"Sharp" Brindles

:love

I must be missing something because I don't see brindle on any of the foals?? Also interesting that 'Chili' is Listed as Dun brindle, but is obviously a gray (and has produced a grey foal from bay sire). I wonder if the stripes will gray out or only her body color?

Chilli is a dun with extensive dun factor causing the stripes, Tabasco is pigment error/somatic mutation, and Salsa is a chimera. These are all brindles caused by different things. The somatic mutation and chimerism are not inheritable. The extensive dun factor in Chilli can be 'inherited' in that [u]dun [/u]is inheritable, but the [u]stripes [/u]coming out that numerous and bold as it is in her would be really really rare and very unlikely to happen in her offspring.

All of the 'brindle' on the foals on the sales page is just foal coat texture from what I can see. The term inheritable and seasonal brindle used by most brindle breeders is just describing curly coat texture. I don't see any brindle on the majority of animals from brindle breeding programs.

EDIT: Thanks Crias for pointing out Chili is gray I never noticed before and it explains why her stripes developed since gray causes increased pigmentation before graying out.

[quote]seasonal brindle used by most brindle breeders is just describing curly coat texture.[/quote]

Seasonal brindle is a horse that only shows it's stripes part of the year. My mare is seasonal brindle. When I bought her I had no idea she was brindle, she still had her winter coat. Then she shed out, then she faded, the stripes did not fade like the rest of her coat. True brindle also has a texture. My horses stripes consist of much shorter hair than the light hair around it. It gives a grand canyon affect in person. Pictures in another thread.

Sorry I wasn't more specific. Horses with curly, hair texture, and even sooty do get called seasonal brindle since they do not express year round.

Your mare definitely looks like she has the texture. Many horses claimed to be seasonal brindle don't have this texture, just curly which is also a seasonal hair expression. It get's longer in the winter and short/almost unnoticeable in the summer. The main give aways between the two is inheritance and expression.

Curly is most commonly a simple dominant while this hair texture appears polygenic. Curly horses get curls in their coat, especially their ear fluff, and their manes and tails become sparser in the warmer months. Horses with hair texture lack these curls and have normal ear fluff. Their manes and tails also appear unaffected from what I've seen. Unfortunately because of some lines having both texture and curly in the pedigree and both causing a hair difference they get described as the same thing, which they are not. They both may affect hair, but they have different causes.