Hot Air Balloon and Splashed White

When we headed out to drive the Maryland OSV during Pony Penning week we were greeted by Rosie. Rosie born in 1994 and was found deceased this past Wednesday. I was excited to see her because her damsire is Hot Air Balloon. Hot Air Balloon was transferred to Virginia in 1991 where he was known as Top Gun. He's the second photo, taken by my friend Linda Insley. Hot Air Balloon sired Rosie's dam Sea Breeze in 1988. His other Maryland born foals were Dani and Connie, who don't have any living descendants.

Hot Air Balloon had two blue eyes and I'm pretty sure he had splashed white 1 mixed with tobiano. He appears to be the source of splashed white in multiple descendants of his. It's a challenge to try to trace the source of splashed white in a pony's family. Particularly considering there's no color testing to use and you have to rely on what the ponies look like. He has a couple homozygous splashed white 1 descendants, but it's also possible splashed white could have come from source other than him. Hot Air Balloon has around two dozen descendants in the current Virginia herd.

Rosie looks like she has splashed white and tobiano. She produced two foals, the stallions Bodacious Bob and Chestnut. It looked like the late Bodacious Bob and his son Billy Bob also have splashed white mixed with tobiano. Chestnut and foals haven't shown any signs of splashed white, but as sneaky as it can be I wouldn't rule it out.

I find it really cool that Hot Air Balloon has many descendants in both herds and his splashed white appears to be in both. So glad I got to see his Maryland granddaughter before she passed.