What color is our new filly?

[denielle johns]

mommy is a bay but has a light dorsal strip, daddy is a silver dun. The filly is a light tan but looks to have dark hairs under the tan. she has a brown dorsal strip and eyes are not blue they are brown but do have a blue tint. and i must say shes the cutest thing ever

second pic is daddy

 

[chandab]

Sure looks like she could be buckskin. Hard to tell from the pics, but does the filly have a dorsal stripe? And, any chance either parent has cream, could the mare be a sooty buckskin?

If there is no chance either parent has cream, then I'll say the filly is grulla, she is very similarly colored to my colt born this summer and he has no chance of having cream, so can't be buckskin.

Here's Monte when he was just born:



And, one just taken yesterday, he's darkened:



The mare is silver bay, tested no cream, you can see her in the pics with Monte. And, the stallion is black bay.

 

[denielle johns]

yes the filly has a dorsal strip, and I have no clue if anyone has the cream. Chancie (mommy) looks bay 90% of the time but if we clip her she has a dorsal strip and leg stripping but only seen when clipped and even then its real light. Big (daddy) has a dorsal strip and is reg a silver dun.

 

[denielle johns]

Chandab.. maybe a stupid question but why isnt your mare a palomino? This color stuff is just hard lol

 

[chandab]

Chandab.. maybe a stupid question but why isnt your mare a palomino? This color stuff is just hard lol

We thought she was when she was born and registered her as such; but a couple people said she was silver bay, so I had her DNA color tested. She tested homozygous for black (EE), one copy of agouti (Aa, which makes bay), and no cream. Silver test wasn't available at the time, so she wasn't tested for silver, but its obvious looking at her she has silver. And, she has a dorsal and leg bars, so is actually silver bay dun. [Palomino is red plus one cream.]

 

[denielle johns]

We have all AQHA and 2 minis and now this foal, this color stuff is hard to understand. Thanks

 

[chandab]

We have all AQHA and 2 minis and now this foal, this color stuff is hard to understand. Thanks

Minis come in pretty much every color under the rainbow and every combination, so that does make decifering their colors a little more challenging.

 

[denielle johns]

She is starting to change alot, guessing smoky black or grulla? what do you guys think?

 

[JAX]

LOL So adorable! Im guessing She is grulla.

 

[Mona]

I do not see a dorsal stripe at all, so if that is the case, not grulla. To me, she looks buckskin. You might have to color test that one to be certain, but she may lighten up a little once she ages a bit.

 

[denielle johns]

She does have a strip just cant see it in that pic. but its light.

 

[denielle johns]

you can see it alittle in this pic right after she was born. such a cute little booger!!

 

[kay56649]

I have a filly like that. She keeps getting darker around we face and her belly. I'm excited to see what she turns out to be

 

[mshasta88]

This is what makes Dun Factor so fascinating to me. It's really easy to mistake for other colors because you also have the fact that these babies with dorsal strips might just be counter shading which may or may not shed off and never be seen again. Your filly looks like several dunskins and smokey grullas I've had throughout the years. Cream with Dun Factor. You won’t really know until you have her tested for cream. Also you can clip her to see if she has any other distinct Dun Factor markings. If she still has the dorsal strip and shoulder barring then that is a good sign for Dun Factor. She doesn't have to have leg barring but if she does it will be located above the knee not at the creases were it bends. There are examples on my stallion’s page on my website below.



I have a colt right not that is a dun but her dam is a silver dunskin so I'm having a hard time telling weather mine is silver dunskin or silver dun. I'm leaning more towards silver dun because his coat still has that reddish tent to it that buckskin foals don't seem to have.



I know that these colors can be very hard to understand but it seems like you know some about quarter horses, so the best advice I can give you is that all of these same color combination are the same in quarter horse just subtract the silver gene and it looks less confusing.

 

[Mona]

I don;t know what to say, but to me, I still think she looks buckskin. I really don't see grulla.

 

[rubyviewminis]

Mare looks to be sooty buckskin. But without better pictures or testing she could be sooty bay or bay dun.

Sire is silver and dun on what color? Appearance wise he could be also silver bay dun, and also carry splash or frame but ?

The foal looks to be either sooty buckskin (my guess) or grullo, not inheriting the silver.

Sooty darkens the body coat in patterns if that makes sense, dapples, mimic of dorsal stripe, striping like brindle or dun, and also has a face mask. There is much more to that but it gets complicated.

Dun lightens the body coat and also creates a face mask. It has no effect on the points as in dunalino (palomino dun), red dun, etc.

The best explanation of horse color modifier and dilute genes I have read is if you think of painting layers of color on a canvas. Each color you layer/add changes what you see. Each gene either modifies the base color red or black, or dilutes it . And again there is much more but that simplifies it. Horses can have many genes in the mix which makes it interesting to guess the color lol. Then you can throw in the patterns causing white. Paint/pinto sort of erases the color off the horse or canvas, but in varying patterns of Tobiano, Sabino, Splash, etc.

My mare tests in foal and her last filly was a real head scratcher as to identifying her color. That filly had a smokey grullo tobiano sire that no one knew had cream. She was born looking like your girl and it took awhile and a lot of tests to figure out she was sooty buckskin tobiano. Missy is sooty bay tobiano and definitely has sabino in there but there isn't a test yet for other than the one kind. (I may not have worded that right) The sire is my avatar, and he is bay sabino splash with blue eyes. So if it all pans out I should be asking the same question next March or April.

 

[denielle johns]

I really dont want to shave her with temps dropping. But I will keep everyone posted, right now she looks very black under the fuzz.

 

[PaintMeFancy]

My instinct was grulla - however minis and color seem to be way different then what I am use to in the big horse world!

 

[mshasta88]

I don;t know what to say, but to me, I still think she looks buckskin. I really don't see grulla.

I do agree... I think we are definitely looking at a horse with the cream gene but I'm still thinking that Dunskin is a good possibility as well.

You could probably just clip above the back of her knee to see if there is leg barring sense it is getting colder. Again, leg barring doesn't need to be there for dun factor but it helps when it is because then you know for sure what color you are dealing with.

 

[mshasta88]

My instinct was grulla - however minis and color seem to be way different then what I am use to in the big horse world!

Again the difference is that most large horse don't have the silver gene. All the same color combos of miniatures happen in most large horses just without the silver gene thrown in the mix.



There is however several breeds of large horses that do have the silver gene like, Rocky Mountains, Morgan’s, est... and it has even been recorded in quarter horses but is very uncommon.