Will she shed out to dun?

[desperatehorsewife]

She was listed as brown, and certainly looks it, but there's a definite stripe down her back. So...will she shed out to dun? What do you think?

[DianneC]

She's what I call dark dun. She won't get any lighter but won't lose her dorsal stripe either. There is some evidence that the sooty gene causes dark grullas so perhaps it makes dark duns as well. The sooty gene is not well understood.

[fantasykiger]

I tell you I think they mislabeled her color, I agree with DianneC she is a dark Dun and I for one can not wait to see her pictures all shed out this summer.

[desperatehorsewife]

I was thinking she'd probably shed to a dark dun. Not that it matters to us much. Can't ride a color, after all, but we do know that color will bring more money when it comes time for resale

[stlkigers]

Tracey:

I say she'll stay a dark dun, most people will call her a brown though since they won't look for a dorsal stripe and she will probably remain as dark as she is now...That's my vote! Let us know in the spring!

Angela

[sonrisa98]

whats a line back bay look like?

[DianneC]

Depends on who is talking I think, kind of like silver grulla. There are two kinds of dorsal stripes. The dun stripe is hard edged and is sometimes called an eel stripe. The sooty gene or countershading also makes a dorsal stripe but it has soft edges. And horse can be both dun and sooty. There are horses, even some Arabs and a lot of Spanish horses, that have a dorsal stripe that is hard edged and may also have other dun factor markings. Since Spanish horses have Sorraia in their background that doesn't surprise me. And the Moors invaded Spain and were there for a while so could be that's where some Arabs get it too.
Where there is a dorsal stripe but the body color isn't diluted there are three possibilities: 1) It isn't dun but some form of countershading 2) It is dun with a sooty gene that puts black back into the body color. There are two forms of sooty, one that darkens the topline and head and one that darkens the whole coat. 3) that dun is a cluster of genes and the body lightening part has been lost due to mutation 4) There is a new form of the bay gene called the brown gene. It is the agouti gene (bay) that doesn't lighten the body coat. The horses test positive for the agouti gene but have a darker coat and lighter muzzle. I saw many of these in this last adoption and they were called brown. This was something I hadn't seen much of before in the Kiger herd. It could be that these dark duns are actually brown duns. This is a very likely explanation.

However, the dark grullas that we see test negative for the agouti gene so there is something else going on as well and it is the sooty gene. So the sooty gene is present in the herds. See the other threads in this category for more information on dark grullas.

[desperatehorsewife]

Here she is now, six months later! I didn't take a pic of her back, but that line is good and solid, I'd guess nearly 2" wide and very obvious when you look at the top of her back.

So...dark dun?

She has very, very faint striping if you want to look hard above her knees, but mostly on the inside of her legs. Hard to see because of how dark she is. Same with shoulder barring.

So...who wants to buy a raffle ticket for this girl? ;D

[kimk]

Ron H mentioned to me at the last adoption that he felt a lot of those "brown" horses were brindle. He said to keep a close eye on them. Any evidence of that?

[fantasykiger]

My daughter's dark bay half Kiger Cleo has brindle markings on her shoulder, so it would not surprise me if brindle does show up on some of those horses. I have heard of others as well having simular vertical stripes in their bodies.

[desperatehorsewife]

No evidence of brindle. I think some folks confuse a little bit of barring with brindle, myself. Brindle tends to be textured; the hair rises up along the stripes.