Anyone who reads this magazine likely agrees that horses are amazing creatures. Valued for their speed, their beauty, and their grace, not to mention their generosity of spirit toward humans, horses are a continuing marvel even to those of us who work with them every day. And now, as researchers delve into the secrets of the DNA strands that make horses what they are, we’re discovering anew just how miraculous they are–on a molecular level.

ANNE M. EBERHARDT

We now have at our disposal a great deal of information about the genetics of coat color.

Every species of living thing on the planet has a genetic code, which is a characteristic number and array of chromosomes, hidden in every cell, that supply the directions for the precise workings of the organism’s metabolic function, development, and reproduction. On these chromosomes are genes, the term used to describe sections of the DNA spiral that are responsible for creating individual traits, some obvious to the eye, others invisible but no less crucial. Genes can vary in size from just a couple of molecules in the DNA strand, to large and complex sections with thousands upon thousands of subunits