Check out this Chincoteague pony fool’s color change - it’s pretty dramatic.
https://internethorseauctions.com/auction-lot-detail.php?aucid=443&Id=23769&Start=0&closeinc=25&AnName=&Cate=&Sexx=&Discip=&Sttate=
Also, someone please buy him, or the bay filly with the blue eye, and post all about them so I won’t be tempted!
A very dark first foal shed. Not at all uncommon. I’ve seen palominos shed out almost that dark, to end up a normal gold shade.
Cute little character! 
Long ago for about 3 years I lived next to the pasture of a breeding farm with 4 mares who produced a foal every year. I met and knew the owner a little bit, a guy who didn’t know a whole lot about horses, but who had made some money and then lost his mind and thought it would be fun and exciting to invest in this farm and these horses.
The owner was out to see the horses a couple of times a month. Every year after the first big shed he was head-spinning confused at the change in the foals’ colors. Like, are we sure these are the same foals? Is something nefarious going on here?
All solid-color bay & chestnut horses with limited markings. Some made more dramatic changes than others. Then when they transformed into the evolving conformational mess that is a yearling, along with more color variations through the shedding and new hair-growth seasons, the owner was confused all over again. From month to month some of them really did not look like the same horse.
Then there was the year that two mares switched foals. Or I should say, the foals switched moms, one foal initiating and one foal unwilling. The owner had to be convinced this was even possible, but the foals beside each mare didn’t match the markings he had recorded – I wasn’t sure we were going to get the owner through that one.
An older foal didn’t like it when his mom was closing the milk bar, so he pushed in on a too-compliant milk-producing mare with a younger foal. The mare’s own foal was scared to come close when the older foal was guarding the mom. So, human observers who didn’t see them frequently thought that the older foal was next to his real mom (he wasn’t). His real mom let the younger foal shelter beside her, but she wasn’t feeding him. I didn’t have any responsibility for these horses but felt a duty to the younger foal to point out that maybe he needed some help with his unfortunate situation, as he was no longer getting much from his mom. Eventually the responsible parties figured things out. By that time the owner was re-considering the wisdom of this whole horse endeavor for a lot of reasons, but one was that he finally realized how much he didn’t know that maybe he needed to know if he was going to pay bills of this magnitude.
The horse in my avatar did that. Born bright chestnut, shed to very dark brown which faded a bit over the winter, then shed to chestnut again in the spring. I will confess I was a bit disappointed as he was very striking with his white stockings and blaze against the dark chocolate coat. He’s still cute though! 
If this is a clever ploy to get people to see how adorable Chincoteague ponies are…well, it’s working. 
Part of the contrast is due to how bleached foals’ first coats get before they shed.
But most of the contrast is just what was said - they are darker to really a lot darker on that first shed, especially red-based colors for some reason (chestnut, palomino). Sooooo many chestnut foal owners are so excited their horse will be liver chestnut, but no, it’s just the first shed, and the vast majority end up “normal” chestnut.
My homebred was born dark brown, faded to a weird tan, and was nearly black on his first shed, which is common for brown (phenotype, still test as bay) and he has remained dark - dark chocolate during the Summer, but “black” during the Winter.
It is entirely possible that that may have been part of my motivation 
What a pretty baby!
Not surprised at all about the color change. I’ve raised enough babies that I never get excited about the color until they are 3 or older 
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
