Horse Color Explored

Vera Kurskaya discovered horses as a teenager, but at the age of 20, an injury forced her to give up riding. Horses have never left Kurskaya’s life, however. She has degrees in law (2006) and in Russian language and literature (2010), and worked as a freelance journalist for the popular Russian equestrian magazines Konnyi Mir (“The Horse World”), “My Horse,” and “Alpha Kentavra,” eventually serving as editor at Konnyi Mir in 2010. Horse color was always one of Kurskaya’s greatest interests, beginning as a hobby and evolving into professional study of horse color genetics, as she first wrote articles online and in print magazines, and eventually published a book (“Horse Colors”) in Russian. In 2013 Kurskaya began researching the Silver gene in horse breeds originating in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union, and soon discovered it in Soviet Draft and Byelorussian Harness breeds. Today Kurskaya is a lecturer of social sciences at the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering and a post-graduate student at the Russian State Agrarian University. She is finishing her doctoral thesis in biology concerning horse colors, continues to research the Silver gene, advises as a consultant in Dun gene research in Russian Don and Budyonny breeds, and is working on her second book on horse genetics. She lives in Moscow.