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  Discussion on Here's a new one: reversal of grey???
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Member:
Gmwalker

Posted on Saturday, Sep 4, 2004 - 2:32 am:

My beloved mare WAS snowy white, with only a few flea-bitten specks. Emphasis on the WAS... I thought I was going crazy at first, but now everyone is noticing it, and even photographs confirm--she is starting to get her color back.

Is this possible? Has she found the fountain of youth? Will she be dappled soon? And perhaps a bay mare in the future? Has she heard me groaning about the green spots and decided to do something about it, and become a freak of nature?

I've never heard nor seen anything like it, but I swear that she's got at least four or five times the number of "freckles" that she had a year ago, or even 6 months ago. I haven't changed her diet, or started feeding her any of those coat-enhancing supplements, and the only thing that has changed is that she gave birth to twins in the spring (but we lost the smaller one at 8 weeks of age). She continued to nurse 2 foals, though, until about a month ago when we had to separate the "thief" foal and its mother from the rest of the herd because the filly was becoming obese and we feared developmental problems if we allowed it to continue to double dip, as it were...

Her hair coat is otherwise normal--soft and fine like it has been every year, and not shedding prematurely or doing anything else unusual. And she's the epitome of health, and full of energy. I have no reason to suspect any endocrinologic problems. But it sure is strange to have her looking younger, color-wise.
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Saturday, Sep 4, 2004 - 9:20 am:

What breed is she? Arabian?
Member:
Gmwalker

Posted on Saturday, Sep 4, 2004 - 10:34 am:

No. She's a German Oldenburg Warmblood by Top of Class out of a Der Radetzky mare.
Member:
Albionsh

Posted on Saturday, Sep 4, 2004 - 11:20 am:

I am leasing Kristall, a Trakehner mare who turned 20 this year and has a foal at her side. When I first got her in 2001, she was almost pure white, but she has gotten darker again as the years pass. I was told by a fellow Warmblood breeder that the grays follow this pattern as they grow older. So, I am guessing your mare is about the same age as Kristall?
Member:
Gmwalker

Posted on Saturday, Sep 4, 2004 - 11:47 am:

She's 15, will be 16 in 2005--so a bit younger chronologically. She thinks she's only 7 or 8, and I haven't the heart to tell her differently (and I hope that physically, she keeps up much the same--she's the most fun horse I've ever had to ride, and the only reason I bred her was in the hopes of getting a carbon copy. I found a sire the closest to her in conformation and temperament, and I think I pretty much succeeded both times. I'm keeping both foals for myself).
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Saturday, Sep 4, 2004 - 8:48 pm:

Gay-although I have Arabians, I relate to your mare's personality; I've got one of those young at heart "girls" myself.

With gray Arabians, especially if they have much chestnut in their background, they will develope more and more spots as they age.
Member:
Canter

Posted on Monday, Sep 6, 2004 - 2:58 pm:

Hi Gay-
My warmblood mare (Holsteiner)is doing the same thing. She was snow white 2 years ago with just a bit of gray dappling on the haunches. Now she is quite flea-bitten (brown and gray) and the dappling is mostly gone. She is 14. I don't know what color she originally was.

Must be normal, but I was wondering too since I have never owned a gray horse before.

Fran
Member:
Rubysmom

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 7, 2004 - 1:21 am:

There's a gray I work with that is 10 years old, he was a dark dapply gray as a 6-7 year old, turned snow white at about 9, and this spring had "sooty" areas on his haunches, shoulders and legs.
No matter how hard he was scrubbed, it was not dirt, LOL!
(which is what we thought it was at first).
Now he's growing in his winter coat and he's flea bitten spotty all over, but snow white, too.
Go figure!
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