 Bowling 's study of equine coat color genetics originally coincided with her studies of animal parentage . Research related to equine coat colors dovetailed with genetic disease research when she studied overo spotting patterns seen in Paint horses . She was part of a research team that studied lethal white syndrome ( LWS ) , a fatal condition in newborn foals . She had authored an early study in 1977 that ruled out neonatal isoerythrolysis as a cause of death . In 1983 , the team linked LWS to a coat color spotting pattern , later identified as frame overo , which is seen in the American Paint Horse and related breeds . In 1997 Bowling was one of three researchers to identify the gene responsible for LWS , and in the process identified the condition as the equine version of Hirschsprung disease . 
