Horse Genetics on HWO

On HWO, horses can pass on several different traits to their offspring. These traits include the following:

- Color
- Height
- Body Type
- Breed
- Athletic Ability
- Gaits
- Personality

When breeding, it is important to keep these traits in mind so that you can get the best outcome from your breeding. Most of the color genetics on HWO follow after real life patterns. Height, Gaits, and athletic ability are passed down to foals depending on what the parents were like. However, breeding two highly athletic horses together may not always give you a super horse. The only way to know for sure is to show your horses. Height is usually an average of the two parents more or less.

Athletic Ability
Some horses are more talented and athletic than others. These horses will usually win many shows and advance to the higher level shows as well. Something to keep in mind when breeding though, is that, like color genetics, horses also have two genes for athletic ability. This means that a really good show horse may have a "hidden" bad gene that could be passed onto offspring. A poor showing horse may also have a "hidden" good gene that can be passed on. This means that a horse's producing ability is independant of its athletic ability.
The Genetic Analysis will tell you what your horse's genes look like in comparison to the rest of the HWO population. It will not tell you exactly what they are, but you will be able to see which stats are high and which are low and if the horse has good or bad passive/active genes.

Colors
Horses have 2 genes for each color and pattern. depending on if the gene is turned "on" or not will dictate how it is passed onto offspring. For more information on this, read the information on the Horse Colors page.

Some Colors, however, have 2 sets of genes that control them. Examples of these are seen in the Flaxen and Curly horses. These genes require more intricate breeding practices to pass them on.