Why has my pony changed colour?

Ellemoo

Ellemoo

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Any suggestions welcome. My lovely palomino has decided to change colour, and I don't know why :confused: She was her usual colour two weeks ago, had her summer coat all through (had been for a while). Now she has gradually started growing more and more dark hairs in her coat, all over her body. The hairs are a sort of dark chocolatey/muddybrown. She is 7 years old and has never done this before. Is there anything that could cause this to happen, or is it just normal for some horses? Is she still even a palomino??:confused::p
I am going to try add a before and after picture, but if it doesn't work- the photos are in my album on here :o
Thanks in advance for any suggestions :)
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could she be a sooty palomino? Strangely though we had a palomino at the yard I used to be at and last summer he went sooty for the first time ever aged 8 but this year his summer coat is normal palomino again.
 
It looks like Sooty could be at work here. It doesn't seem to be fully understood yet.

I found these photos of the same horse as a young foal and at 4 1/2 months and you can really see the sooty develop in her coat.

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I am surprised that the sooty would develop at 7 years of age, but this might explain some of the change in her coat

Sooty tends to vary seasonally and is susceptible to bleaching and the general condition of the coat caused by grooming, stabling and nutrition. It is not known at this time what causes sooty
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Having sooty doesn't stop her from being a palomino (she's still chestnut with one copy of cream - she just might have sooty too), but rather a Sooty palomino.
 
Thanks for replying guys, very intersting! I cant think that anything has changed in her life, shes been living out 24/7 for ages, no hard feed etc just on her usual minimal grazing.
Oh well, i still love her even if shes not as pretty as she used to be :p :D
 
I have a sooty palomino and she does exactly this. In fact this year she is her darkest ever, her rump is nearly black now!
 
Pogface- how bizare! I wouldnt mind my girl changing colour.. but without being nasty- its quite an ugly colour change :o Its all over, but patchy, so its almost giving the illusion of her being really dirty :(
 
Secret is exactly the same, I've not got a current photo but she looks incredibly similar to the photo above. It was the clever faracat that informed me she was a sooty palomino in the first place! In the winter secret is very light in colour, much darker and more dappled in the summer. More so over hind quarters... V odd!
This picture is last summer... And not a very good picture but you can see her hind legs are darker... Apologies for her dishevelled appearance!
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Ahh shes lovely! Monroe is the same, very pale in the winter and dark and dappley in summer.. and now even darker. Also, very jelous of her lovely long mane, thats what Monroes looked like until a couple of months ago when she rubbed 3/4s of it off on fences/walls/trees :mad: :(
 
I breed palominos and they change colour throughout the year. Look for my threads in picture gallery. My stallion is never the same 2 years in a row.
 
This happened to my Section D mare. Bought her as an eight year old as quite a dull yet unusual buckskin as her mane and tail were the same colour as her body.
She is still changing four years later and now has the most beautiful sooty dapples in summer, and she glistens in the sun. Her mane and tail are dark grey and cream, would be described as sort of salt & pepper on a human- no white at all.
Registered as palomino, I have pics of her as a four year old with brilliant white mane & tail and rich golden body.
Her sire was described as dun but now advertised as buckskin with dun, bays and chestnuts on his side.
Her dam is black with almost all blacks on her side, with the odd bay s well, so it seems obvious where the new colouring is from.
But like you, I would love to know why it happened, seems such a drastic change. Plus where did the palomino come from in the first place.

I love reading the colour threads, fascinating, only got as far as the colour of mice in genetics in biology at school!
 
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