Last Summer's Addition

[KittenInTheTree]

Today's update involves winter floof and mud...lots of both! It's far too cold to risk giving her a bath.


And because he can't be left out, the roan beast:

 

[EarsofaSnowman]

That last photo of Blossom - I don't care how muddy, I want to kiss that nose???

 

[ArklePig]

She's amazing, you must be so chuffed with her.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

She's amazing, you must be so chuffed with her.

Very much so, yes! She's been an absolute delight to raise, and I'm going to be extremely picky about who I sell her to

 

[Annagain]

I think she's decided you can't sell her.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Update: I measured Blossom again today. She's filled out a bit since last year, and now has 9 1/4" of bone. She's also only 13.1hh/135cm in height. I decided to check the latter, as I kept thinking that she looked too short to be 14.1hh by my eye, and it turns out that I was right. My husband read the tape measure for me last time, and he's recently had a diagnosis of dyscalculia, which means that he has difficulty with numbers. We'll ignore his having been actively hiding this difficulty from me and everyone else around him until now, and move on to the photos!

As you can see, the filly and the roan creature have both had haircuts:

 

[[153312]]

Please sell her to me so I can have matchy matchy mares. I love her, and think she is probably few spot + white patterns and/or grey.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Please sell her to me so I can have matchy matchy mares. I love her, and think she is probably few spot + white patterns and/or grey.

Lol, at least there isn't much colour on her to grey out!

Talking about colours, I often wonder how the roan ended up not grey. His dam is bay, and his sire is buckskin. Both of his grandsires are grey (and a bit famous, apparently). But he's ten this year, and aside from a few silver hairs in his mane, he hasn't lost his colour.

 

[Cortez]

Lol, at least there isn't much colour on her to grey out!

Talking about colours, I often wonder how the roan ended up not grey. His dam is bay, and his sire is buckskin. Both of his grandsires are grey (and a bit famous, apparently). But he's ten this year, and aside from a few silver hairs in his mane, he hasn't lost his colour.

A horse can only be grey if it has at least one parent which is grey. Two grey parents do not always produce grey offspring, and two non-grey parents will never produce grey.

 

[[153312]]

Lol, at least there isn't much colour on her to grey out!

Talking about colours, I often wonder how the roan ended up not grey. His dam is bay, and his sire is buckskin. Both of his grandsires are grey (and a bit famous, apparently). But he's ten this year, and aside from a few silver hairs in his mane, he hasn't lost his colour.

Because that's not how genetics works lol. Neither parent had the grey gene, else they would have been grey, so he didn't get it, either.
One of his parents must have been roan to pass it on.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Because that's not how genetics works lol. Neither parent had the grey gene, else they would have been grey, so he didn't get it, either.
One of his parents must have been roan to pass it on.

His sire is buckskin, which is still called dun in Connemaras. I'm sure that his dam was recorded as bay the last time that I looked her up, but having checked just now, she is also recorded as dun. So somehow two duns (buckskins) made a bay roan.

Regarding the grey gene, I know how it works, I'm just surprised that given how very many greys there are in both of his parents' immediate ancestry, somehow they, and then in turn he, didn't end up inheriting it!

 

[Hackback]

I'm pretty sure that Buckskin is the cream gene on bay so technically his dam was both bay and buckskin. And I suppose his sire too. I have no idea where the roan gene comes from!

 

[Gloi]

I'm pretty sure that Buckskin is the cream gene on bay so technically his dam was both bay and buckskin. And I suppose his sire too. I have no idea where the roan gene comes from!

Yes. One of the parents must have been roan so either the parents colour has been recorded incorrectly or the sire isn't who he has been said to be.
Are there photos of the parents?

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Yes. One of the parents must have been roan so either the parents colour has been recorded incorrectly or the sire isn't who he has been said to be.
Are there photos of the parents?

I bought my roan as a yearling, from someone who had bought him outside the ring at the sales as a weanling. I've seen photos online of his sire, who definitely looks buckskin. I have no idea what his dam looks like. There have also been a couple of other roans that I saw advertised as having the same sire as him, but different dams, so I've always just presumed that this meant his sire must have had the roan gene.

 

[Gloi]

Are the pictures of the sire good enough that you can tell if he is buckskin roan or not?

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Are the pictures of the sire good enough that you can tell if he is buckskin roan or not?

Tbh, all I see is a yellow horse with black legs, in very bright sunlight.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Having dug about on the internet last night, I have at last found a photograph of the roan's dam! It was on an online auction listing from last autumn for another of her foals, so I don't know if I'm allowed to post it on here as I don't own the image. She's beautiful, and I can see where he got his shape of head from.

She's also unmistakably, 100%, very definitely grey.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Anyhow, getting back to the original subject of the thread, I had a lovely surprise today when I finally got around to checking Blossom's length of back. She's grown a lot more than I had realised, and will actually be able to take a saddle big enough for me, yay! So I'm off to take down her advert now, and to do a bit of online shopping for nice matchy stuff. Suggestions for colours welcome. I'll get her bitted and out in the long reins over this summer, but I'll hold off on backing her until she's six.

 

[Lois Lame]

Having dug about on the internet last night, I have at last found a photograph of the roan's dam! It was on an online auction listing from last autumn for another of her foals, so I don't know if I'm allowed to post it on here as I don't own the image. She's beautiful, and I can see where he got his shape of head from.

She's also unmistakably, 100%, very definitely grey.

Is she definitely only grey though? She is presumably also carrying roan but it's fooling you because she's grey. It would be great to see a picture of her.

You could always start a new thread with a heading like, 'some random grey mare I happened to see online - no idea who she is'.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Is she definitely only grey though? She is presumably also carrying roan but it's fooling you because she's grey. It would be great to see a picture of her.

You could always start a new thread with a heading like, 'some random grey mare I happened to see online - no idea who she is'.

It's not my photograph, and it was part of an online auction. Pretty sure that someone would button push for one or both of those.