Is this horse going to change colour?

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Alphamare

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I am interested in buying an appaloosa. The colouring is like these

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=appa...=O0PBTq8bg4byA4roma0E&zoom=1&biw=1366&bih=639

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=appa...=O0PBTq8bg4byA4roma0E&zoom=1&biw=1366&bih=639

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=appa...=O0PBTq8bg4byA4roma0E&zoom=1&biw=1366&bih=639

Especially the first and last one.

Will he stay this colour or will he change to something else? The bay part of him has quite a bit of white hair in it and on his face.

Thanks
 
Its hard to say, alot of appolosa's are born for example bay, and dont get their spots until 3 or even 4. If you like a horse and it has a good attitude and conformation, dont think colour really matters.
 
DaisyDoll said:
sorry have no idea but what beautiful colouring! my appy doesnt even have spots :(
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he is beautiful and i am interested in him not because he is an appy but because he is what i am looking for :)

I dont like the ones with only white covered in spots and i am worried he will turn this way as there was a thread on here about varnish? I am not sure what that is though!

He is older than 4
 
One of your example horses (Dance With Wolves) has changed from this

Dancer.jpg


to this.

dance_1.jpg
 
What a change!!

My appy is bright bay with no spots and his mum is bay leopard
spot and I have noticed extremely small patches of sparse white hair in places could he be Turning spotty! :eek:
 
Do you know his breeding? Look at is ancestors and see if there is any genetic clues there.

Not full proof, but I think you can often tell if they are likely to roan/grey/varnish out by looking at their legs as foals. If they have dark legs on their first coat they are likely to grey or roan/varnish in my experience.
 
Alphamare said:
He is only half appaloosa. His sire is a few spot and his mum is a warmblood.
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A proper few-spot (i.e born that colour) or a greyed out spotty? Quiet a few of the "few spots" I see advertised for sale aren't fewspots at all, same with leopards, most of the are just near leopards.
 
My Lad as a yearling
vardiasayearling.jpg


I bought him aged 3
nevada2.jpg


Aged 5 in his "Summer Whites"
vadiandhisbestmatemac.jpg



Aged six Summer 2011
mmmfood.jpg


Winter 2011
lindyvardi.jpg


So yep expect a change not only over the years but season to season:-) Vardi is a warmblood X Appy and is now considered a "Varnish"
 
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Alphamare said:
How do I know if he will stay the same or is a varnish?
Click to expand...

http://www.sporthorse-data.com/d?d=the+commandant&sex=&color=&dog_breed=any&birthyear=&birthland=

http://www.appaloosa.org.uk/allotherhorses.htm

If you look at the half siblings a few appear to be carrying the varnish gene (not inherited as I believe dam wasn't a spotty) so I think it is a possibility that he could change colour.

Edited to add, If you like him does it really matter? Good horses are hard to come by and if he ticks every other box I wouldn't worry about him losing/changing his colours.
 
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We had a leopard spotted pony who was registered as a British Spotted Pony. In his passport there was a litle statement saying 'may fade to grey'. His sire (Wanstells White Surrey) faded to grey. I don't know if appaloosas have the same warning in the passport?
 
If you look on my album on here there's photo's of my bright bay varnish Appaloosa (or so we think that's her colour). She's actually gone darker as she's aged, legs darker, back stayed white but face darker too. Funny enough I don't really like spottys and I'm not a massive fan of gems colouring but she (and I believe most appaloosa's are) extremely talented at most disciplines.

Gems dad was a knabstrupper and her mother was a bright bay warmblood. :-)
 
My baby was the most gorgeous liver chestnut with white marbling when I bought her at 2. She is now (11) almost pure white with a rose grey pattern. I love her anyway but I would have prefered her not to change. She was born bay though with pink skin, carries an albino gene so yours may not colour out as badly as she has. :(

My youngster (arab x knab) started a chocolate colour background and at 5 is now a lovely dark blue with white blanket.
 
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