Historical Pony: Dreamcatcher

Another dark bay or brown tobiano is this week's historical pony. This is Dreamcatcher, born in 1997. Her 2010 foal is peeking out behind her in the second photo, he was also a brown. Nothing is known about her parents, despite many of our best efforts. Dreamcatcher's only foal kept for the herd was the short lived Dreamdancer so she has no descendants in the current herd.

Browns like Dreamcatcher test the same as bays, but there is likely some genetic difference. The brown tint to her coat and shows us she wasn't black. And she was far too dark to be a regular bay. More about browns on my website: https://www.thecolorfulchincoteague.com/brown.html

Dreamcatcher also carried a recessive mutation for a curly coat. Dreamdancer and a 2011 full brother had curly coats. Because it's the recessive version of curly (there's a dominant version too) the sire Wild Bill had to have carried it also. Recessive traits requires two copies to be inherited for the trait to be seen. Since recessive traits can be carried unknown for generations it's unknown where it came from.