Midweek history tidbit from 20 years ago. Since I've been talking about the Maryland herd here's an interesting incident. Maryland stallions Glacier/X24R, Tunkan Hoksila/N10OY, N2BOX, and Spirit of Assateague/T3DHS were rounded up at spring roundup 2004. Here's a couple pictures by Kelly Lidard of three of the stallions in the north corral. The latter three were returned to Maryland the next day.
Glacier wasn't identified as a Maryland horse that day and was missing/presumed deceased by the NPS for a while. His ownership was transferred to the CVFC in 2004 and so was Spirit of Assateague.
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When we headed out to drive the Maryland OSV during Pony Penning week we were greeted by Rosie. Rosie born in 1994 and was found deceased this past Wednesday. I was excited to see her because her damsire is Hot Air Balloon. Hot Air Balloon was transferred to Virginia in 1991 where he was known as Top Gun. He's the second photo, taken by my friend Linda Insley. Hot Air Balloon sired Rosie's dam Sea Breeze in 1988. His other Maryland born foals were Dani and Connie, who don't have any living descendants.
Hot Air Balloon had two blue eyes and I'm pretty sure he had splashed white 1 mixed with tobiano. He appears to be the source of splashed white in multiple descendants of his. It's a challenge to try to trace the source of splashed white in a pony's family. Particularly considering there's no color testing to use and you have to rely on what the ponies look like. He has a couple homozygous splashed white 1 descendants, but it's also possible splashed white could have come from source other than him. Hot Air Balloon has around two dozen descendants in the current Virginia herd. Rosie looks like she has splashed white and tobiano. She produced two foals, the stallions Bodacious Bob and Chestnut. It looked like the late Bodacious Bob and his son Billy Bob also have splashed white mixed with tobiano. Chestnut and foals haven't shown any signs of splashed white, but as sneaky as it can be I wouldn't rule it out. I find it really cool that Hot Air Balloon has many descendants in both herds and his splashed white appears to be in both. So glad I got to see his Maryland granddaughter before she passed. We drove the Assateague Maryland OSV on Sunday of Pony Penning week and I was absolutely delighted to see this old lady. This is Coco who was born in 1995. She's a full sister to chestnut tobiano Spirit of Assateague who was transferred to Virginia in 2003 and died in 2015.
Coco is the last buckskin and the last cream dilute in the Maryland herd. Her only foal Gizmo is a bay so she didn't inherit her dam's cream. Once Coco passes away the cream dilution will be extinct in the Maryland herd. The cream came from Coco's sire Trigger who was a palomino tobiano. We can then trace cream to Trigger's dam Old Faithful, a palomino tobiano. Another offspring of Trigger was Glacier who was transferred to Virginia in 2004. Glacier's son Chief Golden Eagle keeps Old Faithful's cream dilute line alive, but in Virginia instead. Trigger was also the sire of solid bay Centaur who sired popular Virginia stallion Ace's Black Tie Affair during his brief time in Virginia. Coco's half sister Patty was the last solid palomino in Maryland when she died in 2018. Coco's palomino tobiano aunt Ninka (half sister to Trigger) was the last palomino in the herd when she passed last year. I'm thankful I got to see both Coco and Ninka as they are an end of a era in Maryland. Cream Dilute Buckskin Still trying to get caught up from a very busy month so a short post this week. I caught this nice comparison picture of a cremello double cream dilute on the left and a palomino single cream dilute on the right. Was so nice of them to pose for me.
The palomino is a very light shade and so they both look "white". The cremello is paler looking than the palomino. The palomino has dark skin and dark eyes while the cremello has pink skin and blue eyes (if she wasn't blinking!). Both have white manes and tails. Cream Dilute Palomino Palomino Foals Double Dilute Double Dilute Foals |
Amanda Geci
Info and updates about Chincoteague Pony Color. These are also posted to my Facebook Page. Archives
October 2024
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