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Young Blonde Girl With A White Top Riding On The White Horse In The Nature
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True white horses
White horses have unpigmented skin and a white hair coat. Many white horses have dark eyes, though some have blue eyes. In contrast to gray horses which are born with pigmented skin they keep for life and pigmented hair that lightens to white with age, truly white horses are born with mostly white skin and white hair. Some white horses will have partial pigmentation in their skin and hair, which may or may not be retained as they mature, but if they lighten, unlike grays where only the hair becomes white, in a true white horse both skin and hair lose pigmentation.
White colorings, whether white markings, white patterns or dominant white are collectively known as depigmentation phenotypes, and all are caused by areas of skin that lack pigment cells (melanocytes). Depigmentation phenotypes have various genetic causes, and those that have been studied usually map to the EDNRB and KIT genes. However, much about the genetics behind various all-white depigmentation phenotypes are still unknown.
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