Silvers and Golds of the Sand Wash Basin " Band Stallion Tuscarora's Little Girl"Challenge Painting #63

Another Gray Stallion Tuscarora, seemed to have produced a beautiful late filly by the Black Mare Gia. She appeared in the spring of 2010. She probably was born in the late autumn of 2009. The first thing everyone noticed that saw her was that she was healthy and that she was missing the tip of her left ear.

Frost bite is an occasional occurrence in the SandWash Basin and several mares and the occasional foal can be found with part of a missing ear. One or two of the stallions have partial ears missing. While it might be attributed to bites during fighting. More likely that it was due to the harsh weather.

Gia with her Palamino filly

Tuscarora had two mares one was black , Gia, and the other rose gray. The rose gray was seen to have a  chestnut filly  who was a yearling in 2010. It is possible that Tuscarora is aother of the slow to gray stallions.  One of the important things to understand about color inheritance and wild horses is that in the spring as the mares drop their foals( give birth) and come into their first heat the stallions begin sparing for mares. There is a lot of mare swapping that goes on as a stallion might steal a mare who has already been bred. So its possible that with Gia's foal that he isn't the father.

The interesting thing about the Sand Wash Basin is at this time there is no Palomino stallion with a band or of breeding age as of the fall of 2010. The only stallion of color is Corona the Dunalino Stallion. So where is the growing number of Palomino babies coming from?  Well its possible that Tuscaro and Centauro carry the recessive gene for cream gene for Palomino.

Here is the color site recommended by our guest blogger Debra More McGuire : http://www.equine-color.info/content/dilutions

Quote from the page on dilutions of color:

" Palomino: A red horse (chestnut or sorrel) who is diluted to a golden shade over their entire body. They can be as dark as a true chestnut or appear almost white. They usually have a white, cream or silver mane and tail. Self colored manes and tails occur, but this is rare. Their eyes and skin are usually dark, but some palominos never attain full pigmentation. They may be born with blue eyes that never fully darken, and pinkish skin which develops mottling or freckles. They are very easily confused with the Gold Champagne phenotype, and also occasionally with flaxen chestnuts."



Gia on Left, Tuscarora center and
their palamino filly right.



One of the reasons I think that Tuscarora may possibly be the father of Gia's palomino foal has to do with her white markings. If  Tuscarora was a Chestnut with a gray gene and that gray only affected his base color and not his white markings then he could still father a  palomino if he has the recessive dilute trait. He has 4 shocks which you can see fairly clearly still in his photograph. If Tuscarora also had a dilute gene for palomino and a cream gene that would  have produced a palomino when bred to a mare with the same gene hidden away inside. You notice that  the filly has a wide blaze.. her mother also has a star stripe and a large snip but her  white markings are limited to her face unlike Tuscarora.

If I remember my history correctly,  It was often that sometimes a black foal would be produced from a palomino mare and a palomino stallion when the stallion didn't breed true. That black foal would when bred still produce palomino foals when bred to a palomino but with a one in 4 chance of producing a black or off color foal.

At one time, years ago the white markings of this foal by Tuscarora and Gia would have been  highly favored with her 4 socks and wide blaze. With so much flash she is a real beauty. However only time will tell if  Tuscarora's gray gene will show up in her. Should this little girl be rounded up a genetic test will be done that will confirm  her sire.