He is a dusty chestnut colour with a red dorsal stripe, his mane is fairly red and his tail is the same but with white sides. He was born with caramel coloured skin around his eyes muzzle and privates. This skin all went black within a week.
Could he be palomino??
I have seen pictures of pally foals born like this, but he's looking more like a chestnut. So can a chestnut be born with a dorsal stripe? His mum is bay and dad's a pally.
(I'm just too impatient to wait - he's only 3 weeks old)
I would also guess red dun based on his description but it doesn't sound like either of the parents have the dun gene. He could be a form of buckskin maybe or possibly a bright bay, I don't know. Pics would definitely help.
However, it is hard to tell what their final color will be when they are so young. When my baby was born, I thought he might end up being a bright sorrel with pangare fading like his momma but now he is the deep chesnut in my avatar.
I didn't think her father would have had the dun gene but maybe it is in there somewhere, I know he is supposed to be from 8 generations of colour but whether just palomino or whether there is some dun in there I don't know. I couldn't really imagine him going bay or chestnut as there is still absolutely no sign of any dark hairs around his points.
I have a picture of him loaded in my 'horses' section that shows the dorsal, these where at 1 day old.
I guess the biggest question is - is it possible to have a chestnut foal born with a dorsal stripe? I've just never seen it before - not that we've had a chestnut foal before.
I guess the biggest question is - is it possible to have a chestnut foal born with a dorsal stripe? I've just never seen it before - not that we've had a chestnut foal before.
Yes, it's possible. From AQHA's Color Coat Genetics:
"IF A SORREL HORSE HAS A DORSAL STRIPE, DOESN’T THAT MAKE IT A DUN?
Foals that will be SORREL are often born with light red hair coloration as well as having a distinct dorsal stripe. This characteristic is often confused with and mistaken as
RED DUN. However, a SORREL is a non-diluted horse. A dorsal stripe can be inherited from a non-DUN parent. A SORREL foal usually loses the dorsal stripe upon
shedding its first coat. But even if the SORREL retains the dorsal stripe as a mature horse, it still is not due to the DUN DILUTION gene. One may notice that the mature
coat of the SORREL does not include zebra stripes on the legs."
A lot of foals have dorsal stripes and then lose them as they grow up. Sorta viewed as foal camouflage. Some keep faint ones - which is really just countershading and not really a dorsal stripe. They can really confuse people. Since neither of the parents is a dun, the foal most likely is not.
Do you have any photos of the foal? Maybe a pic will allow someone to better determine if its going to be a pally or chestnut.
Sounds like a sorrel/chestnut me as well. If you can track his genes back to a red dun, then perhaps yes that could be his definent coloring. But as said before it's a tad too early to know for sure.
Excuse the spelling and briefety, this was sent from my iTouch
Okay, after looking at the pic, I would say that he is probably just a sorrel with countershading though the pictures look like they are of 2 different foals, there is such a color difference.
He is definately more the colour of the lighter picture. He is quite a buff colour.
Thankyou to everyone for your opinions.
I guess only time will tell....
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