Miscellaneous Modifiers

Rabicano, Sooty, Brindle, Manchado, Birdcatcher Spots, Chubari Spots, Bend Or Spots, Bloody Shoulder Markings, Gulastra Plume, Badger Faces, and other oddities

Rabicano: Rabicano is a pattern that is often confused with true dark-headed roan. The rabicano gene, however, is entirely seperate from the roan gene, though it does create a pattern of white hairs that can be similar to roan. It is usually manifested as a sprinkling of white hairs radiating out from the horses flank, sometimes spreading across the barrel and onto the neck. Rabicanos also have a white-topped tail, known as a coon tail or skunk tail. There is some thought that rabicano may be tied to or somehow related to sabino as the rabicano pattern is often found in conjunction with sabino. Rabicano can act an any coat color.


This is Colorful Tour, a chestnut rabicano TB.


This TB, aptly named Skunktail, is clearly a rabicano and a sabino---look at the distinctive points on his socks---a typical sabino indicator.

 

Sooty: Sooty is a common color modifier that can act on both red and black based coats. Sooty, also known as smutty or countershading, causes dark hairs to be spread throughout a horses coat, usually concentrated from the top of the back down. Sooty horses often have spectacular dappling because of the contrast of colors in their coats. Sometimes the sooty hairs are concentrated into lines resembling leg barring and dorsal stripes on non-dun horses. Some horses are so sooty that their true color is unrecognizable. For example, some sooty buckskins have been mistaken for dark bay or black horses, such as the pony pictured below on the right.


Here is Rambler's Renown, the Cleveland Bay, again. Note the dark coutershading on his face, neck, shoulder, forearms, and gaskins, as well as the lovely dappled coat. (Owned by IdleHour Stud)


This is Tide Creek Augustus, a very dark sooty buckskin Section B Welsh Pony. (Owned and photographed by Unbridled Oaks)


This is Cooper, a purebred bay Arabian, sporting a countershading dorsal stripe. (Owned by Carra Reinmiller, photo by Mike Reinmiller)


This is Cooper again. The dun-like leg barring is also the result of sooty at work. (Photo by Morgan Haberman)

 

Brindle: Brindle is an unusual pattern of dark, vertical lines on a lighter-colored coat. Though it is seen in a variety of breeds, it is quite rare. The genetics of brindle are unknown, but according to Dr. Philip Sponenberg, the man who literally wrote the book on equine color genetics, "brindle seems to require sooty black countershading for its expression, and reorganizes sootiness into vertical stripes instead of a more uniform sprinkling of hairs." I have included a few pictures of brindle horses below, but for more information on the history of brindle horse and more photos, please check out Sharon Batteate's excellent site: http://members.aol.com/brindlehos


This is a close up of the brindling on Sharp One, a chestnut QH mare owned by Sharp Pillows Brindle Horses.

This is Reckless Dan, an unusual grey brindle Quarter Horse.

(Photo by Sorrel)

The brindle coat pattern is occassionally caused by a rare genetic occurence called chimerism. Dunbar's Gold, pictured at left, is an example of this odd phenomonon. In a nutshell, a chimeric horse develops when two non-identical twins fuse into one embryo in utero. Dunbar's Gold, therefore, has two sets of DNA, resulting in his brindled coat. For more information about his fascinating story, check out this article published in the February 2006 American Quarter Horse Journal:

http://www.aqha.com/magazines/aqhj/content/06february/oneinamillion.pdf

(Photo by Dan Trout)

 

Reverse or White Brindle: Most brindle horses have dark stripes on a lighter body color, but a rare few have white stripes on a dark body color. As with regular brindles, the genetics of white brindles are not understood. It is possible that the white hairs from sabino or rabicano markings are arranged into lines like sooty hairs are in regular brindle coats. It is also possible that white brindles are chimeric, but I do not believe that either of the two horses pictured below have been tested with that in mind.

Below on the left is Catch A Bird, a bay Thoroughbred with white brindling. CAB, who was sadly euthanized in April of 2007, was a fascinating enigma. He sired 4 foals that were phenotypically true, dark-headed roans. The roan gene, however, is not present in the TB gene pool, so it is likely that CAB carried some sort of random mutation. To date, none of his roan foals have produced offspring (as far as I know).

Pictured at right is Natal, a Brazilian Warmblood imported to the USA. He is currently at stud Winter Heaven Farm in FL. He has sired foals according to an ad posted on his website, but I haven't seen any of them yet, so I'm not sure if he has reproduced his own color or sired roans like CAB.


The late, great Catch A Bird -- for more information about him, check out my page on TB color.

Natal, a Brazilian Warmblood.

 

Manchado: Manchado is a rare coat pattern that has only cropped up in Argentina in a handful of horses from various breeds (Criollo, Hackney, Arab, and TB so far). Because it is only found in Argentina and it has not proven to be hereditable, it is believed to be the result of environmental factors rather than genetic ones. The pattern is NOT related to appaloosa, sabino, or chubari/Tetrarch spots.

This is Royal Manchado, a Thoroughbred stallion.

This is Trabag, a champion Arabian mare.

Trabag's other side. None of her foals inherited her strange coat.

 

Seeing Spots: A variety of non-Appaloosa spots do occur in many breeds:

Birdcatcher spots, named for the Thoroughbred stallion who exhibited them, are small, round, white spots scattered throughout a horse's coat. In many cases, the spots appear and grow in number for a period of years, and then gradually fade away. Sometimes, the spots will persist throughout a horse's lifetime.

Chubari spots are similar, but are usually larger, often egg-shaped and egg-sized. They seem to occur almost exclusively on grey coats, and of course, fade as the grey coat fades. Most grey TBs and grey horses with TB breeding can trace their spots back to The Tetrarch, a brilliant racehorse in England in the early 20th century. The spots are sometimes refered to as Tetrarch spots for that reason.

Bend Or spots are also named for the TB stallion who bore them. They are random dark spots on a lighter coat, often seen on chestnuts and palominos. They vary in size, sometimes only dime-sized, and sometimes as big as an outspread palm.

Birdcatcher spots on an Arabian.

The Tetrarch sporting his large chubari spots. He was nicknamed the Spotted Wonder.

The Thoroughbred stallion Big Country exhibiting Bend Or spots. (Photo by Laura Barnes)

This is Green Tune, another TB, who has a multitude of Bend Or spots as well as some odd light spots that may be chubari spots. The champion TB mare Azeri also has an white spot on her rump much like Green Tune. (Photo by ?)

 

Bloody Shoulder Markings: Bloody shoulder markings are random patches of color on grey horses that simply do not grey out. Despite the name, they can be found anywhere on a horse's body.

This is Charmander, a bay-based grey Thoroughbred filly. She is pictured here at about 3 years of age.

Here is Charmander again a few years later.

This is Laska de Thaix, a grey with a bloody shoulder mark on his head.

This is Brilliant Bird, a Thoroughbred with markings on his shoulder, barrel, and flank.

 

Gulastra Plume: A gulastra plume, named thus by Arabian breeders, is an interesting manifestation of sabino that creates a light colored tail on an otherwise solid-colored horse. It is not to be confused with raicano.

Donatello, a handsome Thoroughbred.

The eponymous Arab, Gulastra.

 

Badger Face: A badger face marking is usually the result of a skewed sabino pattern. It resembles a reverse blaze.

A badger-faced sabino Paint owned by Yarnelle Farms.

A lovely badger-faced tovero (probably tobiano + splash + sabino) Gypsy Vanner. (Owned by ?)

I'll add more oddball colors and patterns as I find them. Feel free to email me with any pix or info you have. :-)

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