Chestnut going gray...

[Barbwire]

Do all horses that go from chestnut to gray turn fleabitten in the end?

[Linda Y]

Bueno is fleabitten, and he used to be bay, or maybe 'black'. He had black mane, tail and lower legs.

[ErinC]

ya From all the gray I had, most all grays do, at some age.

[PasoPerson38]

My boy was registered as Chestnut when I got him. So Im guessing that is what he was born. And he is deffinetly not fleabitten, nor will ever be.

[Susan Ostertag]

I have a 21 year old Contrapunto son that was bright chestnut when we imported him. He is now conpletely white. He never showed any sign of becoming flea bitten and of course he won't now. About half of my gray horses stay white with the others doing all sort of things. I have one mare that now has patches and several that are flea bitten. My Classico daughter appears to be trying to become a black horse again.

I have had gray horses that went through the process by their mane and tail going completely white and their body take a very long time to change. I have also had horse that were very light gray with black or almost black mane and tail.

I think all gray horses should be registered with their base color also listed on their registration papers. Gray horses are not born gray.

I am interested in color, so maybe it is more imortant to me. What do you think?

[motorgypsy]

We agree. If you register the foal you can register with base color and then put grey in the description section but I'd like to see something like bay/grey put on the reg papers.

[appyday]

NO

[Terry Wallace]

Only if they "live long enough" to complete the full gray cycle.... flea bites are the end stage of gray..and some horses never see it....because it would take longer than they are "programed to live" .... and that *could* be age 40.... as it can take longer in some lines....

This is how it was explained to me... so, some horses don't get past total white stage. Also...it seems as if HT gray takes the longest, and HZ gray is "quicker" to go flea bitten.

On your horses that are not flea bitten...are they HT or HZ gray? One gray parent = HT...2 gray parents *could* be HZ...but not always...

[motorgypsy]

grey is weird anyway. Our older buckskin mare has a Profeta son who was totally silver white at 5. Our 222 grandaughter is barely starting to grey at 4. Both are heterozygous. A friend has a heterozygous grey filly that was almost totally grey before she was one. She's a chestnut but greying really early. Her mom had black mane and points but was medium dappled at five but the filly didn't appear to have dapples. Her dad was a bay.

[Tami Pinell]

No - fleabitten grays have a different genetic makeup than those that turn totally white. A fleabitten gray will most likely never turn "all white" no matter how old they are. I have one that is really old and she is still fleabitten.

[Sharon B]

I also think PFHA needs to add some colors to their selection. It is very important to know the base color of your gray horse. With a perlino or cremello, the double dilutes, the gray gene can not be seen. I registered a palomino that was going gray as a palomino and put in the description that she was going gray. It would have been better to have had a selection palomino/gray as the color. The most beautiful gray horse I have ever seen is Susan's gray Contrapunto son. I am not fond of grays but I love her CP2.
Sharon

[Candice Burger]

I agree, CP2 is a very special horse. I'm not a grey fan either, but this guy is classic paso fino all the way. Soon, I hope to get some mares to him too!


Here's what my PFHA papers say about color:
My bay, roan mare is simply registered as "roan"
My bay, dun, grey stallion is "grey"
My chestnut, dun, roan, grey filly is "grey"
My black, dun, grey colt is "grey"
I've got several non-grey duns that are bay or chestnut registered as "dun" or "buckskin" or "bay"

Grey hides allot of genetic expression. I would have loved to know what the colors were of the grey stallions I was breeding to because one was obviously dun as well since my stallion is producing dun on mares that have NO dun markings at all!

Plebeyo lived long enough to see him turn flea-bit but he never did. He went white and stayed that way. Now La Classica was flea-bit and I think she still is. I think there's a few genes that might decide how the grey is expressed with dapples, going white or flea-bit. My greys are flea-bit and never went through a white stage. Really ugly coat patterns--splotchy with no dappling and then the white spoltches got bigger with flea specks.

My black dun grey is doing something even stranger. He has white patches on his fetlocks and legs, body dark with mingled white hairs and his mane and tail are turning completely white with black tips.

[Bonnie M]

My gray mare has gotten to that flea-bitten stage. She was originally chestnut. She was a gorgeous dapple gray when I bought her but now all of that is gone and she has the chestnut flea bite marks on her.

She is only 8 years old now.

Not sure if you can see the marks on her, but here she is with the chestnut marks on her.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g177/bonniepaso/Alegria/Alegria-fleabitten.jpg

This is what she looked like when I bought her.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g177/bonniepaso/Alegria/MVC-017S.jpg

[Mrs. E.]

I am with Tami on the gray-fleabitten color. I also tend to think that a horse that has become fleabitten may later turn white with age. (this is just what I have noticed) so please don't yell at me.
Also, on some of my horses papers it states "horse may gray with age" which of course is telling me there is a gray parent.
My stallion was dapple gray at the age of one and snow white by the time he was six His mane was dark gray and turned all white by the time he was twenty.It shined like silver in the sun and was past his knees.

[Terry Wallace]

A white horse can turn flea-bitten grey...I reference the offspring of the Arab Bar Drift (son of Silver Drift). By six months his solid offspring would have the grey circles around their eye, by age one they were base coat color + grey...rose grey, steel grey, etc.... some went all white and some didn't, but in the teenager years...most had the flea bites in colors of the original base coat. This particular line of Arabs seemed to grey right away.

Interesting note... the two Silver dapple shetland pony mares that were bred to Bar Drift... offspring stayed silver-dapple and did not grey...

[GeorgeGuns]

Confusing, yah?

Mouse came to me as a two year old, all white, very light shadow of grey on her legs that was actually dappled, NO idea what her base coat was. She is now 19 and very very few dark flecks in her coat that have been there for years without increasing.. yet.

Domingo is fleabit, and perplexing - her flecks are mixed black and red hairs!!

Rio, aka Eeyore, has reverse dappling, greying, probably will be flea bit just cuz its a weird dapple pattern, and his base is black roan. Its a pretty grey now though as he has both silver hairs from the roan, and white hairs from the grey. (yeah, he's back, bad match ..... :evil: )

[Pasofinoguy]

what a great question.