Photo Copyright vs. Current Owner of Horse

On these pages, photo copyright credits are listed with each photo. However, the photo copyright owner may not be the current owner of that horse, as it may have been sold, or someone else took the photo of that horse and contributed it to DCS for use here.

Please visit the Verified Dun Morgans page for more up-to-date listing of the current owner of any particular dun dilute Morgan shown on these web pages. We will try to keep the current ownership of dun dilute Morgans as up-to-date as possible on that page. If you see any incorrect owner listings, please do not hesitate to bring it to our attention. To email updated ownership info, click here.

BROWN DUN SHADES ~ BROWN BASE COAT

Adult brown dun: A genetics lab in France proved that seal brown colored horses are not the result of mealy (pangare) on a black horse. Rather, they are black + an agouti gene. However, because seal browns have very little red on them from the restriction of their agouti gene, it is believed that there are at least two mutations of the agouti gene. One that creates clear bay colored horses by restricting black to the point areas; and one that creates brown or seal brown, by mainly restricting the black from the "soft areas" of the horse, thus the horse remains mostly black in color.
NOTE: It is believed by the author of this page that browns can vary in expression, from light (mahogany bay looking), to nearly black (seal brown). If this is true, some light expressions of brown dun could be easily mistaken for a bay dun. Research is currently being conducted by Michal Prochazka, MD, of Pet DNA Services of Arizona. He research is showing a lot of promise at this time, and it is supporting the belief that there are different mutations of the agouti gene for bay and brown.

It is believed that when the dun dilute gene is present on a horse with a brown base coat, the resulting color of the horse can be confusing. At times, the horse's coat may appear to be somewhere between grulla and bay dun. The head will sometimes be very dark (but not always), and the coat color may appear to be similar to the dove gray of a grulla. Other times, the coat color will be more like that of a bay dun. The appearance of the coat may waver between 'similar to grulla' and 'similar to bay dun' during seasonal coat changes. The expression of dun on a brown base can be highly dependent on how light or dark the expression of brown is. Some browns are nearly black looking, and these dark expressed brown base colors would generally tend to appear more like a grulla when the dun gene is present.

U.C. Davis offers the agouti test, which would tell the owner of such horse if that horse has an agouti gene or not. If the horse has an agouti gene, it is not a grulla. The current agouti test cannot, however, tell if the horse is brown or bay based.

Brown dun foals may be born looking very similar to bay dun foals, but there may be some clues present that the foal is actually brown based. They may have a very dark or black dorsal at birth, and may already display somewhat developed leg points. Brown dun foals may display darker neck and wither markings, as well. Masking on the nose of a brown dun foal may be more similar to a grulla foal's charcoal coloring, rather than the red masking of a bay dun foal.

BAY DUN SHADES ~ BAY BASE COAT

On an adult bay dun, the dun dilution gene dilutes the red body to a shade similar to that of peanut butter. Or it could be described as a "tan with some red tones". As with any coat color, bay duns can have light to dark shades. The dun gene does not generally affect the point color on bay duns, but they can be mildly diluted on some horses. The points typically remain black, although the mane and tail head often have frosting that closely matches that of the body color. Many adult duns will not show much, if any, dun mane or tail frosting except in winter coat

Bay dun foals will be born a light peachy-buff to caramel-red shade. Clear coated bay dun foals will have a red dorsal stripe, which will become black as the dorsal enters and runs through the tail. If the foal also has some counter shading at birth, the dorsal may be some shade of brown-red. They often have red face masking on their nose just above the nostrils. They may or may not show evidence of leg barring at birth . . . many do not.

~ FOAL-TO-ADULT EXAMPLE ~
Brown/Bay Dun

Example pics of a bay dun from foal to adult, and in various seasonal coats.
Lineback Double Take ~ bay dun Morgan stallion
(Images are full sized)

Example pics of a brown dun from foal to adult, and in various seasonal coats.
Row 1: Alpinemist Dreammaker ~ light brown dun Morgan gelding
Row 2: Ragtime Up In Smoke ~ dark brown dun Morgan colt
(Images are full sized)

FOAL SHADES ~ BROWN BASE COAT

FOAL SHADES ~ BAY BASE COAT

ADULT SHADES ~ BROWN BASE COAT

Definite Brown Duns

Below are examples of definite brown based duns.

Alpinemist Dreammaker and Alpinemist Pendragon are full brothers. Their sire is a grulla and their dam is a dark seal brown. Since grullas have no agouti genes, we know that both geldings had to get their agouti genes from their dam. Brown based horses only have brown agouti genes, because if they also had a bay agouti gene, they would appear bay rather than brown, due to the bay agouti gene restricting the black to just the points. Since the neither of the parents of these two geldings can have bay agouti, we know they have to be brown based.

Possible Brown Duns

Below are two examples of dun Morgans who may be brown based duns, though both would be either lighter or medium expressions of brown plus dun.

The horse pictured in the center, RCK Ragtime Tres Oros, was tested "EE Aa Crcr" by UC Davis,
so he also has a cream gene, making him a dunskin. The addition of the cream gene could be causing his overall coloring to be a bit lighter than what he might have been if he only had a dun gene. The black masking on his face is a typical pattern of the brown agouti gene. The photo was taken in winter, and he is lighter in summer coat, with very dark dorsal and dorsal barbs.

BAY DUN ADULT SHADES