Weaning Day!

[Michelle Clarke]

Tika and Kahlua are now about five and a half months old and spending more and more time away from their mommas the last two weeks. I've been putting them in the covered pen in the barn in the morning to eat and when they come in again at night for an hour or so. Today was the big day...after breakfast, I took Nesa and Morgan out onto the hill with the Wild Bunch.

Not too much fuss at all from the babies; in fact all was pretty quiet until the mommas got miserable with full bags and hung out at the fence calling. Still, all in all, it was pretty uneventful - thank goodness. I think the yearling fillies were more upset than anyone, since the mares where on the other side of the fence and the babies were not out.

Pict of Morgan and Nesa - not too concerned!



The little ones tucked in for the night...

[lindad]

Gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!

[barbhorses]

Would love to see how similar or not those two sister's are from Charro and Nesa are in the future! Well, what you did find out in regards to genetics is that neither Nesa or Charro are homozygous for the dun gene! I have a habit of trying to envision my own horse's ancestors and their color's. So, it is fun to do the same with other feral horse descendants.

[Michelle Clarke]

I beg to differ on the homozygous for the dun gene...dun reacts differently with other modifiers, such as the sooty, which is what Kahlua is. Charro has had plenty of foals - dozens before I even bought him and the only time we can't see the stripes (most times of the year) is on the black (and now brown) based duns with the sooty or some of the red based with the creme. Of the thirty we've had from Charro, we've only had two that appear black and two that appear palomino. The two black based ones have the same dam (chestnut w/sooty...and out of the five red based she had with Charro, all have been striped) and the two dunalinos have been from light colored pally mommas. All the crossbreds from outside breedings have had stripes also.

There are plenty of horses of other breds that do not have the typical dun markings that have tested positive for the dun gene. Lots of variations out there!

Tika has definate stripes, though I still belive she does not have the creme, just champange and dun. Champagne on red eventuallly looks like a pally anyway - hopefully she keeps the stripes! Her mane and tail started out a strawberry color and has turned white.

Kahlua definately has the sooty and is most likely brown. Her full sister from last year appears to be brown based also, now that I see her along side of the duns this season - she is a much different shade and tone. I am thinking Nesa is homozygous for the brown...dang, I forgot to get hair from her before I turned her out for testing!!!

I know I should do the testing, but I like surprises!

[fantasykiger]

They are darling and look so good. It so refreshing when weaning goes well.

The Charro' colt I had was not a dun, but a bay like his dam. I do a search for him once in awhile online, keep thinking one of these days I will run into him, sure would be nice to see how he grew up.

[barbhorses]

Kahlua looks like she is a sooty bay to me. Thanks for the info Tiffany! Sometimes even though both parents are dun (for some reason or another) the gene doesn't get passed on. I know of a Sulphur mare whose by a grulla stallion named Sulphur's Teguayo who was by a grulla named Takita that was out of a red dun mare named Sulphur's Spice. The bay Sulphur mare's dam is a zebra dun and both of her parents are zebra dun with her grandparents on her mom's side being a grullo and a bay. So, with all that basic consistency in dun factor, somehow this mare came out a dark bay! lol

Here is a link to her pedigree: www.allbreedpedigree.com/breeze37
There isn't a Sulphur breed option, so I just put them down as a generic Iberian or Spanish purebred. I have asked them to put up a Sulphur option, but I never got a response back and they never added it

[Michelle Clarke]

Babies sound asleep this morning...Tika resting her head on Kahlua and snoring!



Thanks for sharing Tiffany....did you own the mare and have her bred? Any pictures of him?

I don't think Kahlua is bay...she has light areas in the muzzle, armpits and flank areas. Classic signs of brown.

[fantasykiger]

Yes, I owned the mare. She is my Warm Springs Mustang mare Salsa after she had Fantasy I took her back to Rick and had her bred to Charro'
Salsa pictured here

with the colt from Charro just a week old

I sold the colt at 8mths old his SMKR registered name is Flash of Kiger, pictured here before he was sold

I know Salsa was bred to a dun stallion a total of 5 times, 4 times by myself. Three out of the 5 foals were dun, the other two bay.
Kahlua looks brown to me as well..it is quite a contrast in the stall with the dark and light babies and they sure are adorable sleeping side by side, Kahlua must make a good pillow

I was admiring your website..again and all the pretty horses. They are just wonderful so hard to pick favorites

[barbhorses]

Ah ok, so she is a seal brown or some call it a seal bay. I wonder how similar she will look to her sister Luna?

[DianneC]

Tiffany, did you do dna testing to make sure the foal was from Charro? I know I bought a foal that was supposed to be out of Silverado and was out of Bucky instead. That happened more than once I've been told.

[fantasykiger]

All I know is I dropped Salsa off at Rick's place and I put her in a large paddock with Charro' ..Rick was not doing in-hand breeding, so she was left in that paddock with some other mares he was breeding to Charro at the time. Rick was never able to get close to Salsa, after a few weeks he called me up and asked me to come get my mare. When I went to pick her up she was was still in the same paddock with Charro and all the other mares were gone. I had no reason to doubt him or think he would switch stallions, I know at that time he could not have handled Salsa. I was brand new to Kigers back then and the thought of dna testing would not have even occured to me.

[stormyranch]

I love Kaluahs color! Beautiful babies!!!