Color experts, would you have said Bay?

Miniature Horse Talk Forums

Help Support Miniature Horse Talk Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

minimule

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2002
Messages
3,117
Reaction score
3
Location
TEXAS
This is my little longear I just got back from the buyers. I'm posting baby pictures and current pictures.

When he was born he was a gorgeous deep sorrel (I thought). He is now 2 and I body clipped him yesterday. I think he is really a bay. Daddy is a red/brown jack and momma is a nice sorrel.

This is Daddy, Kilroy

kilroy04.jpg


This is momma, Feather

feather03.jpg


Now this is Pepper as a foal

pepper14.jpg


This is Pepper now

pepper17.jpg
 
He looks like a liver chestnut to me. I have a mare that is pretty similar..her mane and tail are BLACK (or appear to be) but she's liver.

This is my little longear I just got back from the buyers. I'm posting baby pictures and current pictures.

When he was born he was a gorgeous deep sorrel (I thought). He is now 2 and I body clipped him yesterday. I think he is really a bay. Daddy is a red/brown jack and momma is a nice sorrel.

This is Daddy, Kilroy

kilroy04.jpg


This is momma, Feather

feather03.jpg


Now this is Pepper as a foal

pepper14.jpg


This is Pepper now

pepper17.jpg
 
Hi Shauna

That sure is an interesting color change isn't it? Kilroy is gorgeous!
 
I don't think the dam looks silver bay... but I do think your mule looks to be liver chestnut!

Andrea
 
Not a color expert but I think he is about the cutest guy I've seen in awhile. Loving those long ears. If I had more time and more room I would have a mini mule myself. They are so smart and yes they tend to bond very tight with one person. I've had two that I just loved. One was a red dun that was 13 hds and sweet as they come. The other is about 37" and is still close by. She also is sweet as they come.

At least he came home in good condition.

Marie
 
I agree with Freeland. Dam is a silver bay.

I think the foal is carrying silver too.
 
I'm not surprised that he is bay. His dam definitely looks like a Silver Bay to me, and many Silver Bays start out looking like something else.
default_rolleyes.gif
It takes a while for some to show their Silver-Bay coloring.

I have a friend who once had a lovely solid Chestnut colt with flaxen mane & tail. Absolutely NO signs of Silver. (other than the lighter mane & tail, which she thought was just "flaxen" since there were no other signs of Silver.) He had no shading on the legs, clipped out a lighter shade of chestnut, etc. It wasn't until his 6th summer (after she had already brought him permanant as Chestnut) that she was body clipping him, and he clipped out looking Silver Dapple (as most Silver Bays do) She was amazed! She took photos of him with his rear half clipped, and his front half un-clipped so she would have proof when she requested a color change on the boy!
default_doh.gif


When the hair grew back, it came back in a deep red on the body, with dark lower legs. He ended up being a very striking Silver Bay. I was amazed that it took 6 years for it to show up on this guy!

Now, I know that your boy is not a "Silver" Bay.....but I just told this story to show you that it sometimes takes a while for these guys to show their true colors.
default_wink.png
 
Feather is very red though. She doesn't have the lighter body darker legs like a bay would. Here are some more shots of her. I don't have any of her freshly clipped but she comes out light red all over. Her foals that I've seen have been bay roan, bay dun and then Pepper. No silver showing on any of the foals. I'm still learning colors so any help is fine!

feather02.jpg


feather04.jpg


feather06.jpg


Previous foals:

Diesel, daddy was a roan

diesellft%20.jpg


Dunny, daddy is grulla

style19.jpg
 
I agree he looks like a liver chestnut not a bay. My mare gets a really dark mane and tail like that, with bits of darkness on the legs. She is for a chestnut with no silver.
 
Kilroy has the shoulder cross, so I'm thinking his color is a red/brown variation of the usual donkey dun. Pepper has the cross, also tiger stripes on his legs (faint, but there) so I want to call him some kind of dun as well (bay dun sounds pretty descriptive).

I can see Feather as a genetic bay, if you add silver and maybe Pangere. If you really want to know, you could have her tested. I suspect the donkey genetics are just different enough to make a mule's test results unreliable.
 
I do not think the dam is Silver Bay.

I also think the mule is Bay, Wild Bay to be exact.

You can and do get Chestnuts as dark as that but they do not have black points!!

No Silver in the Mule, although the way that Donks mess with colour it would be interesting to test one that could well have Silver.....
 
OK.....with the second set of photos you posted, I do NOT think the dam is a Silver Bay. In the first photo, her lower legs looked "shaded" and her ears looked very dark. (at least they do on my screen) That, along with a lot of dark in her tail, made her appear to be Silver Bay to me. But she doesn't look like that at all, in the second set of photos....definitely straight chestnut.

Did you mention what color the sire was? If you did, I missed it. The black gene must be coming from him.
 
He is the donkey above. He is a brown/red. Typically his foals are whatever color the dam is.
 
I am thinking that mare is a silver bay.

I have a mare here, that when she was a foal was as RED as RED as they come. She is a silver bay
default_smile.png
She is out of a silver bay mare, and a bay stallion.

As a baby

95313.jpg
95314.jpg


And now

470733.jpg
 
Feather is very red though. She doesn't have the lighter body darker legs like a bay would. Here are some more shots of her. I don't have any of her freshly clipped but she comes out light red all over. Her foals that I've seen have been bay roan, bay dun and then Pepper. No silver showing on any of the foals. I'm still learning colors so any help is fine!

feather02.jpg


feather04.jpg


feather06.jpg


Previous foals:

Diesel, daddy was a roan

diesellft%20.jpg


Dunny, daddy is grulla

style19.jpg
Hmmm.. didnt read this post until now. She does look like a straight flaxen chestnut.
 
Nothing cuter then mules!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am thinking that mare is a silver bay.

I have a mare here, that when she was a foal was as RED as RED as they come. She is a silver bay
default_smile.png
She is out of a silver bay mare, and a bay stallion.

As a baby

95313.jpg
95314.jpg


And now

470733.jpg
I have to say that neither of the animals here looks Silver Bay to me. The mare...the photo is not big enough to tell for sure so if you have reason to beleive she is Silver, OK.

The foal is, IMO, a Sabino Bay + Splash, not Silver.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Latest posts

Back
Top