[farmchick,isr]

My vet claims that because my filly is of a whit tb mare, and the father qh paint, her beautiful markings will disappear as she matures. What do you have to say about that, all you paint horse people.?

[Lou3]

they shouldnt do. Unless they are patches of grey dapples. A paint will remain a paint all their lives.
Lou

[DefinitelyADreamer]

If she has distinctive patches/markings they should not disappear. If she has alot of roaning in her markings it could be possible as she will roan out more and more as she ages (therefore getting lighter and lighter).
Do you have any pictures you could post?

[luvs2ride79]

Just as Lou said, a paint is born with their white & colored areas and they stay that way! Now, if your baby is truning gray, she will eventually be ALL white or Silver and White. Is the white TB a gray horse (dark skin with light hair) or a Maximum Sabino (white hair with pink skin)?

If your filly is turning gray, you will see white hairs start to sprout around the face. Genetically, she will still be a paint, but she will eventually look all white.

Here are some example of gray & white paints:

This horse is in the dark dapple gray stage.


This one has grayed much more quickly.



~Barb

[sunsetacres]

Originally Posted by farmchick,isr

My vet claims that because my filly is of a whit tb mare,

Do you mean that she is a 'grey' mare that is older and is now all 'white'? If so, and the baby inherited the 'greying' gene, then yes. As an older adult the grey will lighten each year until she is mostly white looking. When wet you will still see the difference of skin color where her spots were. Under the 'true' white coat it will be pink. Where it was once 'colored' it will be black/grey looking. But when dry she will look all white.
How old is the baby? and does she show signs of greying now?

[farmchick,isr]

The mare is white grey, I never really looked but I guess her skin to be dark. Now the baby "Patches" is a beautiful stocky filly, excellent temperment, with very pink skin, (her b-hind reminds us of a pink pig butt,) very sweet all around and is around 8 months old. So what does that say about her patches, they're of brownish grey color and perhaps 4 in number covering her head and part of her sides and stomach areas. By the way, what are the qualities personality wise of a paint and temperment? I'm still amazed they're considered a breed.
TIA

[Top Dun]

If the mare is a grey then it depends on if she is homozygous or heterozygous for grey. If the mare only had one grey parent then she is heterozygous and only has one dominant form of the grey gene. You then have a 50% chance that the foal will recieve the grey gene. The most common and easiest way to tell if a foal is going to grey out is to look at foal pictures and see if the foal has white halos around the eyes. If so then the foal carries the grey gene and soon you will lose the paint pattern. If the mare had two grey parents and inherited the grey gene from BOTH parents then 100% of her foals will be grey.

And yes in the future the grey WILL hide the paint pattern on the foal. The grey gene is BAD for color breeds like the Paint, Pinto or Appaloosa marked horses becuse it covers upthe pattern people are trying to keep. Personally I will never knowingly use as grey colored horse in a paint, pinto or appaloosa breeding program because it defeats the purpose ofthe program of breeding FOR color on top of quality. The Grey gene is one of the reasons the Lippizaners, and the Andalusians have LOST the appaloosa pattern in thier breeds. The Andalusians were one of the founding breeds of then Knabstrupper horses from Denmark. The mare used was an roan appaloosa marked mare who was bred to a warmblood stallion and created a loud colored foal.

Anyway that is not to say that your foal is not a quality foal, just that if she inherited the grey gene and she does grey out, then IMO she should NOT be bred in a Paint breeding program.

And finally if the mare is a maximum sabino where there are so far only like 13 registered with the JC (at last count that I know of) Then NO the color will not wash out and go away.

[farmchick,isr]

OMG, this is so involved. Well I hope she doesn't lose her color, her mom is carrying another baby from the same stallion. I'll go out soon and look for those white halos around her eyes,....wish me luck that I don't find them. Thanks for the info from all you kind folks on the forum. Farmchick, isr.

[luvs2ride79]

If the brown areas are already grayish, then the baby will end up all white. Can you post pictures of the baby?

~Barb

[farmchick,isr]

You know I looked for halos around the eyes but didn't notice anything that I recognized. In any case, at what age does color quit changing? Like I said she's 8 month old.