Historical Pony: Gremlin

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.