The Drabardi Donkey

"The donkeys that grazed below us on the steppe, scattered among the sheep, carried a range of almost unimaginable colors and patterns, creating a colorful and vivid tapestry of living bodies that I have never seen before."

Emmett 'Hustler' Manatee Harker, ringer

Introduction

What make the Drabardi donkeys so special is what one could easiest describe as a more desaturated "unnatural" hue that is mixed with the natural color. In the past there were more colorful donkeys, but over time many lost the more vibrant color scheme. The few that exist is in some circles very sought after. Some Drabardis have what seems to be an extra shimmer if they carry that very rare hue.

Today the Drabardi come in most donkey/horse natural colors and patterns except a few. The dun modifier are the most common along with white points. Its more rare for a Drabardi NOT to be dun or to not have points.

All shades of red (chestnut), bay (incl wild bay), brown (ie seal bay), and many of the other modifying genes exist besides black. Aging grey does not occur in the breed. Drabardi foals are often born paler in color than what they are going to be as adults.

What is the difference between Genotype and Phenotype?

Just like in many other ARPGs, the Drabardis both have something called phenotype AND genotype. These words really describe the same thing - but in different ways. The genotype is the donkeys complete heritable genetic identity, like a "code" or a "blueprint" that describe its basecolor and markings. In contrast, the donkeys phenotype is a more easy to understand description of its actual physical characteristics. This includes visible characteristics like its height and eye color, but could also include its overall health, blessings, and even its behavior and general disposition. In most cases - and here with the Drabardis, the word is used to describe the written out color and patterns of the donkey.

Homozygous, heterozygous, dominant and recessive - what is this magic?

If a donkey have two copies of the same form of a gene, for example AA or aa, it is homozygous for that trait. They are similar and can carry either dominant or recessive genes but not both. If the donkey have one copy of two different genes, for example Aa, it is heterozygous. These genes can carry both a dominant and a recessive gene. A dominant gene takes priority over a recessive gene.

For example;

The gene that give a donkey dark muzzle, no white eyerings etc (ie no white points) is recessive. The gene for these white points are dominant, that means that the genotype PP or Pp show these white points and a donkey with pp dont show them. This is because since P is dominant, one copy of P is enough to give the donkey white points. Make sense?

Drabardi donkey base colors and patterns

This bit is "easy" - since it's basicly real horse genetics, the Drabardi donkey come in most horse colors with just a few exceptions. You will find out more by looking here what colors and patterns of the neutral kind there is - and what isn't. I can recommend this site to figure out the basecolor (ie disregard the white markings + grey) horse part of the donkeys genetics!

Drabardi donkey hues

Aside from its normal color and patterns as mentioned earlier the Drabardi donkey also have its own special hues (that blends with the natural color). In total there are twelve known Drabardi hues and they do not mix with eachother. Some are common and are dominant over the rarer ones.

Drabardi hues go over the entire base coat creating a coloured tint over the natural one. So if your Drabardi are Bay dun with Nila hue ie "Nila Bay Dun" - it's a donkey that have a slight blue tint over it's bay dun. This tint or hue can range from 15-70%, although the stronger hues are rare. The stronger hues are often more common with HARPG donkeys due to some selective breeding. Some hues create a shimmering effect to the coat, similar to what Akhal-Teke horses have, in bronze, silver or gold but these are more easily spotted on a donkey with a pale coat.

Drabardi donkey patterns

The Drabardi donkey also have a number of special markings that only exist in this breed. These markings can be in a dark shade of the base coat or a mixture of the base + the special Drabardi hue as well as a slightly lighter one. Most important is that it will look natural (or as natural as it can come with a fantasy breed). A easy way to get a good color scheme of colors to use is to go to this webpage.

To use www.colorcodehex.com to find colors for the markings Color pick your donkeys natural base and look for it's hex color (good webpage for colorpicking). This hex color you put into one of the boxes (the top one for example) on the colorcodehex.com-webpage, in the box at the bottom you put the hexcolor for the Drabardi hue. Then you press submit. Pick a color in the middle of the spectrum.

On the page you come to next, if you scroll down you will see a color scheme collection called 'Monochromatic Color' - ranging from dark to light of the color you picked. This scheme will match and blend nicely with your base color - perfect for your Drabardi markings. Try to avoid the almost white color, or the very darkest unless the marking in question allows you to. You can also chose colors from the bigger spectrum where it says "Color Shades"/"Darker/lighter shades" if you want more colors to chose from. Same goes here - don't go too light (white) or too dark (black). The colors of the markings should look as natural as possible.

The designapproval wont be superhard/strict but there might be times when you have to slightly change your design.

How is the colors and patterns written out?

The Drabardi named hue is always written out first, then followed by the real color and next any Drabardi patterns it have. If the donkey have any natural patterns, like spotted etc it is written first, then the Drabardi hue, followed by the real base color, and then the Drabardi markings are last.

For example:
Spotted Rohit Red dun with Lemurian.

If the donkey have a roan marking, it instead come after the Drabardi hue and the real base color but before the Drabardi markings.

For example:
Rohit Red dun frosted roan with Lemurian.