HGG Community Forums

And this guy has the gene, I mostly just wanted to show him along with my question of snow because I think he's pretty cool :)

Is it this combo?:

Appaloosa: LP/LP Snowflake Varnish: snow/snow

Thank you.

No, it won't. The horse has to have at least one copy of LP and two copies of snow.

Just like any varnish, snowflake needs at least one appaloosa (LP) allele to show, and snow itself needs to be homozygous to show. The snowflake spots will only show on areas that do not have an appy blanket, so if you really want to focus on snowflake, consider breeding appies with no PATN1. Hom LP, hom snow, hom rec. PATN1 is one of only two appaloosa phenotypes that breeds true. The other is a hom LP, hom PATN1, but that's pretty much a fully white horse, so there's not very much point in that (in my opinion). (Just FYI: The white markings on the horse you posted is from the SB2/W20 combo, not snowflake varnish.)

Here's a hom snowflake varnish horse that doesn't really show the snowflake spots except on the legs because she has a big appy blanket. The snowflake white spots won't show on the appy spots:


CLS3 Apple Boats

Here's a hom snowflake varnish mare with a smaller blanket, so you can see the snowflake spots on the rest of her body. (She's older, so the snowflake spots are getting pretty big):


4G 16844920 SUP

Here's a hom snowflake varnish horse with no blanket (no PATN1) so snowflake spots show on the whole body:



Below is the same horse now as a nine-year-old (I forget the age of the above picture, but the horse was under five for sure):


3G Morel 16848173

Notice in both those pictures you can see a little bit of blanket on the rump. In the younger picture you can see that patch of white and in the older picture you can see it's not varnishing out around that area. If you want to avoid that bit of blanket on the rump, make sure to avoid LP promoter alleles LPP1 and LPP2. (Like regular varnish, those genes aren't testable, but you can check if a horse has them by bringing them into the GMT lab.) Both will make the appaloosa blanket larger even if the horse doesn't have PATN1, and LPP2 will also make the spots on the blanket smaller.

Snowflake varnish is also affected by regular varnish. It will make the snowflake spots grow bigger faster and also the regular varnish will fade out the basecoat behind that. I have before and after pictures I saved of a snowflake varnish mare as I GMTed off her regular varnish alleles:

Hom varnish:



Het varnish:



No varnish:



And this is what she looks like now at 11 years old (I also did some other GMT work on her) and the snowflake isn't overpowering her basecoat:


CLXP13 Snowy Confection

I GMTed this horse to have no regular varnish and also no LP promoter, so she would be perfect for me for breeding snowflake appies. If you like the more intense snowflake varnish, maybe you want hom or het regular varnish too. Whichever you like the look of best. :)

I can't believe I didn't mention PATN1!

Yes, you explained to me on this forum all about snowflake breeding and I'm still working on it. @annismyrph

Thank you everyone! I really appreciate the explanation and clearing that up for me. Now I know where to focus. Thanks all!