Mostly white

C

Cowpony

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 May 2013
Messages
3,592
Visit site
Just musing on some comments I've seen on here about coloured horses which are mainly white. I'll declare an interest here - my mare is mainly white, and I'd be the first to admit that she's not as pretty as a horse with more colour, but some of the comments seem to suggest a deeper-rooted antipathy to this type of horse than mere aesthetics. Can anybody shed any light? Don't feel you have to be polite, I love my horse to bits and nothing anybody can say will change that, I'm just interested. Are they considered not as well bred, for example?
 
When I was a child 'coloured' horses were not sought after and I knew people who bred and if the foal was born coloured they gave it away as they saw it as worthless. I would assume it is people of a certain age who do not appreciate coloureds due to this past attitude. I struggle to appreciate coloureds because of this in built thinking going back a long way.
 
Thanks, that's an interesting insight. My question was more about the attitude to horses which are mainly white though. I'm aware of the usual prejudices held by some people about coloured horses in general, but the mainly white comments seem to come from people who have or like coloured horses.
 
My coloured is mainly white as well, but I think a lot of people like the colouring to be symmetrical and also and equal amount of colour and White and I would agree that this looks nicer but I still would choose my boy over anything else ;)
 
How could anybody not love this:
attachment.php
 
As I said I am not a massive fan but the one coloured I fell in love with had a brown head and a brown patch on his bum, the rest white and I thought he was stunning and very unusual. Everyone has their own view and to be honest I haven't really noticed that people dislike horses with more white than ones with more colour. I know plenty of people who wouldn't look at a chestnut with white socks and blaze, everyone to their own. Cowpony, your's has a lovely head and it wouldn't matter what colour she was.
 
She looks like she is splashed white, which is much rarer than those common tobianos! That's what I would say, anyway. She's gorgeous.
 
This is just a guess as I know very little about coloured horses - is it because the white bits usually have pink skin which is can be sensitive and prone to sunburn/skin problems etc.
 
Crugeran Celt said:
As I said I am not a massive fan but the one coloured I fell in love with had a brown head and a brown patch on his bum, the rest white and I thought he was stunning and very unusual. Everyone has their own view and to be honest I haven't really noticed that people dislike horses with more white than ones with more colour. I know plenty of people who wouldn't look at a chestnut with white socks and blaze, everyone to their own. Cowpony, your's has a lovely head and it wouldn't matter what colour she was.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I do subscribe to the saying that a good horse can't be a bad colour. I've never heard people saying they didn't like chestnuts with white markings - I think they look lovely!
 
I just don't like the look of them :)

Much prefer more colour than white, and as close to symmetrical as possible :) billy has 4 white legs 3 of which end at same height and 1 goes to elbow, white on his shoulder is pretty even both sides and just a triangle of white on his rump. looks as though someone has poured paint on his neck & shoulders and then wiped the brush on one side of his rump! :p
 
Wagtail said:
She looks like she is splashed white, which is much rarer than those common tobianos! That's what I would say, anyway. She's gorgeous.
Click to expand...

Ooh, now I do like the sound of that. I've always been more partial to the unusual colours.

And yes, I do regularly tell people never to buy a white horse as I'm standing at the hose scrubbing yet another green stain off her bum!:D But when she's really clean (only at shows!)and in the sun she positively glows white!
 
only_me said:
I just don't like the look of them :)

Much prefer more colour than white, and as close to symmetrical as possible :) billy has 4 white legs 3 of which end at same height and 1 goes to elbow, white on his shoulder is pretty even both sides and just a triangle of white on his rump. looks as though someone has poured paint on his neck & shoulders and then wiped the brush on one side of his rump! :p
Click to expand...

He sounds really interesting. Do you have a picture? Can't see much of him from your signature.
 
Just found your thread with a picture :) Your horse has a lovely face I love the eye liner :P

Only me on a side not the stripey feet and ermine marks on the lovely Billy might suggest he has a gene that supresses white which is why he is much more minimally marked probably of no importance to you but I just thought it was interesting :)
 
I think I read some where that the colour around the eyes is a sign of a sabino gene as it keeps the white off the eye but I can't for the life of me find it to clarify :S the scalloped edges might also suggest sabino so that would make your horse a carrier of both tobiano and sabino on a black base. Splash could also be possible but I don't think that would spare the eye like that as they are known for throwing blue eyes and I don't think there would be that black spot on the front lip either but it's difficult to tell when there are lots of white genes in play.
 
She does have one blue eye, and if you look very closely at the one in the picture it has a tiny blue fleck. I did wonder if she had some sabino in there because the edges of the patches are "frilly" rather than straight. Interestingly, she's just had an operation on her poll, and where they shaved her neck you can see that the skin is also not a clean line between the pink and black.
 
http://www.planetaccess.net/dangerranch/BlueEyes/splashpics.htm
I have just found this which has some nice pictures of combinations of coloured genes :) As yet I don't think there is a definitive test for sabino as it's quite complex but there is for splash and tobiano.

Quite a few breeds that 'don't have coloureds' carry splash and sabino for example welshes in particular as it can be displayed so minimally there has been horses test positive for splash that only have a few white hairs on there forehead only when they come together with other white genes do you get a loud display as they can enhance each others actions but then these horses don't get registered as they don't fit the breed standard.
 
Last edited:
excellent and I learnt about moustaches on horses :P and eyeliner. I thin it's fascinating how all the genes effect ech other in order to produce these funny little patterns which they might not do on their own. Splash and sabino are definitely in Welsh TBs and Warmbloods it would be interesting to see the dam and sire.
 
This is her sire Hercorose. I've never been able to find anything about her dam unfortunately, although she was at a small stud I believe.

attachment.php
 
That's interesting there's a lot of white on him too isn't there although I am less convinced about the splash there's definitely tobiano and sabino going on I'd say and thinking about it if he was bred to a solid coloured mare or at least a mare with no tobiano then that would mean that your mare couldn't be homozygous for the tobiano gene T/T so the sheer amount of white has to come from interactions with the other white modifiers as well as the other features.
 
Last edited:
Her dam was Welsh, so from what you've said about Welsh ponies having splash genes that may not be obvious, that could explain it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top