She keeps changing colour! Foal pics from birth 8 June to today

Spot_the_Risk

Spot_the_Risk

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Ellie keeps changing colour and gaining spots - most disconcerting, is like having a chameleon foal!

Two days old
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mid july
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13 August
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Today
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And she's huge, wants to be an ID when she grows up... instead of a 3/4 welsh D!
 
I doubt she will end up like her mum, who looks like a few spot. The filly looks as if she is a leapord spot, somehow I dont think she is going to loose those spots just the background colour which is fading to white.
 
Foal is a leopard spot without doubt. I have an Appaloosa who looked like yours as a foal and even at 6 years old is still shedding some of the last of his mottling on his neck. He is a very loud leopard spot and quite a character.
 
she is very pretty
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Definatly leopard spot and wont loose her spots, she'l probably get more
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A friend of mine used to breed spotties, he had quite a few like that
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Debs x
 
Do you know the parents of your mare? From looking at the rings round the eyes and the rapidity of fading on the coat I think your foal might have inherited a grey gene. I have seen this kind of rapid fading before in a filly that is grey. However if its of any help the spots do tend to sucumb more slowly to the grey than does a solid coat.

Unfortunately there is no means of genetic testing for grey currently, I would guess that in the world of the solid coloured horse it is not commercially viable as it's usually obvious. But of course in the spotted horse with the Varnish gene it is not easy to spot. (I use the word varnish in place of the common expression Roan, this is a totally misleading term since true roans do not fade and "appaloosa roan" is available in Homozygous form).

There are some notable Appaloosa lines in America that carry Grey since it is permissable to use a grey horse and register the offspring. The most noted grey is the stallion Alias King, brother to the famous stallion Dreamfinder, (who dipped out on the grey altogether). There are also a number of English spotted lines that are grey too.

It sounds unlikely that your Mare is a fewspot from the limited breeding you describe and without baby pictures and a description of her parents i wouldn't like to say.

Sorry! But she is a lovely filly and will give you much pleasure no matter what her colour!
 
Looking at the picture of Bandit I can see that there are white hairs within his spots and so don't be surprised that if in his late teens he looses them.
The greying process from what I have seen is more rapid than the varnish gene on the solid parts of a spotted horse yet the spots take a lot longer to fade than one would expect in a solid coated grey, much like that seen in so called blue and white coloureds. Maybe it is that the hair length in the folicle is longer than that of a solid coat in the spotted / coloured area, taking the grey gene working on the pigment cell longer to make an effect, a bit like greys you see with the fleabitten effect or of those who retain patches of colour throughout life.
Like I say difficlt to tell without breeding history and parantage pictures but if you ask experienced Arab breeders they will tell you that rings round the eyes as foals are a tell that the foal is going to grey. But of course spotted patterns are very adept at hiding such features that would be obvious on a solid horse. A recent appaloosa base coat genetic study certainly proved that even those certain of their animals base colour were in for a bit of a shock!

Unfortunately there is not yet a genetic test for grey but colour is not everything, a healthy fit active suitable horse with a good personality wins every time!
 
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