What causes dapples?
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Re: What causes dapples?
I was thinking....the last time Lacy looked nice and dark and stayed relatively dark? She was on pasture OR that plus locally grown bermuda. She has always had a dry sunburned coat though by end of summer. Since I have had between 3-5 horses on 5 acres, they are stalled and I don't even know my hay's analysis, but it's shipped in because alfalfa and timothy are do not grow well here. Once I know it was from New Mexico (?) that was the alfalfa, and I don't even know about the timothy. I'll ask if they have an analysis of what I'm getting now which is mostly timothy with a little alfalfa.
Re: What causes dapples?
Jenks- Getting hay analyzed is surprisingly cheap. I'll have to dig out the link for some labs when I get home. As to the pasture, grass actually has more fats than most people expect and a lot of those are the omega fatty acids, which contributes to the shinier coats often seen when horses are on pasture.
Re: What causes dapples?
I'm working on improving my new paddock area first, it's looking good, then I'll fence it and do the pasture. I put down lime, Amine 2D4 and it's amazing what it did in only a month. I still have a few weeds, but from what I understand 24D is not as strong and may take awhile? That's a whole nother topic! But ya, they are turned out all day and the pasture suffers a bit. I've never done anything to the pasture and it needs lime bad.
Re: What causes dapples?
that's all well and good....but what caused the dapples in [i]my[/i] legs? :? :(
i have no input here, but i am still awake for some reason. again. i irk me.
and i find dapples in healthy horses, but even then, i find it more often in well bred horses, lol. Mist is put together fine, but her pedigree is most likely nothing. She has never dappled, she doesn't even get very sleek. her coat just has this weird texture to it. Nike slicks out and dapples like nobody's business, but he has both pedigree and fatness going for him, lol! And I dont know that ive ever noticed dapples on jazz other than her greying >.<
But my friends have had horses of good and bad pedigrees in similar condition, and it was always the better bred one (or the one with more halter horses in their lines, or something) that had dapples if only one did. OMG, that oldenburg I showed yall, feels like a seal, she's got the shortest sleekest coat i've ever felt in my life, and you wanna talk about dappled, oh my lord!!!
Re: What causes dapples?
Grey coats tend to be on the drier side as a general rule don't they? I've noticed that white hair in general is different on my paint mare as well. Her white is like bunny fur during the winter. It's poofy. And my vet said something about it last summer because it sits up above her chestnut even when short. Like a swollen looking area, but it's just her white hair making it look higher up. I dun know.
I was just thinking about Lacy's previous owner when she came to see Cyn. He was chewing wood and she said that she gave her halflinger minerals for that. I REMEMBER her now saying she always had free choice minerals out for them. That was when I bought the mineral blocks, but I obviously misunderstood her.
Re: What causes dapples?
lol, Krickette, the shortest, sleekest, softest coat in my barn is on the grade Appaloosa! But after that I'd say it goes Tiffany (Oldenburg approved TB, no dapples), Isabelle (Oldenburg with dapples), Ginny (Arabian with similar breeding to Nike but never dapples) and then maybe Oliver (APHA, no dapples).
The Welshes and Welsh crosses are never soft but some of them dapple (Texas, Palomino, and Fly, liver chestnut). Cory gets wonderfully shiny. Tickle probably has the best bloodlines of the bunch but I can't recall if she dapples. She has so much sabino it would be hard to tell. I'll pay attention this summer when she sheds out.
edit to say that some of the best dapples in my barn are on Rocky, a grade pony. :laugh1
Re: What causes dapples?
thats weird that ginny doesnt dapple up, lol. It's hard to find nike without dapples, lol! he even gets them in his winter coat [url=http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y291/P…].
And I do remember jazz with dapples.....when she turned to colors like this: [url=http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/…], they'd show up.
my ponies are too shiny.
Re: What causes dapples?
[quote]thats weird that ginny doesnt dapple up, lol.[/quote]
Nope! Shiny, but no dapples.
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/…]
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/…]
(looking like a very plain pony here, but shiny)
Re: What causes dapples?
Mist ate wood. Her teeth are still deformed (bottoms grew up to meet where the top was missing). She was emaciated at the time.
However, she still eats my trees from time to time. I think now it's cause she's bored, because she is fat and happy and has mineral blocks and such. none of the others have a problem. it's just this one tree, i think she just wants to kill it...
Re: What causes dapples?
[quote="Monsterpony"][quote="Heather"]MP, she is eating wood, not a cribber ..I have a cribber lol, he is my Palomino.[/quote]
Sounds like a deficiency then.[/quote]
Im gonna look into getting some minerals and give it a shot! It will be intresting to see if it curbs her desire for wood, 2 x 6 lol she has eaten 3 of them 16ft ers :laugh1 and she loveeeesssss particle board... *sigh*
Re: What causes dapples?
[quote="Heather"][quote="Monsterpony"][quote="Heather"]MP, she is eating wood, not a cribber ..I have a cribber lol, he is my Palomino.[/quote]
Sounds like a deficiency then.[/quote]
Im gonna look into getting some minerals and give it a shot! It will be intresting to see if it curbs her desire for wood, 2 x 6 lol she has eaten 3 of them 16ft ers :laugh1 and she loveeeesssss particle board... *sigh*[/quote]
[color=#8000BF][b]I have to say that my Lacey was eating my wood boards too. I had free choice minerals out but keeps getting wet. I have to redo me shed in the dry lot. Anyway I started feeding Lacey a teaspoon twice a day of the loose mineral & haven't noticed her eating my boards anymore. So if you can't leave it out I'd recommend feeding it to her in her feed.[/b][/color]
Re: What causes dapples?
[color=#8000BF][b]My Dusty boy dappled out...was so pretty!![/b][/color]
[img]http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb25…]
Re: What causes dapples?
[quote="Heather"]I was never a fan of grey horses , i think its a rip off for color lol..but I always loved him. He looks like an athlete.[/quote]
[color=#8000BF][b]Lol Yeah, but I LOVE em!!! My old QH mare was a beautiful liver (chocolatey) chestnut & went gray.
She got me hooked on grays!!
[img]http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb25…]
[img]http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h252/…]
Here she is almost 3 yrs ago at 22 yrs young.
[img]http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h252/…]
[img]http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h252/…]
Oh gosh, that boy is/was so athletic!! In a way I so wanted to keep him as I seen the potential he had. I just hope the new owners are letting him thrive & show off his potential.
Just check out some of his videos.[/b][/color]
http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb25…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: What causes dapples?
People who keep sheep tell me that they will drop dead for any reason at all, including boredom. And then apparently they can carry some weird disease so the rendering truck won't pick them up. I heard a very funny story about hiding a dead one at the bottom of a large burn pile...
Back on topic, I think my feed store will order anything from the companies they work with as long as I'm going to buy it when it comes in. The manager had never heard of the loose minerals but he put it on his LMF order for next week.