Gulastra Plume


I’ve always heard this coloration to be called Gulastra Plume when it’s not tied to silver.

Would you agree that’s what this is? Or is it something else?

This is my yearling. I’ve seen young horses with light tails, but this one is more pronounced than I’m used to seeing.

Do you think she will keep it?

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The only horse I had with a tail like that, did not keep it, which was too bad because I thought it was pretty.

Foal pic:

Yearling:
Sword-2017-8-21-a

2yo:

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Thanks for sharing the pics @LaurieB. They look very similar in their progression! Which is a bummer because it is neat.

That horse doesn’t happen to be by Include? I don’t know if you ever noticed Include himself had gulastra plume. So does his son Redeemed, though I don’t know if he outgrew his.

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Excuse me, how is your baby already a yearling?? Who told her she could get big??

I have no idea about the plume, but it’s cool! I hope it’s retained.

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It just looks like retained foal flaxen to me, sorry. I can’t see any/many lighter hairs at the dock, looks like normal black hair growing through. Lovely filly.

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Bogo looks Great!! I do know one that kept his. They had a hard time with his registration and markings for identification. he had white/grey hair coming out of the center of the bottom of his tailbone and I know he still had it at least as a 5 year old. Surprisingly he was the same breed as Bogo. for the life of me I can’t remember his registered name. Just his barn name.

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Thanks for the kind words everyone!

@beowulf Fastest year ever! These babies don’t keep.

@BWP You’re probably right because I thought the same thing. Especially seeing Laurie’s horse. The “interesting” part is that the white has been increasing and lightening. I never photographed it specifically because I just assumed it was baby hair, but looking back at pics and videos, there is so much more white than there was even 3 months ago. But, most of the hair at her dock is black.

@cripplecreekfrm Interesting! It would be curious if they had a lot of pedigree overlap.

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No, that colt was by Warrior’s Reward. We did breed to Include twice and had 2 colts, both of which were born with black tails.

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that was baby flaxen which always goes away, sometimes it can take a few years. The difference is how tan that is, vs the very silvery GP

that’s more typical of GP, which starts out sort of hidden, but matures, while baby flaxe is in your face sometimes, but then darkens as the adult hairs grow in.

For your horse yes, that appears to be true GP since 1) it’s got that silvery look to it, and 2) it’s increasing and getting lighter

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Not the best pictures but on the left is a screen grab from a video taken in January and the right was taken just now as I stand outside the fence in my flip flops.

I really don’t know what to think after poking around her tail more this morning. Some of the hairs at the edges are black at the dock and white at the bottom, as if the baby flax is growing out. Some of the white hairs are white from dock to tip. And there are some hairs, particularly at the bottom of the dock, that are dark at the tip and lighter at the dock. :woman_shrugging:

Up until recently I had no doubt her tail would blacken with age, but now she has me wondering. However @LaurieB’s horse seems like a pretty similar progression IMO.

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did I miss how old she is?

Yearling, April 2022 foal.

the new pictures show the coloring more tan/buff than silvery which leans towards baby flaxen. But if it’s really increasing and lightening, then that’s not what baby flaxen does. This will be a wait and see. BF decreases, GP increases as they grow.

This is a great example of very obvious GP

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@Texarkana, FWIW, Bogo’s tail looks pretty similar to my guy’s tail to me. I suspect it will turn black.

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More tail pics taken just now for the sake of conversation.

This is what I mean when I say it’s white at the end of the doc- that’s the first picture where I am spreading it apart at the doc. The bottom two are the top of her doc. It’s more flax-like toward the top. The last pic is definitely baby color growing out in my opinion.

I really don’t care either way. Up until recently I thought nothing of it.

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I will message his breeder and find out what his registered name is. She doesn’t have him anymore but he was her first homebred and I know she will remember his race name.

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This is what the tail looks like on a tested silver bay. Pic doesn’t do justice but it’s my friend’s horse so I just cropped a photo for privacy. In real life it’s stunning, three colors.

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Thanks for sharing @MadTrotter! There is almost zero chance that my girl’s tail would be caused by silver.

I’m not sure a gene has been identified for gulastra like it has for silver…

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Definitely no gene known! It’s likely like flaxen, but possibly even more complicated

This is retained foal flaxen. She’s only a yearling, It’s growing out, some are just quicker than others.

It’s not that uncommon for bays (IME anyway) to have grey hairs mixed in their tail.

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