Sooty, also known as smutty, is a scattering of dark hairs mixed into the body color. Ponies with sooty will often be darker on their face, looking like a dark mask. If sooty is very dark along the spine it can appear to be a false dorsal stripe. Vivid dappling is common and it looks different than dappling from good health.
The look of sooty varies with different colors. It's quite dramatic looking on buckskins and palominos. The black hairs are scattered across the coat, often with dapples, and darker on the joints. Palominos are often called chocolate palominos and usually have black hairs mixed into their white manes and tails. Sooty bays will have dark shading and can dapple. On chestnut sooty darkens the coat more uniformly and adds black hairs to the mane and tail. The joints on sooty chestnut will sometimes be darker.
The look of sooty varies with different colors. It's quite dramatic looking on buckskins and palominos. The black hairs are scattered across the coat, often with dapples, and darker on the joints. Palominos are often called chocolate palominos and usually have black hairs mixed into their white manes and tails. Sooty bays will have dark shading and can dapple. On chestnut sooty darkens the coat more uniformly and adds black hairs to the mane and tail. The joints on sooty chestnut will sometimes be darker.
The expression of sooty can be minimal to very dark. There's a couple of well known examples where a palomino looked almost black it was so sooty. It can appear and darken as a pony ages. Foals aren't sooty but start to develop it as they reach adulthood. In some ponies it's seasonal, often sooty in winter but not in summer.
Sooty is genetic in some way as it runs in families. The genetic mechanism isn't known and it's very possible there are multiple genetically different versions of sooty. It could also be from multiple genes, known as polygenic. Similar traits in other species were found to be polygenic.
There are many instances of sooty in Chincoteagues. Some of the more well known sooty families are descendants of the stallions:
Surfer Dude/Surfer's Riptide
Gunner's Moon
Tuffer Than Leather
Surfer Dude/Surfer's Riptide
Gunner's Moon
Tuffer Than Leather
|
|
Sooty flaxen chestnut splashed white in winter and summer coats.
Surfer Dude's Gidget (Surfer Dude x Virginia Belle) Pedigree |
|
Sooty buckskin yearling.
Sea Star Sandy Too (Ace's Black Tie Affair x Jessica's Sea Star Sandy) Pedigree |
|
Sooty palomino. Sire sired multiple sooty ponies.
Misty's Twist O' Mist (Tuffer Than Leather x Misty's MayDayTwister) Pedigree |
|
Sooty buckskin. Dam has sooty characteristics.
Zebie Beebe Bella (Lightning of Chincoteague x Little Beebe) Pedigree |
|
Sooty chestnut in winter coat. The black hairs mixed into her mane is a characteristic of sooty chestnuts.
TSG's Elusive Star (Wild Bill x Fuddy Duddy) Pedigree |
|
|
Sooty chestnut splashed white.
Wave Runner's Phantom of the Waves (Surfer Dude x Diamond's Jewel) Pedigree Photo courtesy of Rebekah Hart. |
|
|
Sooty dark bay as a newborn and as an adult. Sire sired multiple sooty ponies and dam is a sooty buckskin.
Peregrin Took (Tuffer Than Leather x Zebie Beebe Bella) Pedigree Foal photo courtesy of Matt DesJardins |
|
|
Sooty palomino tobiano.
Rolling Bay Sugar Pixie (Lewis' Bailey Boy x Sweet Breeze of Chincoteague) Pedigree Photos courtesy of Rebekah Hart. |
|
Sooty buckskin. Both of her parents were sooty buckskins.
Poco Latte PW (Gunner's Moon x Misty Dawn) Pedigree |
|
|
Sooty palomino tobiano as a young mare and as an elderly mare.
Starfish Pedigree 1981 photo courtesy of Deb Noll 2004 photo by Kelly Lidard |
|
|
|
Sooty chestnut as a foal and as a yearling. From a known sooty family.
SCC Surfer's Point Break (Archer's Gambit x Surfer Dude's Gidget) Pedigree Foal photo courtesy of Rebekah Hart |
|
|
Sooty palomino.
Unknown feral mare. Photos courtesy of Jaye Okolovitch and Kathy O'Dette |