Tested Pony: MCC's Duchess of the Clouds

The featured tested pony this week is solid bay MCC's Duchess of the Clouds. She was born at Midwest Chincoteague Connection in Wisconsin and is now owned by Hart's Island Pony Ranch. She's a Misty descendant through her chestnut tobiano sire Misty's Red Cloud. Misty's Red Cloud's sire Island Wildfire was born on Assateague and is by the prolific Tornado. Her buckskin dam MCC's Gun Smoked Moon is a few generations off the island but descends from Gunner's Moon, Circuit Breaker, and Tornado.

Duchess's basic genetic makeup as a bay is E/e and A/a. E is extension which gives her black pigment. The small e is from her chestnut sire and that tells us she carries recessive chestnut. A/a means she has one copy of agouti. Agouti tells black to stay on the points, making her a bay.

She doesn't have any primitive markings (like dorsal stripe or leg barring) and she tested as nd1/nd2. nd1 causes primitive markings and nd2 takes them away. Having both means a pony might or might not have any. In her case she doesn't.

Her dam is a buckskin but Duchess didn't inherit the cream dilution. Cream is a you have it or you don't. Duchess can't produce a cream dilute foal on her own even though she's the daughter of one.

Duchess the solid bay fascinatingly has two white patterns. She tested to have one copy each of White 35 and Eden White 2. Much like her herdmate Assateague's Spirited Lady who I've already featured. Both of her white patterns were found within the past year so we don't know much about them. Because both have been found in a wide variety of breeds that means they are quite old and not recent mutations. And why a solid bay can have both and not have any white markings. Perhaps something is suppressing the white markings, maybe two are needed to appear, or maybe they're boosters that need another white pattern to appear. That's the fun thing about new discoveries like these. We get to find out as they happen!

I've now run out of Rebekah's ponies to feature. Thanks for testing your entire breeding herd! She has the first Chincoteagues to test positive for White 34, White 35, Eden White 2, and Eden White 3.