Tested Pony: Rose Bud's Romeo

This is 2024 colt Rose Bud's Romeo. He's by bay tobiano Henry's Hidalgo and out of buckskin tobiano Molly's Rosebud. Both currently live on Assateague. Romeo is a chestnut minimal tobiano.

Romeo is a example of chestnut being recessive. Chestnuts have to receive one copy of red from each parent. We know from his parent's pedigrees where their hidden red came from. Henry Hidalgo's dam was a chestnut and Molly's Rosebud's sire was a chestnut. Chestnuts always pass one copy on to all their foals so those chestnuts passed red on to Romeo's parents.

He tested as A/a meaning he inherited one copy of agoui. Agouti creates bays by restricting their black color to their points. Both of Romeo's parents are bay but he only inherited one copy. Since he's a chestnut agouti doesn't have anything to do on him. On chestnuts we only know it's there through testing.

Romeo is a tobiano pinto and both of his parents are too. He tested as TO/n which means he only inherited one copy of tobiano. Also known as heterozygous for tobiano. His sire Henry's Hidalgo appears to have splashed white (from his dam Thetis) but Romeo didn't inherit it.

His dam Molly's Rosebud is a buckskin but he didn't inherit cream. The cream dilution is dominant so a pony either has it or they don't. As a chestnut he doesn't.

Romeo's dam Molly's Rosebud and granddam Merry Teapot's High Bid are minimal tobianos and so is he. Something causes tobiano to be restricted like that and we can see in his family how it appears to be genetic. But we don't know more than that and it's not testable.

Thanks to his owner Colleen for testing him and sharing the results!