My color changing horse

[Diva's Girl]

Ok so I was looking at Diva's pictures from when I first got her in September then comparing them to her now and they look like two different horses. I know that their coats will be different colors when they shed out their woollies but her mane and tail are different colored as well. She went from having a pretty much white-ish/flaxen mane with some brown mixed in to now being almost entirely brown with even some little black strips in it mixed with flaxen. Her tail used to be white but now it has black and grey in it. Her fur has gone from stark black with a few brown fleks in it and some roaning near the face to now being more of a dark chocolate color with lots of light roaning on her neck and on her lower jaw. I am going to be sending in her papers to get her registered under my mom's name and we were trying to decide wether or not she was a silver black or a black & white pinto. She looked to be silver black up till the point she started growing black hair in her mane and tail. Now I'm confused on what color she is. I even suspect that she might be a blue roan pinto now because of all the roaning she has. They have her under grey which I know isn't true cause she is eleven/twelve and shows no signs of greying out other than the roaning. Please help!

 

[chandab]

Pictures please. Both when you got her and now, even if she's fuzzy.

 

[Rhondaalaska]

ok here are some pictures of about a month ago and she has changed since i took these. i will get more this weekend

 

[Marty]

I wonder if you shaved a tiny little piece of her dark spot what color you would see under that fuzz? That could help

 

[Diva's Girl]

I could look at the base hairs and at her skin and tell you guys? I don't want to shave her cause it is much too cold. She has rubbed off the fur on one side of her neck from when she has lice(we got them taken care of now) and the hair was grey/blue color but I don't know if it is like that with the rest of her body cause she has patches of roaning and that may just be apart of it.

 

[chandab]

Man, that's a tough call. From the color of her mane and tail, I'd suggest silver black; but her body color is so dark for silver black. Do you know her parents colors? If there is a chance she could have both silver and cream, they tend to reduce each other's effect.

 

[Rhondaalaska]

On her papers it says her mom is black and white pinto.

Her dad says chestnut but we found a picture of him an he doesn't look chestnut to me.

I will post the link to him

http://saddlepotatoes.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

He is in the second and third picture

 

[wingnut]

Oh wow! You know Geri????

 

[Rhondaalaska]

I don't know her we just found stormy. He had been sold and we found him again.

She posted a blog, I would like to get in touch with her sometime.

 

[chandab]

That's tough. The sire could be a very dark silver dapple or he could be a very dark liver chestnut; my vote would be silver black.

 

[Diva's Girl]

I'll try to take some updated photos of her this week. she has lightened up quite a bit as her woollies have been shedding out. I have a photo from the old owner of her last summer and her mane and tail were white and her coat was coal black. She has changed so much.

Her sire looks to me to maybe silver chestnut to me which if it is true then there would be a silver gene. I wish we had better pictures of him and some of her dam. I know better than to put trust into what they have registered them under until i see them myself. They have Diva currently registered as a grey which she clearly is not. Silver black is what we were going to put her as till she started changing. Do you guys have any idea as to why her color keeps changing so dramatically? Everything has remained the same in her diet since we got her.

 

[Just_Rena]

In AMHR grey is silver black, AMHA silver black is silver black. Found that out last year when registering a foal.

 

[chandab]

AMHR uses silver dapple to refer to silver blacks, whether they have dapples or not.

I think the color changes are a bit of a silver thing. I don't have any pics to show the color changes, but my silver black mare looks icky brown in the winter, but her summer coat is a pretty silver color with dapples.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I'll try to take some updated photos of her this week. she has lightened up quite a bit as her woollies have been shedding out. I have a photo from the old owner of her last summer and her mane and tail were white and her coat was coal black. She has changed so much.

Her sire looks to me to maybe silver chestnut to me which if it is true then there would be a silver gene. I wish we had better pictures of him and some of her dam. I know better than to put trust into what they have registered them under until i see them myself. They have Diva currently registered as a grey which she clearly is not. Silver black is what we were going to put her as till she started changing. Do you guys have any idea as to why her color keeps changing so dramatically? Everything has remained the same in her diet since we got her.

There is no 'silver chestnut' colour since silver is not expressed on a sorrel/chestnut coat. Either the sire is silver black (silver dapple) or he is chestnut. He could carry the silver gene and be chestnut but you would not see it expressed in his coat colour. I think your pretty little Diva is a silver dapple.

 

[Kelsey]

Silver black.

 

[atotton]

I've only ever seen one silver black that was as dark as she is. (colour tested) I'd say she's silver black also.

 

[Diva's Girl]

So we should send her in as silver black? Her coat turned brownish-black during the winter but when we got her she was black as night with some brown flecks.

 

[chandab]

If she is AMHR registered, I believe they'll only accept "Silver Dapple". I would say yes, she's silver dapple.

 

[paintponylvr]

I've seen quite a few silver blacks that dark - kept in a barn!

I believe that her sire is silver black... YOur mare appears to be a silver pinto, I think black.

The shades of the silvers are infinite - so many color changes thruout the year (s). I feel that age also plays a part, as well as drought or living conditions... My homozygous silver mares always "look" palomino during the winter - neither carries a cream gene.

This is the same mare - taken at different times of the year and different years! Pics taken oct 2009, Mar 2013 and May 2012. Currently she's not shed out and her shedded hair on my sweatshirt and jeans today - look white... haven't gotten to her undercoat or real summer coat yet. Because she's out on pasture, she fades quickly. She is heterozygous for black...

And when she was darkest! She's 20 yrs old in this pic taken May 2012...

I have a LOT of photos of her here: Bell, BellBitmarepair - these two mares are full sisters. Bit has the white face. Bell and Bit have both been bred to palomino and cremello stallions. Some of theri foals have been palomino and carry the silver gene, some have been silver buckskins. I don't have pics of most of Bit's foals... I only have a handful of Bell's... Bell had a silver buckskin colt at her side when I purchased her in 2009, her 2010 filly by a chestnut tobi is a silver tobi (GG) and her 2012 filly (classy) is a silver tobi. Kreture and GG have been tested, Classy mane hair is going in next week. I was hoping to have a foal out of Bell this year, but ... haven't. She stood for Iggy in October and again in Feb of 2013, soooo... we shall see.

You also state that you treated her for lice when you first got her. I found that the chemicals in some products affect both the mane and tail color(s) and the body of the silvers...

Stuffy coliced while pregnant in 2000. The family leasing her, after 4 days of pain meds but continued feeding (she still eats - especially if no longer painful!), brought her back to our vet clinic. It was touch and go for a week as she slipped in and out of septicemia ... Can't tell you how many times she was flushed or how many times she was given IV fluids over a 10 day period. Even w/ discounts, it was expensive and NCSU said that she'd probably never have made it thru surgery tho she DID make it thru the treatments she got at the vet clinic... She had a severe impaction. She slowly got better. She didn't lose the foal. Here are 3 pic of her with her foal - her mane has changed to red (it was more noticable later in the year - but these are only pics I have) EXCEPT for the pinto white part, her tail - the flaxen part had also changed to red and so did her forelock - but neither of those were as noticable:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-JEuMMl184pE/TjtZyqqqmDI/AAAAAAAAHcQ/mJE7noF9Nl8/s461/StuffyColt20May01.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd46/purplepaintpony/Stuffy%20-%20LP%20Painted%20Pufnstuff/Stuffy01ScoobeyB.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd46/purplepaintpony/Stuffy%20-%20LP%20Painted%20Pufnstuff/Stuffy01ScoobeyA.jpg

I have 2 young mares that I would have sworn were silver BAYS, but I've now had them both tested.. They are both heterozygous black (Ee), no bay (aa) and one silver gene (nZ). Either of these two mares could produce chestnuts who could carry the silver gene. BUT bred to my current stallion - resulting foals would all be black based (could be hetero or homozygous black (Ee or EE) with no bay (he's EE, aa, nZ, TT), possible silver/possible homozygous silver, tobiano pintos (like your mare). If we retained the black and white colt we had this year (not sure that we would) - the black/white colt to these two silver black mares could produce a chestnut foal as the stallion is also Ee for black and if the resulting foal got an "e" from each, he would be chestnut... could still carry a silver gene - but you wouldn't see it.

Ami

Ami's sire is a black & white overo, her dam is solid. I thought her to be silver bay, but not sure now...

and KoKo

I linked their names to their pages - you can see their pedigrees w/ pictures if I have them, and their color tests along w/ a photo album of that pony... I don't have a picture of KoKo's sire - but saw him in person in 2009. He was a dark silver with dapples and a very light flaxen mane and tail (liter than hers but not white)... I now have a picture of KoKo's dam in attached to her pedigree...

Our newest filly, Bunny, is very, very lite in "silver" color and in the sun has already faded fast (she's not even a month old yet). I will be having her tested - to see if she is homozygous for silver.... she could be OR it could just be the shading in her foal coat.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I think she is Silver Black- they can do that with the manes and tails!!