Snowflake Appy Questions

[shadyacersminis]

We have been trying to figure out if our Silver Dapple Mare Islands Amazing Grace is a snowflake Appy for several years... It all started when she was a yearling and 2 little white spots started to develop right bedind her withers... Let me start by saying her pedigree does have Appys and also goes back to Chianti..... The closest known appy in her pedigree I know of is her Grandmother as well as her great grandmother.... Her mom is a Sorrel and white pinto and she may have minimal appy characteristics that I dont know about.. We dont own her so I really dont know all her markings and cant examine her to see.....

Those 2 little spots have gotten bigger and many more have appeared and are getting prominent.... Its has been 4 years since the first spot appeared and she is now 5 years old... Most of the spots are located on her back along the topline.... She also has some on her shoulders, hips, neck and rear legs that appeared and are slowly getting larger.. She is also starting to get noticeable white frost on the top of her hips and along her topline.... Once these spots show up, they do not go away and are even able to see them in her thick winter coat.... I know for a fact they are Not Bug Bites.....

I once asked Ginny Long from Critter Creek about them at a show years ago when the first two spots showed up, She took a look at her, I told her some of the lineage and she said she was a appy, and said she may develope more or even blanket out over time..She told me that some appys can take many years to develop thier spots or blanket out. She does have the characteristic appy striped hooves( which is also could be caused by the silver gene) but dosent have any motteling or scleara.... I am almost certain she is a appy by all the research ive done, but I wanted to get some oppinions here....

I was also told that with a pattern like she has.. She can produce Loud Appys and most patterns depending on what she is bred with... Is this true....

Here are some pictures of her..... What is she???? What Pattern??? I need help, this has been driving me nuts for too long OH! OH!

...

Here are some of spots on her topline

Here they are again and if you look close, you can see some of the frosting that is developing

Here she is, when there were only a couple

 

[ontherisefarm]

if I am not mistaken that mare has what is called lacing .not an appy pattern. I dont know the genetics behind it but I do truely feel it is that and not snowflaking. I used to raise big appys so I do know some about appy patterns. I hope that helps.

 

[ohmt]

not appy but one of my favorites....LACING!!! I know some researchers are trying to connect lacing with the appy gene because it shows up in a lot of horses with appy backgrounds however it is NOT an appaloosa characteristic. Just a beautiful marking that usually doesn't develop until a horse is a few years old. She'll get more and more lacing as she ages. Beautiful but not appy.

 

[shadyacersminis]

I didnt even think about lacing, though, Its been along time since Ive heard anything about it, Ive never personally seen it before and im not to familliar with it, Just heard of it mentioned before... What was making me lean towards appy is the spots on the lower portions of her body that you cant see in the pictures, we found numerous little round white spots about the size of a pencil eraser in the usual spots that the Horse color books show snowflakes typically start appearing..... the shape of them is different than the odd shaped ones on the back... I think the patteren is kind of neat to see it, Definately not a typical patteren im used to seeing... I bet it would be cool to take her in a color class if she continues to get more of it on her back.... Which would she go in though, Solid or Multi...

 

[Untamed]

It does look like LACING to me as well, and most likely she will get more pronounced lace markings as she ages.

I have a pinto mare that has developed a wonderful lace pattern and when I first bought her as a weanling, she had no lacing at all . . .

 

[mininik]

Looks like lacing to me.

 

[bingo]

I would say lacing and not appy spots. Does she have any mottling? Sclerea(sp) any other appy traits. Of course the hooves being striped is a silver thing as well as a appy thing so not alot of help there.

She is at this point a horse that would enter the Solid color class not the Multi Color Class

 

[Rebecca]

My mare has a bit of that too. Looks like lacing to me.

 

[HGFarm]

Those are not Appy spots, that appears to be 'lacing' coming in on her back. Had a mare that had that.

If she has no sclera, mottling, etc... those are minimal characteristics that you should see for her to be coloring out as an Appy.

Also, horses that are born solid will not develope a 'blanket' per se..... they may develope frost over their rear, or roaning, but not a 'blanket' as people percieve a big white blanket with spots, etc.... And yes, sometimes Appies take several years to finish coloring out.

I would say for sure though, that your mare is not showing Appy spots.

 

[FoRebel]

Appears to be lacing to me too...

 

[Sue_C.]

Well, I wouldn't discount it totally, as not being a sign of appi-ness.

I have a born solid appy mare, who first developed lacing...that graduated over several years, to snowflakes all over. She too, had just the white scelara, had absolutely no mottling, and her feet are still pretty-much solid. She now has a very small amount of mottling, (has a snip so looks like more) and you have to look very hard to see any sign of stripes on her hooves; even I am not truly sure if there are any. Yet, this same mare, when bred to by our totally solid stallion, has consistantly produced blanket appy-type foals.

You can see the mare has a lot of white over her shoulders and back now, as well as having a lot of snowflaking over her neck and poll...and the colt has a nice lacy blanket.

Here is her filly from three years ago...spots galore.

And there was certainly no help from the sire...as far as colour goes.

 

[HGFarm]

Any horse can get lacing- it is not connected with turning Appy though. I have seen it on solids and pintos as well. If you mentioned that your horse does not have mottled skin or white sclera around the eyes, then I agree that the striped feed are connected with the silver gene. But I still dont think these spots has anything to do with turning Appy... I think it is lacing. The two are not connected... just my opinion.