>>>Can anyone else get any pictures of dappling on a known chestnut horse? A
>>>good many of my horses show dapples, but oddly, none of my chestnuts do.
>>>I'd never thought about that until Wanda brought it up.
I'm answering my own question, sort of. Here's what the Sponenberg book says,
("Horse Color", 1983, by Philip Sponenberg and Bonnie V. Beaver, page 28.)
"Dappling is a network of darker areas imposed over lighter areas, and can be
present on any color. The effect is the result of some fundamental differences
in the hair of various areas of the skin, so dapples can even be seen on black
horses. Dappling is generally most noticeable when the horses change their
hair coats in the spring and fall, but is present throughout the year on silver
dapples and many greys."
I couldn't immediately find a picture of a dappled chestnut in his book
though...maybe they don't occur so often on chestnuts...?
Wanda - does Kria have any black hair mixed in? Smutty (sooty) palominos have
some black hairs mixed in - the Sponenberg books says some can be as dark as
some chestnuts. I think those may be what are called chocolate palominos?
I bring up the smutty thing (maybe I should say sooty, since smutty sounds like
a dig at her morals!) because Tifa appears to have it - she's Kria's
granddaughter. Saga (Kria's daughter) doesn't seem to, not obviously, and I
can't see anything like that in Melnir - I don't have a clue about the
heritability of the sooty effect.
Karen Thomas, NC
