Grulla's

MindyLee · Feb 1, 2012

I see all kinds of grulla colored horses big and small out there, BUT some that are labled that, just dont strike me as that. They look black, smoky black, brown, or bay. I see no leg barring, shoulder lines not even a dorsal strip. So are they really grulla's or are these folks wrong on their coloring?

To me, if I was in the market for a grulla, I would not consider these a grulla at all, unless all the baring was very noticiable even at a distance.

Jill · Feb 1, 2012

Lots of horses are called a color they really aren't. Grulla / Grullo have dun factor, just like all dun horses (though... lots of horses who are not dun are incorrectly labeled). H and I have quite a few horses with dun factor, including a grullo stallion and a grulla mare -- both though are also grey so visually, they are "white" or heading in that direction

We have buckskin, double dilute, red, and bay dun horses... I kind of love any horse better with a stripe down the back, either due to dun or intense counter shading

Lori W · Feb 1, 2012

My favorite book, "Miniature Horses Their Care, Breeding and Coat Color" by Barbara Naviaux, states that "Grullos are a type of dun having black or diluted black points. Grullo horses must have the primitive wild-type markings found within the dun series of colors. These include the dorsal stripe (line-back), withers stripe and zebra leg markings. Some of the lightest shades of grullo have blue eyes or other shades of dilute eye color."

We have a grullo stallion (in my avatar) and his grulla filly (at three months old in this picture). At seven months now, despite her wooly winter coat, her black points and primitive markings are becoming more distinct.

ohmt · Feb 1, 2012

I think most of the time when I see a horse labeled incorrectly as a grulla/o, it is a black foal with typical grayish foal coat. My silver grulla filly had few primitive markings, if any. Her dorsal was faint.

I do see a lot of people with smokey blacks too who think they have grulla/o.

Flying minis · Feb 1, 2012

I have a really well marked grulla mare, and in winter she is gorgeous, cross, leg barring, wide dorsal. . . BUT, when I clip her for shows, it's really hard to keep the markings. When the hair is so short her markings just don't show up as well. I try to clip her far enough ahead that I get some color back, without having her too long haired (she doesn't do halter, but DOES do showmanship, so I can't leave her too long). I'm thinking of trying Rose Oil on her coat this year, since Ive heard that will intensify her color, and then maybe her markings will show up better when she's clipped? I don't show her in color class though, because she has a partial white tail - the only time I showed her color I had 2 judges debating if she was solid or multi-color - under 4 judges out of 8 she got a third and a fifth - two thought she shouldn't be in solid color class. So she can't show either color class, basically.

Mona · Feb 1, 2012

The primitive markings can vary greatly in intensity from horse to horse, so even though they have them, some are not as obvious as others.

rabbitsfizz · Feb 1, 2012

Duns of any kind (Grullo- it does not change gender, btw- is black dun) do not have to have primitive markings of any kind at all. In Europe, animals that show stripes or neck barring are called zebra or donkey duns.

The easiest way to tell if an animal is dun, if you are not sure, is to test it.

Rabbit is a red dun, no stripes no shoulder bars, just a dorsal stripe, and darker head and legs which, due to his flaxen, vary from season to season. None of the black duns he has thrown over the years have had stripes or bars.

ohmt · Feb 1, 2012

Coming from a Spanish family I say grulla for female and grullo for male, mostly out of habit. Grulla was actually the original usage before some changed it to grullo-probably for stallions. Just personal preference-i have always read that it is acceptable either way, but then again, it's been a while since I have read about it

Songcatcher · Feb 1, 2012

ohmt said:
Coming from a Spanish family I say grulla for female and grullo for male, mostly out of habit. Grulla was actually the original usage before some changed it to grullo-probably for stallions. Just personal preference-i have always read that it is acceptable either way, but then again, it's been a while since I have read about it

Ok, I understand that we use the terms to referr to Black Duns, and I understand the gender difference, but WHAT does the word actually translate to? I entered Grulla into a free translation site and got the word "crane" (possibly referring to the color of a crane?). But, when I entered Grullo, it translated it "uncouth".

Inquiring minds want to know.

Jill · Feb 1, 2012

I do think it's correct to use grullo and grulla. I'm not going to discontinue

ohmt · Feb 1, 2012

Grulla refers to the spanish slate grey crane. Someone down the line must have decided grulla was too feminine to call their stallion (just an assumption on my part) and started calling males grullo and females grulla.

Jill · Feb 1, 2012

For whatever it's worth... it's correct to refer to males as grullo and females as grulla, but it is not incorrect not to... so either but for me and my horses... grullo and grulla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grullo

supaspot · Feb 1, 2012

ohmt said:
I think most of the time when I see a horse labeled incorrectly as a grulla/o, it is a black foal with typical grayish foal coat. My silver grulla filly had few primitive markings, if any. Her dorsal was faint.

I do see a lot of people with smokey blacks too who think they have grulla/o.

do you have a pic of this horse as a foal , Id love to see what colour she was

ohmt · Feb 1, 2012

I only have pictures of her at about 3-4 months already in her winter fuzzies. When she was born she looked palomino. I thought for sure she was actually and that her dam's negative cream test must have been wrong. But, when she shed her foal coat, I knew she was actually a silver grulla. Maybe you can see how light (and yellowish) the fuzz on her body is-that was her color everywhere for her first month.

Here she is her yearling/2 yr old winter:

And summer-easier to see her color here:

supaspot · Feb 1, 2012

Thanks

thats a really nice colour , very unusual

Jill · Feb 1, 2012

He's adorable

Mona · Feb 1, 2012

Great example of a grulla with the shoulder barring Diane!

Gamblin Park · Feb 1, 2012

Flying minis said:
I have a really well marked grulla mare, and in winter she is gorgeous, cross, leg barring, wide dorsal. . . BUT, when I clip her for shows, it's really hard to keep the markings. When the hair is so short her markings just don't show up as well. I try to clip her far enough ahead that I get some color back, without having her too long haired (she doesn't do halter, but DOES do showmanship, so I can't leave her too long). I'm thinking of trying Rose Oil on her coat this year, since Ive heard that will intensify her color, and then maybe her markings will show up better when she's clipped? I don't show her in color class though, because she has a partial white tail - the only time I showed her color I had 2 judges debating if she was solid or multi-color - under 4 judges out of 8 she got a third and a fifth - two thought she shouldn't be in solid color class. So she can't show either color class, basically.

Hi Flying minis I use something called Red Cell it is a liquid which is imported from the USA to us here in Australia it is very inexpensive and I feed 5ml once a day in their hard feed at night you will be stunned by the way it intensifies the colour. We have a very washed out Silver Dapple gelding here that belongs to a friend we put him on the Red Cell about 3 wks ago and we clipped him yesterday and OMG he looks awesome and the shine is brilliant I will try and get a photo of him it is very overcast today darn it but it makes Blacks very BLACK love it and maybe it could help your mare it can't hurt as it is high in Iron and Yucca etc so maybe worth a try

HGFarm · Feb 1, 2012

I have had one Mini colt too a few years ago that was grulla with tons of leg striping, dorsal stripe, the tan hair in the ears that are lined black, dark face, etc.... And I agree, some folks call their horses duns or grullas that really are not.

rubyviewminis · Feb 2, 2012

Just to throw a little wrench in the mix, my filly shows the similarity of the sooty gene to dun. Jewel's mother is a bay pinto and carries sooty from her sooty buckskin mother. Jewel's sire is a grullo, and he also carries cream. But she herself tested to be buckskin with no dun even tho she shows a dorsal stripe year round, her ears are lined in black. She does have the dark face mask the sooty gene can cause which can also be a similar expression of dun. We have had three black dun horses with very prominent grullo characteristics.

Grulla's

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