Before anyone gets in a tizzy, I haven't decided to breed my mare, I'm just curious.

She is a Black Overo w/ Blue eyes - (BTW does anyone know who I contact to see if she's Homozygous?)

I saw a Grey Tovero and Blue Roan Tovero both with blue eyes, my question would be what exactly does Tovero - I have never heard of it - mean and would she still run the risk of Lethal White?

And what color would the foal be?

Here is a web site that will help with all your answers. You may contact APHA get the help you need. Usually blood typing is how the tell if the mare is homozygous or not. Hope this is of some help to you. You also can type into Wikepedia for help to your questions. Also I would do some research on your colors and also confirmation before really deciding on who to breed your mare to. A lot of people only breed for color tooo much now a days and not for confirmation and blood lines. Just for a bit of advice.

http://www.apha.com/

I'm no expert on colorations/genetics, but i have been doing research the past few years into things like that. From what I've read, Tovero just stands for tobiano/overo, so a Paint horse that carries markings somewhere between or incorporating the two types. They usually have a great deal of white, with specific spots containing their base colors. It can mean the horse carries both genes, but it can also simple mean that's the horse's color pattern, regardless of the genetics involved. pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

I'm not sure if they can carry Lethal White, but since the LW gene is attached to overo, I'm assuming it's a possibility. Overos can be tested for the LW gene, so you definitely will want at least your mare tested before considering any breeding.

As for coloration, it depends. If the roan only carries the genetics for that on one of his color genes, there's a 50% chance of the foal receiving it. Horses can receive roaning from both parents, but it's considered a rare occurrence. Most horses will only have it attached to 1.

Gray gene is also dominant, so it would either be a 50/50 shot at gray or 100% depending on the stallion's bloodlines. Grays are sometimes not as desirable to enthusiasts of Paints and other brightly-marked horses, since the coloration eventually makes the hairs gray and makes individual color patterns hard to distinguish. I'm sure not everyone thinks that way, though.

Black is a dominant gene, so chances are good with the blue roan and your mare being black that the foal would have a black base coat, though they'd still probably only be 50/50 if your mare has another color in her non-dominant gene and the stallion does, too. I obviously don't know the base color of the gray to tell the chances of receiving that - the gray gene affects on top of the basic black/chestnut/bay colors.

horse owner for 10.5 years