, smokey black (looks black, but has a cream gene to pass along),chestnut, bay, black

cream X black --- same as above, but with fewer chances of getting a buckskin or palomino foal

cream X grey --- same as cream on sorrel or cream on bay or black, but 50% probably of getting a grey overlay of the above possibilities

cream X roan --- same as cream X grey

cream X palomino --- palomino, cremello

cream X buckskin --- palomino, buckskin, cremello, perlino. smokey black, smokey cream

cream X smokey black --- palomino, smokey black, cremello, smokey cream. If the cream-only parent carries one agouti gene, buckskin and perlino are also possible. If the cream-only parent has two agouti genes, there will be no smokey black nor smokey cream foals.