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.
0 Comments
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! New page on The Colorful Chincoteague! Wave Runner's Kenzie finally provided me a good example of rabicano roaning in Chincoteague Ponies. Rabicano roaning is often characterized by white roaning on the tailhead, known as skunk tail, that Kenzie is showing us.
The new page on rabicano roaning is found here: https://www.thecolorfulchincoteague.com/rabicano.html The 1993 palomino mare Honeysuckle Morning had back to back double dilute foals in 1999 and 2000. A filly in 1999 and a colt in 2000. Honeysuckle Morning's identification number was A36 so these foals' auction number was also A36, that was the norm for many years. Don't know enough about her to say who the sire of the foals likely are. The only cream dilute stallions on Assateague at the time were Gunner's Moon, Tornado, and Copper Moose so one of them has to be the sire.
Many thanks to Jaye Okolovitch for sharing her photos! I've already featured these ponies but more testing info has come out! These two mares from Hart’s Island Pony Ranch were tested to have Eden White 3 or EDXW3. The pretty palomino pinto is Rolling Bay Sugar Pixie, a homozygous tobiano. The second is solid perlino MCC's Scottish Princess.
Thanks to Rebekah for the pictures and for testing her ponies! |
Amanda Geci
Info and updates about Chincoteague Pony Color. These are also posted to my Facebook Page. Archives
February 2025
Categories |