Tested Pony: Surfer's Blue Knight of Tides

This flashy 2024 foal Surfer's Blue Knight of Tides has a lot going on in his genetics! He was born on Assateague this year and is sired by Tornado's Prince of Tides and is out of the popular CLG Surfer's Blue Moon.

Knight's basic makeup as a black shows up as E/e and a/a. E/e means he has one copy of black (E) and one copy of chestnut/red (e). Since his sire is a palomino (diluted chestnut) he had no choice but to inherit one copy of chestnut. The a/a means he doesn't have agouti, if he did he'd be bay.

His primitive markings test came up as nd1/nd2. He doesn't have any primitive markings which checks out with his test results. They only sometimes have some when testing like he does. Knight does have gold hair in his ears. We used to think that was a sign of a smoky black but has been proven to be a sign of a foal having non-dun1, aka nd1, and his test showed that he does.

Because Knight's a black with a palomino sire there was a 50% chance he could be a smoky black. Smoky blacks have the cream dilution, but can't express it because cream only dilutes red pigment. Knight tested as CR/n so he is a smoky black! He has a slightly off colored black color common to many smoky blacks. I noticed that about him when I saw him at Pony Penning.

Now to his pinto pattern. He visually has tobiano and he tested that way as TO/n. He inherited one copy of tobiano from his palomino tobiano sire. Knight's dam appears to have splashed white and family members have tested as having splashed white 1. Like his dam's family he also tested to have splashed white 1, aka SW1. To add to his pinto pattern mix Knight also tested as having one copy of Eden White 3 aka EDXW3. He's one of six Chincoteagues tested as having EDXW3 so far.

Thanks to Knight's owner Bekka Ortega for testing him!