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Dun, also called bay dun, classic dun, or zebra dun is the most common type of dun, and has a tan or gold body with black mane, tail, and primitive markings. Genetically, the horse has an underlying bay coat color, acted upon by the dun gene.
The dun gene lightens some areas of the horse's coat, while leaving a darker dorsal stripe, mane, tail, face, and legs. Depending on whether it acts on a bay, black, or chestnut base coat, the dun gene produces the colors known as bay dun, grullo, and red dun.
A dilution gene that produces what looks like point coloration, but from a completely different genetic mechanism is the dominant Dun gene, which dilutes the color of the body coat but not the points, including primitive markings—a dorsal stripe down the back and, less often, horizontal striping on the upper legs. On a bay base coat the dun ...
Non-dun 1 replaces the tan dun color with the darker brown of bay, but keeps the primitive markings seen on dun. Later a second mutation to the dun gene, called non-dun 2, was able to remove the primitive markings altogether to create the non-striped bay color common today. [7] [8]
Every dun horse has a dorsal stripe, and some dun horses also have additional primitive markings. Some non-dun horses may also show primitive markings, namely newborn foals and horses with the non-dun 1 gene. [1] [4] Primitive markings in horses are an example of atavism: preservation of or reversion to ancestral type.
Amber dun refers to an otherwise-bay coat affected by both the champagne gene and dun gene. [21] The mane and tail and primitive markings are warm chocolate brown with a buff tan-colored body. The legs may, or may not, be dark as well. Sable dun refers to an otherwise-seal brown coat affected by both the champagne gene and dun gene. [21]
Brown dun, a result of the dilution effect of the dun gene. Like all duns, brown duns have conspicuous primitive markings including at least a dorsal stripe and darker points. The primitive markings of brown duns are black, and the coat color is somewhere between the slate gray of a grulla and the tan of a bay dun. [18]
Also, bay horses without any dun gene may have a faint dorsal stripe, which sometimes is darkened in a buckskin without a dun gene being present. Additional primitive striping beyond just a dorsal stripe is a sure sign of the dun gene. A buckskin horse can occur in any number of different breeds.