| KarynK |
| (addict) |
| 14/10/2008 15:56 |
Re: Karynk - spotty horse colourings question.
|
In the mean time I had written this for you!!!!
Unfortunately with leopards, and fewspots it is very difficult to tell as they stay the colour they are born, so you don’t really know until you breed on from them. With the snowcaps it’s a different story as they are born with at least a bit of colour on them as a clue which will fade with each moult, until they look like a fewspot.
Some say that if the spots on a leopard have a halo effect around them then that indicates the presence of the varnish, but I have not really looked into this, the leopard in the photo sequence has this effect though.
There seems to be a lot of variation in how fast horses fade, with some like mine in the pictures fading very fast and others really slowly only really showing more white in their late teens.
The one thing the varnish will not do is affect the spots themselves, they remain, though they can move over a horses lifetime! The one in the pictures can only have one copy of the varnish from her fewspot father as her mother is a true solid, but she has faded much more rapidly than it looks like her half sister will who is by an extended snowcap, so I am looking forward to spring to see what the ½ sister does.
My other filly from 2 snowcaps one of which has no varnish and the other being by the same stallion as the one that faded fast, had no coat pattern, but is now making up for it by whitening at a furious pace.
Re Finn, the white hairs round the eyes makes me think he probably will fade but more slowly like my filly, she has similar markings to Finn but she has more white and had white up her neck and under one ear (see pics) from birth, but she has not changed much through her first coat change except to go dark Chestnut. If it is the Stallion I am thinking of I think he does have varnish, but let me know.
Found some pictures will add some more recent ones later
