Hello, I am pasting a letter that went out to the people that emailed me directly. I want all to know I DID NOT as a committee chair or otherwise recommend to disallow silver bay, it was already in the office as such when I became chair and I was unaware to me until last year what the new system ws setup as such. THe letter below hopefully will help you see who made these decisions, and where I stand, with my hands tied.
John
Hello Everyone,
It has been a very eventful few days to say the least. I am writing all who have personally emailed me in regards to the Silver Bay delimma, to tell my side of the situation and to hopefully clear up the situation as best that can be done. Remember there is your side, my side, and then there is the AMHA BOD's side to this.
To begin I am going to give some history, some of it might not be perfect but at least you will get an understanding of how this situation has come to pass. Back in 2003 when the "new" color codes list was approved by the BOD, the list was inherently flawed in terminology. Example being the silvers are referred to on this list as Dapples, ie dapple bay not Silver bay. I was not involved in this nor was I involved with the Genetics committee at that time. So therefore when the "new" system finally was workable as of last year, this list from 2003 was put into the new system for use without any involvement or advice from the current Genetics committee. And many of you know that the genetics world changes quite rapidly, since 2003 there are many new color tests and the equine genome has been sequenced.
Back in 2005 I was involved in research with a lab in Europe to find a test for the silver dapple gene. My Miniature horses were the main test subjects used for the Miniature breed, I was involved in this through Dr. Cothran who at the time was at UK with me and was helping gather samples for this test to be designed. I was trusted with this due to my knowledge of equine colors and the Miniature breed. Other breeds used in this test design were the Rocky Mountain horse and Shetland that I can immediately remember. So I am very familiar with this test and how it came to be available. The test is called the silver test.
Last year I received some emails about the not allowing silver bay due to the terminology used in the color codes used in the new system at the AMHA office. Subsequently at this year's Natl. convention in FEB., I gave my committee report to the board of directors and informed the membership and the BOD that the silver dapple test was now available and it is called the Silver test not the Dapple test, and that the terms used in the color codes that were to be used in the new system is inherently flawed and it needed to be changed immediately. This is because members will be getting their horses tested for this gene and it is correctly referred to as SILVER not dapple due to the fact there is a already a color modifier known to exist that has nothing to do with silver called obviously, DAPPLING, i.e. a palomino with dapples, or a black with dapples, or a bay with dapples, etc. SO, I strongly recommended the BOD take the necessary steps asap to have the color codes changed to have a section of silver, ie. silver bay, silver chestnut, silver palomino etc.
Now mind you at the time of the Natl meeting there had already been problems with this in the registration dept. and I had found out about the color code list how it had happened due to these instances. The registration Dept. can only do what they have been instructed to do, unfortunately they were doing things that were decided on by a BOD that had incorrect information. AND the Reg. dept. is not trained in equine coat colors, so they were telling people that the silver does not exist and that the genetics committee and BOD made this decision. They were not purposefully misleading but what they needed to say was that the Reg. dept is using this code "dapple" for the color name for silver dapple, ie. dapple bay, etc. and that the members can register their silver horses as such. This is NOT what I want nor is it correct but at least it will keep things easy to get corrected properly when Silver is used in the system.
As of this morning, July 3rd 2007, I personally spoke with Pam in the Registration Dept. and requested, as the AMHA Genetics committee chairman, that the registration dept. register all silver horses as dapples until this problem can truly be resolved correctly. The reason is that in order for a section to be added in the color codes list in the computer, the change recommendation must come from the BOD in order for the office to do anything, which is how it should work. That way once the name can be changed to Silver it will be easy for the computer programmer to find all of the silver horses as dapples in the system.
I strongly recommend anyone that registered a horse as anything other than dapple when it clearly is silver to contact the reg. dept to have it changed to dapple (_) so it will be easily found when it does get changed to silver. I know that the terms used currently regarding Silver is genetically incorrect, and I warned the BOD in Feb. this was going to occur, let us all try to be understanding of our AMHA's beaurocracy.
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I will be contacting Mike Want with regards to this and to see how quickly the BOD can get this fixed, considering they knew in Feb. Also, I know from the office that it will not be hard at all to add a new color section to the color code list into the computer, they just need the ok from the BOD, so members, I suggest you all get with your Directors and get them to have a change passed asap.
As a committee chairman I can only recommend things to the BOD I can not make the changes happen, I wish I could in this case. I hope that this has helped clear up the confusion.
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Sincerely,
John Eberth
AMHA Genetics Committee Chairman.
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