My Morgan is bay and has sprouted dapples over the spring. I’ve never seen dapples in a bay horse before - only in grays, but there are no gray Morgans, correct?
So where does the dapple come from?
A healthy horse with a new summer coat.
My bays have dapples right now, too. They will fade out soon with all the sun.
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[QUOTE=PeteyPie;7618713]
A healthy horse with a new summer coat.
My bays have dapples right now, too. They will fade out soon with all the sun.[/QUOTE]
So is this specific to the Morgan breed?
Not breed specific. My TB and 2 of his 3 QH buddies are quite dappled right now. TB is seal bay, one QH is red bay, and the other dappled QH is buckskin.
It’s a common Spring shed thing, even coming on in the early days of a fully shed Spring coat (along with occuring in the later stages of shedding).
As for gray Morgans - yes, there are some, but not that many, as there are only a couple of sources
[QUOTE=JB;7618753]
As for gray Morgans - yes, there are some, but not that many, as there are only a couple of sources[/QUOTE]
That’s interesting; I’ve never seen one. I’ve seen Cremello Morgans but not grays.
I have also seen a grey Morgan so wanted to put that out there.
I’ve also seen dapples in some chestnuts usually darker ones.
Lots of bays of all breeds have dapples. What you are seeing is the outine of the capillaries under the skin. Very fit horses often have them, very healthy horses often have them, and newly grown spring/summer coats often show them for a while.
[QUOTE=arlosmine;7618788]
Lots of bays of all breeds have dapples. What you are seeing is the outine of the capillaries under the skin. Very fit horses often have them, very healthy horses often have them, and newly grown spring/summer coats often show them for a while.[/QUOTE]
That is very interesting. I always thought that the dappling is related to genetics.
[QUOTE=Scandias;7618719]
So is this specific to the Morgan breed?[/QUOTE]
No, mine are all Thoroughbreds. Two are bays, two are brown. One of the brown mares is almost black.
Page full of wonderful gray Morgans 
http://www.morgancolors.com/gray.htm
IME, browns are more likely to dapple, are quicker to dapple, and more likely to stay dappled longer, than bays
[QUOTE=JB;7618869]
Page full of wonderful gray Morgans
http://www.morgancolors.com/gray.htm
IME, browns are more likely to dapple, are quicker to dapple, and more likely to stay dappled longer, than bays[/QUOTE]
Thank you. I’ve not seen one in person but at least now I believe they exist! This is my first year of Morgan ownership, so I will have to keep an eye on her dapples to see how long they stick around.
Funnily enough, almost all my horses have dapples…apart from the two greys we had (one young dark grey that will probably dapple at some point, and his pure white dam, now dead). That’s black, bay and chestnut. Various breeds.
:yes:
Yup.
Like Arlosmine said: any color horse in good health can dapple.
My TB & TWH - both bay (the TB a redder bay) - held their dapples all Summer long until they started getting their Winter coats in.
My current buckskin WB & black bay Hackney Pony also dapple.
I credit the Omega-3 in the BOSS I feed.
That would explain why her dappling is really apparent after free lunging her, as all her blood is getting pumped into the little capilaries.
My bay mare has gorgeous dapples late spring. Love it. This is the only bay I’ve ever had with dapples. My guess is it has to be related to genetics as well as good health.
My Chestnut TB/X mare and my Palomino TB/Welsh mare are both very dappled. Theirs usually stays all summer as well.
I used to have two bay STB who both dappled as well.
It’s both genetic and environmental. There are horses who will have dapples no matter how poor their condition is, and there are horses who can be in the absolute peak bloom of health and will never dapple. Many of ours are dappled up this spring more than usual. And it can be on any color, one of our black mares really gets lovely dapples. Temperature is one environmental factor thought to influence color to some degree, so it could have been the long, cold spring.
^ yep
It can also be hormonal. My mare only ever did the coat change dappling, sometimes developing some dapples after the Winter coat was fully shed (which then faded within a couple of weeks), though never doing anything much with the new Winter coat. The year she was pregnant though, she looked like this in Oct - never before, not since
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a0ce33b3127ccefb0c63d0c34300000010O00AZtmzRs2ct2IPbz4Q/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00107966466320101004003206142.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
