Over the millennia man has repeatedly changed the coat colour of domestic animals. This was depending on breeding preferences. In the case of leopard complex spotting in horses, an international team of scientists has now been able to reconstruct the changeable process of breeding since the beginning of the domestication about 5500 years ago. The study emphasises the value of genetic diversity for breeding. The results of the study have just been published in the renowned scientific journal Philosophical Transaction B of the Royal Society of London.