Colt born today-conformation/color questions

[Horse Love]

Took mama and colt out in the sunlight to get pics since the stall is a bit dark.

Hes here! This is our first miniature foal as well as the mares first foal. Both the mare and foal were just checked out by the vet and are in good health, thank goodness! Hes out of AMHR parents but the breeder refused to send in a stallion report and give me papers for the foal to be registered. I traded my AMHR eligible gelding for the mare. The mare is NOT breeding quality(IMO) and I dont know why she was even bred(horribly cow-hocked to say the least). I will be selling the pair and not breeding her to my stallion. The sire was supposedly a palomino pinto and the mare is called a "palomino" on her papers but I dont think she is. Kind of upset hes not a pinto like his sire, so I was hoping a dun when I saw the dorsal stripe and darker legs he has, but I dont think either of the parents has a dun gene.

Anyway, what color do you think he will be? Just a sorrel? Do you think those front legs will straighten up on the foal? It seems he will most likely be cow-hocked in his back legs as well, unfortunately. Atleast hes a healthy, happy colt with a sweet and friendly personality.

Would you call the mare a palomino? She has some roaning. The pic was taken a month or 2 ago.

Thank you!!

 

[disneyhorse]

The mare looks silver bay or chestnut to me, and same for the colt. Often, silvers are mislabeled as palominos or chestnuts so I suspect silver.

Glad he's here and healthy!

 

[Lizzie]

The mare looks as though she might be silver to me. Hard to tell on the baby right now. But I must ask, why did you trade for the mare if she is obviously (in your opinion) not breeding quality and now intend to sell both she and the baby on again?

Lizzie

 

[Riverrose28]

The mare looks sorrel/chestnut to me, as does the foal.

 

[minifreishorsefarm]

I'm confused how do you see chestnut/sorrel on the mare and especially the foal? the foal has dark mane and tail. Mare looks silver of some sort, possibly silver chocolate. Colt to me looks silver black.

Just my opinion. But I dont see red in either colt or dam to call either one sorrel.

Marsha

 

[ohmt]

I say silver bay or chestnut as well. The colt is definitely not a silver black. The reason why I say maybe chestnut is because it appears that both have sabino which would give the lighter salt and pepper mane and tail and also the silvery look. Then again, silver bays can sometimes be tricky as well.

What is a silver chocolate?

 

[starlasstable]

Chestnut/Sorrel or silver bay for both as well here. Hard to tell one or the other from the pictures. I guess "chocolate" is what some people use to describe a sooty or silver palomino, "Chocolate Palomino". Not an official color description tho. I hadn't heard silver chocolate either. My silver black/silver dapple mare had been registered as a palomino although I cannot for the life of me figure out where they came up with that. She was homozygous black and the prettiest little thing.

 

[minifreishorsefarm]

silver chocolate is silver brown. sorrel or chestnut to me is red and I dont see red in the mare or foal. I see silver in the mare for sure. The foal to me looks black or brown based.

Marsha

 

[Minimor]

The foal could be a silver bay--I first thought chestnut (his body is much too red for him to be a silver black!) but when I looked again I can see that his legs are perhaps somewhat charcoal colored, which would indicate silver bay. If he is silver bay rather than chestnut it will show up better as he gets a bit older.

The mare is either silver bay or chestnut--can't tell from just her head in the one photo and the last photo isn't showing up at all for me for whatever reason.

 

[ohmt]

Silver chocolate isn't a technical term which is why i asked. Yes, sorrel and chestnut are red and to me the foal looks very red, but silver bays can look very red, especially at birth. I put out the possibility of red + sabino because they are both more red than most silver bays I see and sabino often creates a silver hue. Pacific Pintos has some excellent examples

Not that it's a big deal anyway-they are both cute!

 

[Jill]

I think the mare is silver dapple and the foal looks chestnut / sorrel to me.

 

[Matt73]

There is no such colour as silver chocolate. Don't know how you can't see red on the foal... I'm thinking the mare is silver bay and the foal looks chestnut to me.

 

[Maple Hollow Farm]

Mare looks sorrel with a flaxen mane and tail to me and foal looks silver bay due to the dark legs. The mare is much too red to be a silver and I dont think silver bay because her legs are not dark at all and she would have to have at least faint dark points. Still could carry silver just not showing it. Just my opinion

 

[Lewella]

Core of the tail on the foal is also dark with a charcoal hint - that is a STRONG indicator of foal being a silver bay. Mare is fairly ambigous - shed out photos showing her legs would be more helpful. Also, not unusual for a silver bay foal to be born with a darker false dorsal.

 

[rubyviewminis]

My two cents judging from just the few pics is both are silver bay, but we can't see the mare's legs clearly. They look just like my granddaughter's silver bay mare and her filly. The other granddaughter has a chestnut/sorrel mare and side by side not looking at the legs the silver bay mare looks flaxen in the mane and tail in pictures, but up close you can see the darker hair at the base of her mane and tail. The chestnut/sorrel mare has the same colored mane not flaxen. All three are very red in body coat,and in winter the silver bay's look like chestnut/sorrel's with flaxen mane, tails and legs. In summer the legs darken. I have lots of pictures

Adding here:http://www.silverequine.com/ silver only acts on black it doesn't effect red so silver bay has a more reddish body color and diluted points.

Then my silver dapple mare has three coat colors depending on which season it is (refering to the chocolate term) Spring-very steel silver with white dapples, mane and tail. Summer she is jet black with mane and tail more of a flax color, winter she is a caramel like color with very apparant blonde dapples and mane and tail.

 

[Horse Love]

No dark legs. She actually has light points. Like little short light "boots". lol I was honestly wondering if she was some sort of rabicano because of the roaning on her sides and her back.

As for the foal, hes been getting exercise for a couple hours in late afternoon/evening when flies arent as bad. His legs already seem to be straightening up some.

 

[wingnut]

My silver bay, as a weanling, had light legs. Let me see if I can find a pic. Here she is at 5 months, unclipped.

When I clipped her for the first time, she was all gray under all that fuzz. When her coat grew back in, she looked like this:

You can see how her legs went dark.

Here's a picture from a show on the May 20th:

A friend was showing her for me. From these pictures, some might think she's sorrel and flaxen. But between the gray legs and gray hairs at the base of her mane, we determined her to be silver bay (and she's registered that way).

 

[rubyviewminis]

Identical to our family of silver bays. She is very pretty!

 

[Lizzie]

Re 'chocolate'. Years ago, many called silvers, 'chocolate palominos', although the colour was not palomino at all. I believe in Australia, they call silvers, 'Taffy". And not all silvers, are 'silver dapples'. Only some actually have dapples. Others, only at certain times of the year. And there again, silvers of all colours, come in various shades. It is definitely difficult sometimes, to tell real silvers, when young. We have silvers in Gypsies. In fact, except for frame, we have all the same colours, found in Minis.

Here are a few examples.

This is a black silver who dapples out but stays his very dark colour through the seasons.

http://MistyValleyGy.../fstandleft.jpg

This is Austin, who dapples out more wildly than any other silver I have ever seen. Yet during some seasons, his colour looks almost solid black.

http://imgur.com/GRrOH

This is Aurora, a black silver whom my daughter bred. You can see her from birth and the colour changes. She does dapple out. At the bottom of the page, you can see her sire, who is a bay silver.

http://harlequinfarm...com/Aurora.html

I love silver. It comes in such an array of hues and often changes from season to season.

I believe one of our Mini members here, now owns Aurora's dam.

Lizzie

 

[rabbitsfizz]

The foal is not Silver- his mane and tail are too dark. Some breeds do throw up Silvers with very dark manes and tails, so we do know it is possible, but since I have never seen it happen in Minis I think it is unlikely it has suddenly started doing so! Occam's Razor- the simplest answer is usually the one that is right...

The mare does have a slightly silvery cast to her head, which could mean she is a silver bay, but since you say neither is breeding quality and you are not keeping them all this is rhetorical- interesting, but rhetorical!

Those legs will come straight with plenty of exercise and some good food inside him, never fear!