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This is a really interesting historical mare. She developed a ton of birdcatcher spots that she kept until she died. The first picture of Kathy O'Dette's is from Pony Penning 1986 before the mare had any spots. The next photo of Kathy's is from 1995 and she's covered in birdcatcher spots. Still has them in 2000 as an aged mare when Jaye Okolovitch photographed her at the Carnival Grounds. I saw her at Pony Penning 2001 and it seems she passed away that year. Birdcatcher spots themselves don't appear to be genetic. They're currently thought to be the result of an allergic reaction to bug bites. Some ponies have the spots pop up and go away, others like this mare keep them once they have them. More info and pictures of birdcatcher spots: https://www.thecolorfulchincoteague.com/birdcatcher.html Something else that makes her interesting is I think she may have been another breed or a partbred Chincoteague. She was really big compared to her herdmates. She had an unusual C2 brand on her neck, have found 2 other mares that had that too. Have no idea what that means if anything. Though the other two mares with that brand were also big mares. Something to ponder. Chincoteague Pony outcross history: https://www.thecolorfulchincoteague.com/outcrosshistory.html Unfortunately I haven't figured out her name. She has an identification number brand on her left shoulder that starts with A, but that's all I've been able to make out. You can see the brand in the 1995 and 2000 photos. If anyone can make it out or has more info on her I'd love you!
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Today's featured tested pony is Chincoteague's Leaping a Wind O' Feathers, aka Tallulah. She's a yearling born on Assateague in 2023. Her sire is bay tobiano Maverick and dam is the bay tobiano Chickadee, both still live on Assateague. Tallulah is a chestnut and is a good example of chestnut being recessive as both of her parents are bay. She tested as e/e as all chestnuts do. The chestnut from her sire likely came from Maverick's dam was a chestnut tobiano. Her dam Chickadee's recessive chestnut came from her chestnut tobiano sire. She tested as homozygous for agouti or A/A. Agouti is what causes the black on bays to be only on the pony's points. Since Tallulah doesn't have any black her two copies of agouti has nothing to do. But it's interesting that both of her bay parents passed it on to her! Tallulah doesn't have a dorsal stripe or any other primitive markings. Her test shows that as she has two copies on non-dun2. The nd2 mutation removes primitive markings. Finally the most interesting part is her pinto pattern. Tallulah is visibly a tobiano like both of her parents. She inherited one copy of tobiano which shows up as TO/n on her test. Since she only has one copy then only one of her parents passed it on to her. Tallulah tested as having two of the Sabino/White group of pinto patterns, W34 and W35. She's only one of two Chincoteageus tested as having both White 34 and White 35. W34 or W35 likely made her have a blaze as it often does that. I don't have a lot of info on how the mix of these three pinto patterns can act. My guess is she may have a bit more white having all three than if she was tobiano only. Thanks to Tallulah's owner Bailey Hering for testing her and sharing the results!    Here's another smoky black colt produced by the perlino mare Blonde. He's likely sired by the chestnut tobiano Cherokee Chief as Blonde was in his herd for many years. That makes him a half brother to last week's smoky black colt. His full sister is Tidewater Treasure who was born the next year; she lived on Assateague from 2018-2022 and is the dam of current feral mare Tidewater's Reflection of Ace. He was auction number A25 at the 1999 auction, also his dam's identification number. I checked my photos from 1999 but I didn't get a picture of him. These were taken by Jaye Okolovitch. He's a tobiano unlike his half brother, which was inherited from his sire. He looks to be a bit more of a normal looking black than last week's colt. He has a bit of the funky looking black color, along with some sunfading. Double dilutes like Blonde can only produce cream dilute foals so that's why we know he's a smoky black. More about smoky blacks: https://www.thecolorfulchincoteague.com/smokyblack.html 
Last week examined the color test results of a 2024 smoky black colt. Here's another from 2003. This guy hasn't be color tested that I know of, but we know he's a smoky black because his dam was the perlino Blonde. Perlinos like Blondie always pass one copy of the cream dilution to their offspring. The likely sire of the colt was chestnut Surfer Dude. This guy went through some interesting color changes in his first few months of life. He had that odd black color of many smoky blacks in spades. In the first photo Linda Insley took of him as a newborn he had some really cool foal primitive markings, shoulder stripes and leg barring. He also had a non-dun1 dorsal stripe. All but that dorsal stripe had disappeared by the time I saw him at Pony Penning. He had also darkened up. He faded again after Pony Penning when Jean Bonde took the last photo. Likely fading in the sun like so many black ponies do. I ran across a photo of him online in a sale ad some time later and he was named Hoochie Coochie Man. I've apparently lost the photo but I do remember he was definitely black. There was a good bit of discussion about this colt in the old email digest group back in 03. A lot of people were calling him dun and I definitely see why now! He didn't look it when I saw him but as a newborn he looked all the world like a grulla.    This flashy 2024 foal Surfer's Blue Knight of Tides has a lot going on in his genetics! He was born on Assateague this year and is sired by Tornado's Prince of Tides and is out of the popular CLG Surfer's Blue Moon. Knight's basic makeup as a black shows up as E/e and a/a. E/e means he has one copy of black (E) and one copy of chestnut/red (e). Since his sire is a palomino (diluted chestnut) he had no choice but to inherit one copy of chestnut. The a/a means he doesn't have agouti, if he did he'd be bay. His primitive markings test came up as nd1/nd2. He doesn't have any primitive markings which checks out with his test results. They only sometimes have some when testing like he does. Knight does have gold hair in his ears. We used to think that was a sign of a smoky black but has been proven to be a sign of a foal having non-dun1, aka nd1, and his test showed that he does. Because Knight's a black with a palomino sire there was a 50% chance he could be a smoky black. Smoky blacks have the cream dilution, but can't express it because cream only dilutes red pigment. Knight tested as CR/n so he is a smoky black! He has a slightly off colored black color common to many smoky blacks. I noticed that about him when I saw him at Pony Penning. Now to his pinto pattern. He visually has tobiano and he tested that way as TO/n. He inherited one copy of tobiano from his palomino tobiano sire. Knight's dam appears to have splashed white and family members have tested as having splashed white 1. Like his dam's family he also tested to have splashed white 1, aka SW1. To add to his pinto pattern mix Knight also tested as having one copy of Eden White 3 aka EDXW3. He's one of six Chincoteagues tested as having EDXW3 so far. Thanks to Knight's owner Bekka Ortega for testing him! 
This flashy little foal from 1991 is likely a full sibling to Surfer Dude. That's their dam Gremlin and they were in the band of Broken Jaw. Haven't been able to tell if it's a colt or a filly. Like it's year younger sibling this foal also appears to have splashed white. That crooked blaze and flashy socks definitely say splash.  White patterns can be sneaky. What might look like everyday white markings might tell a different story genetically. The second most common white pattern in Chincoteagues is splashed white and it commonly only puts normal looking white markings on a pony. Splashed white: https://www.thecolorfulchincoteague.com/splash.html This pretty mare only has a stripe and two little socks. We can't test a pony that died over 20 years ago, but we can say pretty positively that she had splashed white. This is Surfer Dude's dam Gremlin. Multiple descendants of hers have tested to have splashed white 1. Her son and a couple grandsons have sired distinctively marked homozygous splashed whites. Like this color tested mare Wave Runner’s Artistic Expression - Chincoteague Pony. Gremlin was born in 1979 and her dam was a solid dark chestnut. Her sire was the bay tobiano (also apparently splashed white) Gordo. She was in the band of solid chestnut stallion Simon for about 10 years. After Simon passed away Gremlin was in the band of solid bay Broken Jaw until he passed away in 1994. We've seen recently how solids were tested to have white patterns, multiple ones even, but it's rare for splashed white to do so. It has happened, but doesn't appear to be the case with these two stallions. She produced flashy/splashy foals with both stallions so it seems she was the source.   Another new page on the website! This one is on puzzle coat. It's the odd looking area on Riptide's neck in this photo where it looks like the texture is different. It's thought to be related to metabolic issues. https://www.thecolorfulchincoteague.com/puzzle-coat.html I'm hunting for more examples through 50+ years of photos I've collected. If you've spotted a Chincoteague with puzzle coat let me know!  The featured tested pony this week is solid bay MCC's Duchess of the Clouds. She was born at Midwest Chincoteague Connection in Wisconsin and is now owned by Hart's Island Pony Ranch. She's a Misty descendant through her chestnut tobiano sire Misty's Red Cloud. Misty's Red Cloud's sire Island Wildfire was born on Assateague and is by the prolific Tornado. Her buckskin dam MCC's Gun Smoked Moon is a few generations off the island but descends from Gunner's Moon, Circuit Breaker, and Tornado. Duchess's basic genetic makeup as a bay is E/e and A/a. E is extension which gives her black pigment. The small e is from her chestnut sire and that tells us she carries recessive chestnut. A/a means she has one copy of agouti. Agouti tells black to stay on the points, making her a bay. She doesn't have any primitive markings (like dorsal stripe or leg barring) and she tested as nd1/nd2. nd1 causes primitive markings and nd2 takes them away. Having both means a pony might or might not have any. In her case she doesn't. Her dam is a buckskin but Duchess didn't inherit the cream dilution. Cream is a you have it or you don't. Duchess can't produce a cream dilute foal on her own even though she's the daughter of one. Duchess the solid bay fascinatingly has two white patterns. She tested to have one copy each of White 35 and Eden White 2. Much like her herdmate Assateague's Spirited Lady who I've already featured. Both of her white patterns were found within the past year so we don't know much about them. Because both have been found in a wide variety of breeds that means they are quite old and not recent mutations. And why a solid bay can have both and not have any white markings. Perhaps something is suppressing the white markings, maybe two are needed to appear, or maybe they're boosters that need another white pattern to appear. That's the fun thing about new discoveries like these. We get to find out as they happen! I've now run out of Rebekah's ponies to feature. Thanks for testing your entire breeding herd! She has the first Chincoteagues to test positive for White 34, White 35, Eden White 2, and Eden White 3.    Medicine hat marked ponies are popular and here's a pretty much perfect one from 2000. This blue eyed colt was the last foal of Dixieland Delight. You can see her behind him in the corral photo. Dixieland Delight's identification number was 26, as was his auction number. Medicine hat markings come about from a pony having more than one pinto pattern. The areas that still have color, chest and flanks, indicate the colt has tobiano. The interesting part is Dixieland Delight appears to be part of the sabino roan family. She may have been the dam of A Touch of Dust, aka Peaches. So this colt was likely had sabino as well as tobiano, which resulted in him having medicine hat markings. Thank you to Jaye Okolovitch for the pictures!     |
Amanda Geci
Info and updates about Chincoteague Pony Color. These are also posted to my Facebook Page. Archives
November 2024
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