HOME | DD
DancingDragonStables — Colors of the Akhal Teke
Published: 2010-10-29 23:43:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 27138; Favourites: 83; Downloads: 198
Redirect to original
Description
-Download for Full Size! -TOTALLY JUST REALIZED I LEFT THE SILVER GENE OFF THE NO LIST. TOO LAZY TO FIX IT LOL
Might make these designs available for adoption... anyone interested?
So I noticed some confusion about what colors the Akhal Teke comes in. I'll admit that for a while I wasn't entirely sure myself. Despite its slowly growing popularity the Akhal Teke is still a relatively rare breed outside of Northern Asia and Eastern Europe and it's hard to find concrete information about them.
The most common misconception I've seen is that Akhal Tekes can come in Chapagne or Dun. They can't. The Champagne gene only came about in the last hundred years or so and has only been found in American breeds such as the Morgan Horse or Quarter Horse and it is rare even among these breeds. The Dun gene seems to be more common among breeds originating from the Iberian/Spanish Peninsula but not in Asiatic breeds such as the Arabian or Akhal Teke.
Due to the metallic sheen Tekes often possess, some horses are mistaken for Champagne colored as the Champagne gene does make a horse's coat appear almost metallic. But it is much more muted than a Teke's. And many buckskin Tekes are mistaken for Dun horses, but lack the primitive markings found in Dun horses. There will sometimes be dorsal stripes but it is known that horses will sometimes possess a dorsal stripe without carry or showing the Dun gene.
The colors Akhal Tekes do come in are the three base colors (black, chestnut/sorrel, and bay), all cream dilutions from these three, and gray over any of these colors. Horses may also carry and display the sabino and/or rabicano gene. Sabino horses are generally minimal with the only white beyond the legs being a belly splash or something similar. Horses with high white on the legs are considered desirable and these horses are often sabino. Rabicano isn't very common but does occur. Bleeding rabicano (where the white hairs have spread to cover a larger area than just the belly and/or flanks) does occasionally occur, these horses can be mistake for roan. But Akhal Tekes cannot be roan.
So, there you go and now you know. Wanna argue with me about it? Go find proof. And I don't mean a picture of some horse that looks dun or champagne with it's owners claiming that it is. Find some genetic documentation.
Related content
Comments: 62
this is my main account. your comment is old but i'm answering to it lol
this is interesting but i'm still sticking to my opinion that the dun gene is not in the akhal teke breed because every site i have ever read except this one and one very unreliable site i saw have said that the breed doesn't carry it. one site saying it's there doesn't make it fact. what's also interesting is that they have 'dunskin' and 'grullo' but they don't have just dun. so i think they're using it as a term, and not as a genetic identification. the thing you have to remember about Tekes is that they are primarily found in russia and other eastern european countries where color terminology is different. they use their term for dun as to describe light bays, as well as buckskins. so i think a lot of the confusion comes from when you bring them over to english speaking countries and their translated pedigree has horses called 'dun' but it's a translation error. Also this site says they carry the champagne gene, which they do not.
wow that was fun 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you for this. Personally, genetics really get me confused-- that is, just reading "Aa" "Ee" and so on, my mind can't quite grasp it. A visual diagram with a yes and no list is extremely helpful! *v*;;
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
flaxen occurs in any breed that carries chestnut so it was a given and i didn't include it
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hello!
I want to start playing this great and wide horse RPG, but I am doing some research first, and this breed caught my eye.
I was wondering if they could carry seal brown, wild bay or sooty modifiers?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
they can be seal brown, but i have no idea about the wild bay modifier. i have never seen it listed on either the no or yes lists and unfortunately its a difficult color to identify by eye alone. it seems to usually show up in breeds that carry the pangare/mealy gene which i dont believe the teke carries, but i don't see why not. wild bays are just supposed to be the palest shade of bay with minimal black points
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Okay, thank you so much! ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
no, they don't carry the silver gene
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I am not quite sure, but can tekes be Grullo?
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
no, that is a variation of the dun gene, which they dont carry
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
NEvermind, I answered my own Q, its a no! xD
But this is all very helpful!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Yesterday I went to an Italian fair about horses and there were lots of Akhal Tekes, and also a white coated mare with wonderful blue eyes. I took lots of photos of her...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
no. no silver gene.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Guh, don't tempt me with goregous Tekes! I promised myself there would be no more than one in my stables at a time
It's good to see someone else get fired up about genetics: it annoys me to see people who think that silver dapple exists in desert breeds etc. Sure its pretty, I'm a huge fan of SD and all but seriously, does not exist people! 
I was wondering if you knew whether the flaxen gene existed in Tekes? I've never heard of or seen one, but one assumes it could theoretically exist (as it does in other old breeds like the Arab)? Maybe its just because chestnut isn't as common in Tekes for whatever reason - its always diluted XD
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
TEMPTATION. you know you want one! lol
i like silver bays and silver dapples as much as the next person, but unfortunately its a rather limited gene in the real world. few breeds have it. its like champagne and pearl, a recent mutation that simply doesn't exist in many breeds that have been around longer than a hundred years.
and yeah, tekes don't need the silver gene to be beautiful XD or anything additional in my opinion. same with arabians. they don't need to be buckskin or loud paints or dun to be gorgeous.
but that's a good question. now that i think about it, i've never seen a flaxen teke... i just searched around a bit and didn't see any either. but i don't see why not. ive read up on the flaxen gene and it seems like it can occur in any breed that can be chestnut. they don't really understand how the gene works because its so sporadic and hard to pinpoint but it seems like it should be present in the teke breed. another reason you might not be able to see it very well in tekes is because their main and tails are so sparse, the flaxen gene can sometimes effect just the mane or just the tail, not both. and some tekes seem to almost lack a mane entirely so it might hard to see, especially in pictures.
here's a good article on flaxen [link] this site is awesome, i've learned a lot about genetics form it. they're technical, yet casual. they break it down in a way that anyone with a basic understanding of equine color genetics can understand.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah: I'm a bit of a horse genetics nut
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
They all are so beautiful, to bad that I dont give enough attention to the horses I have already. *sighs*
Well, I hope they all get great homes.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
This is very useful! I'm wanting to start out some Tekes in my stable, but at the moment I have way too many horses
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
haha i know how you feel!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Great to see this sheet! I love it!
thou I heard about the roan, that they do excit, but their line die out or something. Either way, bottom line, no roans 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
yeah me and another person are having a bit of an argument about that. there was a line of tekes that would throw roan horses, but it died out a long time ago. AND those horses weren't roan because the gene naturally occurs in the akhal teke but because that line of horses was crossed with another breed at some point and got the gene from that cross.
and you're welcome! glad to be of some help!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
haha well i think i might put these designs up for adoption
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I shouldn't.
But when have I ever made the better decisions?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
The akhal teke can and has been a proven producer of roan. They are very rare now though because the bloodline with roan had mostely been underbred
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
oh? where? i have never ever seen roan listed as an akhal teke color. i have seen mention of a particular line of tekes that used to show roaning but is believed to have died out. and that line is believed to have inherited the roan gene from outcrossing to another breed. so technically, that line of tekes got the gene from another breed and didn't naturally inherit it through genetic mutation.
btw you have dun and champagne listed under your colors for the teke group.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ya I know. It's unclear cause some experts say yes to roan and others say no no.
As for the others i'fve seen more than one say it's there and none that said otherwise
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
well i'm gonna say it isn't in the breed. because i have yet to see even a picture of a roan teke.
i'm going to go with what the evidence shows:
the dun gene is not in the teke breed
the roan gene is not in the teke breed
the champagne gene is not in the teke breed (this one makes too much sense not to be true. the akhal teke has been around for thousands of years. the champagne mutation only came about in the last 100 years. doesn't add up.)
👍: 0 ⏩: 3
oh and here is one of the sites saying they have dun genes
[link]
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
that site is unreliable. i've found a lot of errors on it and all the horses they keep calling 'dun' dont show any sort of dun characteristics. they all look like straight up bays or buckskins. i do believe they might be using the term 'dun' to describe a certain look. not the gene. because that is the only site i have found that says akhal tekes are dun. every other site and expert and pictures i've found say that the dun gene isn't in the teke breed.
you can't believe something just because you read it once.
same with the roan gene. you read it once somewhere and now you believe it? im sorry but thats a little naive. what if you read somewhere that arabians can be roan or cream diluted? which they can't. but would you believe it? or that friesians can be buckskins? they can't be bay or cream diluted so that isn't true either.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
The raon gene is even mentioned in the different registeries.
as for the dun. You are probably right. I've just seen it on more than. One sight and am stillbnew to genetics.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
where? where have you seen roan listed? i have only ever seen it even mentioned like once and that was to say that there had once been a few roan akhal tekes.
and yes roan used to be listed with the parent registry in russia but you have to remember something about horse color terminology. roan to us might not be roan to people in europe or asia.
roan in many countries is used for a horse that has any white on its body at all. so if a horse has a white spot on its neck or belly, its called roan. some countries call roan horses (what we would consider roan) rabicano as rabicano is actually spanish for roan.
so yeah. show me some proof on roan akhal tekes and then ill maybe reconsider my opinion. until then. i'm gonna say you're wrong and you're just believing what you read.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I've just seen differant things saying that there used to be a line of roans but they apparently died out that's all. Never said there are any today I know there are none registered. The reason I put then as ok in my harpg group is because there used to be some. And since harpg is pretend then it's fine for one to exist on here.
I do know that europe has different means sometimes and I never ment to offend you.
I've already apologized for the mix up on champagne. I was saying champagne. But thinking cremello. That was all my fault and i'm a complete idiot for mixing those two up.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
well no you shouldn't put it as allowed for your group. if people want to make roan tekes then by all means go ahead. but allowing roan as a color is feeding misinformation and you have no idea how many times i have to put up with some one bitching at me because i won't allow their horse to breed to mine because their horse is an unrealistic color but they think it is just because they saw some one else with one or saw it mentioned once.
those horses didn't get the roan gene because its in the breed, they got it from somewhere else. the roan gene does not exist in the akhal teke breed.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Probably shouldn't be butting in here, but I can't help but notice that Patches is the owner of her group, and because she knows roans had previously existed in the Teke breed, -she- would like them to be included in the group that -she- started in HARPG (a purely fictional OC game).
I just don't feel that it's right to badger Patches into changing her group simply because you don't agree with her. It would be a great disservice to all those who have made roan Tekes on DA as well. They may want their horses to be recreating the old lines that carried the roan genes. After a certain number of pure breedings, most registries allow a horse with a crossbred line to be registered as pure too. Even if they don't exist anymore in RL, they may exist in her group because she would like them to.
I also see that you're possibly unknowingly coming off as aggressive, and Patches is put on the defensive because she really doesn't seem to want to change her group. I don't know her -at all-, but just from reading the comments here, I don't think you're seeing that she's trying to be respectful to you without outright telling you that she doesn't want the group to change just because one person has become upset over her rules. It may annoy you to have people complain to you about why they can't breed their fictional horse to your fictional horse, but you should just politely state your views and dismiss them. That's all there is to it.
I think asking her to change her group, or trying to make your color chart the definitive Teke color reference on DA is a bit harsh. It's a great tool, but she shouldn't be made to follow it for the ATB group. You obviously have a passion to educate DA's Teke fans on appropriate Teke colors, etc, which I think your artwork alone has done. You possess a great amount of knowledge in genetics so use what you have learned to teach people on your own. If Patches and the people in her Teke group do not want to change what they already have going, they should not be made to.
Just my two cents. I usually agree with you on matters like this, but I'm sitting this one out bc if I was in her shoes, I'd be pretty upset at being pressured this way too.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thanks life but i started it and she has every right to get mad at me and try to educate me.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
DDS i must be the dumbest person alive. ever.
this whole time i was seeing Champagne, etc. but i was thinking Cremello, perllino. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Gorgeous. Its like the arabians, I have a friend that has the smallest straight egyptian arab gelding, hes bay BUT has dun markings, though he doesnt carry any dun gene. Its strange but...anyhow, i MAY post a picture of the stripes on his legs XD
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
yeah ive been reading up on dun arabians lately and apparently many people believe it does exist in the breed but its very rare and that dun arabians are usually just registered as bay horses since the color isn't allowed in the registry. however. horses displaying the primitive markings like leg bars or dorsal stripes but not carrying the dun gene have been found. so who knows lol
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
For quarter horses I know any color can have a dorsal stripe BUT it doesnt make them a dun. Its a trippy thing, but its usually just darker hairs...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love Tekes. I have a few in my barn. Love the black, wish these were adoptable.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
i might put them up for adoption if theres enough interest in them.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
| Next =>