Look who came to town...
It's my Frosty boy. Forgive the big feet-I just pulled him out of the pasture and haven't gotten him trimmed yet. Ugghh...besides my horses in town needing a trim, I still have the bunch on the river ranch to do. It NEVER ends!!Anyway, this year I will have both my buckskin and my dun in town to ride. Kinda funny how it worked out that this year Megan is again riding two roans and I finally have my two yellow boys together. Varying shades of the same color. My mom and step-dad had matching horses for years. First it was a pair of bays(with similar markings), then red duns, then palominos, then paints...then more paints. And the funny thing is, they never planned it that way. It just sort of happened.
People seldom call Moon a dun...
They either refer to him as buckskin or bay. To me he is a classic dun, as is his mother. Although, my dad tried to be creative when he registered my old mare and named her color as buckskin. Which meant that they had to go back and change the color of "her" mother from dun to buckskin. So then when I registered Moon as dun, it was a mess with the AQHA. Of course, this was all before DNA testing and such. I had to send in pictures of Woofer and Moon and for good measure sent in pictures of Woofer's mom too. The AQHA concurred they were in fact all duns.Back in the day...a horse was considered a dun if they had a dorsal stripe(with or without leg or wither barring) and a buckskin did not. But that wasn't always true.
Frosty has a dorsal stripe...
And is definitely a buckskin.Moon has a dorsal stripe...
And is definitely a dun.Now, with all the crazy color names, even I get confused. Dun and buckskin I can handle. For me, it's all about the brightness of the coat color. A buckskin has a brightness to their coat, a yellow or creamy undertone. A dun is dull and has a darker undertone. Start popping in some of those other color names they have come up with and I'm like...uuhhh-huhhh. Good thing I have never aspired to be a color breeder-I'm not creative enough.;) Personally, I don't really care what color a horse is, a nice horse is a nice horse. If I had to pick though...I would say, FAT is my favorite shade for any horse.
9 comments:
That last sentence made me smile. We say that all the time around here. Fat's a pretty color on a horse :)
Buckskin vs. Dun. I hear that, and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. I'm with you, as long as it's a nice horse, I don't care what people call it.
I always get so confused on buckskin/dun coloring! I love both colors but as you say, it doesn't matter the color, as long as they are a good horse! But I, of course, have my preferences!
We gotta love those fat horses!
Quinn (the gelding I sold last fall) was a dun. He had the dorsal stripe, leg bars and a mask. His colouring was a lot like Moon's.
People always called him buckskin.
I gave up and just went along with it. lol
I am with you on this....A Moon is definitely a true to the core dun horse, classic dun that is.. I have one that is classic dun. The facts are this duns are darker in color but almost in a smokey way and I tend to think that all duns have that "smoke" color masking around the nose and mouth...Does Moon?? I can kind of see it in the picture of him eating.. Buckskins are like a buttercream color, they are distinctive to me. And I agree the dorsal stripe, whatever!! Now the ones that I have a problem with are the light duns, where do they decide it's not a buckskin??? I guess some are lighter than buckskins.. I'm glad you get them both in town AWESOME!!! Good luck with all of the work to be done!
I'm really confused about the buckskin / dun thing. I have a mare that looks almost identical to your Frosty boy. She has a dark dorsal stripe for most of the time then it fades in the middle of her back in the summer.....she's listed as a Dun on her papers. The previous owners then bred her to a Buttermilk (he's very light) buckskin who does not have a stripe at all or is so light you can hardly see it. We have the baby and he's (Slick) considered a Dun on his papers although he has coloring in between dam and sire....not as light as sire and not as dark as dam. Whew, we are new to these colors! Thanks for the post!
Yep, a dorsal stripe, I even thought I saw a little zebra striping on those legs.
Callie-both of them have the "cross" across their withers. Moon has a little barring on his legs that shows up, depending on the season.
BET-The AQHA used to state that a dun can only produce another dun. But of course a dun bred to a buckskin, so shouldn't that mean you could have gotten either? Or is Slick considered one of those funky colors...dunskin? Which of course the AQHA does not recognize on the registration. Frosty's dad is the same coloring as Frosty and is registered a buckskin, so the AQHA would have given me the same fits I had registering Moon if I had tried to register Frosty as a dun(because of the dorsal stripe). So maybe he is technically a dunskin too?
Seeing the pictures of Teya and Slick, I assumed both of them were buckskins. See what I know? Nuthin'! LOL.
Country Girl-I guess you could say Moon has a "smokey mouth". The hair is usually a darker color most of the year around his face.
I love that, "Fat is my favorite shade". That is great!! I think fat is a good color too. The trainer I had Ozzie at had these two dun mares that were beautiful, but worked like crap. Then he had this Smart Little Lena mare that was typical Lena mare, small, narrow, and skinny little neck. But that mare could work a cow!! But if I were going to a sale and saw those horses, I would have picked the Duns, not because of color but because conformationally they were better looking, but DANG, that little Lena mare could work.
And my buckskin filly has striping on her withers, dorsal stripe, cobwebbing, ear shading, and faint zebra stripes, but she is not a dun. She has one dun WAY back in her line, but way too far back to make a difference. I just have my fingers crossed she sheds out a buckskin and not a black.
The color thing can be crazy. And sometimes the horses come out that way too, because people breed for color and not brains. Just like that Dun mare and that Little Lena mare. One was colorful and the other was just brown.
Fun post and it was fun looking at your yellow boys!! How many horses do you have?
I hear that all the time "dorsal stripe = dun" since I have never dealt with the issue I haven't really devoted much brain power to it. Shameful I know - but there is only so much thinking one can do!
Fat is an excellent color on a horse!
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