Thanks to the power of Facebook, I am in touch with the owners of my mare’s foals; in her old home, she had 2 foals by a palomino stallion. She herself is a chestnut mottled fewspot, eeLpLpPATN1PATN1, and being a palomino the stallion is chestnut based too. Therefore both foals are also chestnut based, however, they have black spots. I know Lp can often shift base colours so they appear paler/different to the usual phenotype expected (e.g. black into pewter bronze as discussed here: http://equinetapestry.com/2012/03/ap…olor-shifting/) but can it darken the base colour too, e.g. from normal red expected of ee horses to black?
Thanks…Apologies in advance for anything I’ve got wrong.
Oh, and just because I think she’s beautiful, this is the mare:
https://i.imgur.com/cqIGJJV.jpg
Do the foals have lots of black spots, or just a few dark ones? I have known an number of Lp horses that have either a few random colored spots mixed in with the expected base color (like my dark bay has a few pale chestnut/palomino spots here and there). I have also seen a few buckskins that have darker spots in their blankets than their body base color, which makes me wonder if the cream gene doesn’t interact with the color of the spots the same way it does with the rest of the horse - similar to how when they varnish the spots don’t get lighter.
It would be great if you could post their pics too, but I guess since they aren’t yours, I completely understand you not posting. If you are not already a member of the FB group “Equine color genetics” this would be an interesting one for them, especially if you can get permission from the foal owner(s) to post their pics as well.
Yes, I am in that group lol! I will see about asking the owners if I can post their pics.
The babies both have a fair load of small, black spots, with none so far as I am aware actually showing as “red”. But being chestnut based, their patterns are not very loud. Interestingly both have quite heavy mapping around the edges of their spots too…but I am not sure why; their dam does not.
FWIW, I have a chestnut horse with several very dark, nearly black spots. He’s just a normal chestnut horse with some weird spots :lol:
Yes, my chestnut Paint gets Ben D’or spots in summer. When we were kids my sister had a dark gold palomino with smoky black hairs on his flanks and prominent Ben D’or spots (he had a greenish bronze tinge in summer).
