Fans of dun Morgans have long wondered just where the dun gene came from in our breed. It is generally accepted that the descendants of the dunskin mare, Robbi Sue's Misalert (Robbi Sue's Moralert X Pendleton Buck Missy), comprise the only verified source for the dun gene in Morgans. "Peaches", as Misalert is known to her friends, was out of the smoky grulla mare Pendleton Buck Missy (King Richard X Cute). But the only "color" line in Missy's pedigree came through her dam, the registered-as-black mare Cute. So where did her dun gene come from?

*Addendum (May 1, 2004): Another line of dun Morgans extending from Pendleton Buck Missy comes through another of her daughters, the red dun mare, Robbi-Sue's Dun Ella. Dun Ella produced only one offspring before her death; the bay based dun mare, Cushman's Melanie Dun Sue, who has produced two dun offspring to date.

Cream dilutes vs. dun dilutes

Until as recently as fifteen years ago, many color geneticists believed the cream dilutes (palomino, buckskin, smoky black, cremello, perlino, and smoky creme) and the dun dilutes (red dun, bay dun, and grulla) were caused by a single gene at the D (dilution) locus. Further confusing the situation was the fact that some highly regarded color researchers, including Phil Sponenberg, divided duns and buckskins by the presence or absence of a dorsal stripe. Indeed, Dr. Sponenberg still divides dun and buckskin this way in his latest edition of EQUINE COLOR GENETICS (2003). However, many colors can have a dorsal stripe and even, in some cases or at certain times of the year, other primitive markings such as faint leg bars. In non-duns these markings are caused by the presence of the sooty gene, also sometimes called countershading. It can be considerably confusing for the average person to determine whether or not a given horse is dun or simply a countershaded non-dun.

Years ago, breeders tended to call any odd dilute color- anything not neatly fitting into the definitions of the more commonly seen dilutions- a "dun". In my research on silver dapple I found several cases of silvers registered as duns, and there are numerous cases of buckskins and smoky blacks registered as duns. Smoky blacks are particularly deceptive because at birth they can be very light, a silvery grey that in many ways resembles a grulla foal; they can also be quite striped. Striping, including a dorsal and leg bars, is part of nature's camouflage for the young foal. When lying down, a pale colored foal with stripes blends well into his surroundings, allowing him to be better hidden from predators. A good example of vivid foal countershading striping is Nathan Painter's 2002 colt, Triple S Silver Smoke (Triple S Chinook X Whippoorwill Victoria). "Smoke" even had striping coming off his dorsal, looking for all the world like a zebra's! He shed out a sort of brownish black. This year, UC Davis came out with a creme gene test and Nathan had his colt tested. Silver Smoke was shown to carry the cream gene, proving that he is a smoky black (a black horse carrying cream- remember, cream in its heterozygous form does not affect black hair). It is easy to see how in the past, armed with much less color knowledge than we have today, foals colored like Silver Smoke would be misregistered as duns or liver chestnuts. This has caused much confusion for those of us who like to research color lines!

So what color was Cute?

Cute produced two other colorfuls besides Pendleton Buck Missy (who was registered buckskin but shown in color photographs to be a grulla; we know she also carried a creme gene as she produced creme dilutes without the dun gene as well). These were the palomino stallion Amber Chief (by Chief Justin Morgan), foaled in 1958, and the 1968 palomino gelding Pendleton Joe (by Orcland Bo Don). Neither Chief Justin Morgan (bay) nor Orcland Bo Don (black) were colorfuls, nor did they have colorfuls in their pedigrees. This shows that Cute was not just black, but a smoky black, and passed on her creme gene in at least three instances- Missy, Amber Chief, and Pendleton Joe. But where did Missy's DUN gene come from?

Missy's sire is listed as King Richard (Agazizz X Carmalita Knox), a chestnut horse of old Brunk, Jubilee King and Western Working Family lines. None of the horses in his immediate ancestry were dilutes of any flavor. He sired 23 offspring and Missy was the only dilute. It is fairly certain that he was not a misregistered dun.

UPDATE!! (May 1, 2004) An ad in the ____ issue of The Morgan Horse magazine for King Richard was just recently found by Laura Behning. . . including a photo! As you can see from this picture, he indeed looks like a very dark chestnut as registered, not a dun.

King Richard (Agazizz, flaxen chestnut X Carmilita Knox, chestnut)

It has been theorized that Cute was a very dark grulla as well as a smoky black. The color pictures that I have seen of her seems to belie that possibility, as she looks, essentially, black with a bit of sunbleaching in her mane. She would have to have been carrying the creme gene to have produced as she did, but grullas with the creme gene are usually a somewhat lighter shade of grulla (sometimes called silver grulla). If Cute was a dark grulla, we are right back to the same question: where did her dun gene come from?

Cute (Ketchum, smoky black X Smokie Brown, brown or smoky black), 1953 smoky black mare. Photo courtesy of Julie Ploof.

There is LOTS of color behind Cute- however, it all appears to be the cream dilution, not the dun dilution. Her sire, Ketchum, was most famous for siring the perlino or smoky creme stallion Chingadero. Ketchum was registered chestnut, but his owner Ab Cross called him "Blackjack Ketchum", and it is generally accepted that Ketchum was a smoky black to have produced as he did. Cute's dam was Smokie Brown, registered as brown but possibly also a creme dilution color (dark buckskin or smoky black, perhaps); we'll likely never know, as Cute was her only foal. There are no other clearly dun horses from these lines. There are lots of linebacked buckskins and sooty palominos with countershading stripes coming from Chingadero bloodlines, but these all appear to be individuals whose striping is not due to the presence of a dun gene- although they may have been misregistered as "dun".

A Color Mystery

Since bloodtyping and DNA has only fairly recently been mandatory on all Morgans, it is reasonable to expect that some margin of error is present in all of our pedigrees before that time. In most cases such errors would have been completely innocent. Indeed, that is what the registry's Rule III was set up to address. In the past, mares may have been bred by accident and it might not even have been known to their owners, who may have thought another stallion was responsible for the foal they ultimately produced, and registered it as such. This margin of error would be especially possible on large estates or ranches where horses were generally turned out with a stallion for the breeding season on thousands of acres of land and not supervised, or where more than one stallion covered a mare in a given season.

Pendleton Buck Missy was never bloodtyped, although both her recorded parents were. Missy is not listed as being bred by Pendleton Farms on her registration papers, despite having their prefix; instead, her breeder is given as Ramon Gaier and sons of Cleveland, ND. Ramon Gaier is also the breeder of the fairly well-known and lovely Western Working Family stallion, Jesse James (Model X Shy Bird). Cute had two foals by Jesse James in 1961 and 1962, before she was bred to King Richard to produce Pendleton Buck Missy in 1964. But WAS King Richard the sire of Missy? Is it possible that an unknown dun stallion bred her instead? Genetically speaking, this theory makes quite a bit of sense. A dun stallion of any shade crossed with a smoky black mare could easily produce a smoky grulla offspring like Missy.

Photos of Pendleton Buck Missy show a grulla mare (note the dark facial masking typical of a grulla), not a buckskin as she was registered.

It is also possible is that the real Pendleton Buck Missy was at some point switched or confused with a unknown grulla mare. Some buckskins are indeed very similar in shade to some grullas. It is somewhat odd that she was registered as a buckskin when she was very clearly a dun dilute, in a day when generally the opposite was the norm!

A final but unlikely possibility is that King Richard was a dun, which would mean he was not of the stated parentage, as to get dun one parent must be a dun. It also would mean that some of his other offspring should have been dun, which does not appear to have been the case. Dun researchers Nancy Castle and Jerry Hess would be most interested in seeing good pictures of King Richard if anyone has any! Readers can direct photos via email to Jerry at ghess25326@devtex.net or Nancy at tdmequine@ntws.net or mail them to me at 75 Glass Spring Rd., Covington GA 30014. Good color photocopies are fine, and black and white pictures are useful too.

Whatever the case, the dun gene is in our breed to stay. The number of dun Morgans and their popularity are increasing with every passing year. People are becoming more educated about the differences between the three dilutions present in the Morgan - dun, cream and the newly discovered silver dapple. It is indeed an exciting time in Morgan history for those who prefer the "party colors"!