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!
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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. |
Amanda Geci
Info and updates about Chincoteague Pony Color. These are also posted to my Facebook Page. Archives
February 2025
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