Historical Pony: Blonde's 2003 Colt

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.