(209) 477-1536, J. Sharon Batteate ( [email protected]), PO Box 8535, Stockton, CA 95208
Brenda's Baybe
Brenda's Baybe is a daughter of the brindle mare Brenda Batty Atty by an unknown stallion. Because she is a red bay (clear red color with little smuttiness/ sootiness/ countershading), darker hair is prevented from appearing on the body, so you cannot see any darker striping on her coat, even though she has coat texturing like her dam. Her dam "Brenda" is a dark bay or mahogany bay base color, which allows darker hairs to appear on the body, so the brindle striping can be seen.
Brenda's Baybe had three foals before she had to be put down due to an accident from trailer loading. Pictures were not taken of her first foal. Her second foal was a 2 week premature filly pictured below on the left. A definite brindle, she had coat texturing and two colors (buff and gray) apparent in her coat at birth. Had she lived, the gray areas would have become brown or black, and the buff areas would probably have been a lighter shade of brown.
Her third foal was the mahogany bay colt pictured above on the right. When he was born, he had so much coat texturing I thought he was also going to be a brindle. I was happy he showed a countershading stripe down his back, because I knew he was going to some sort of mahogany bay (rather than red bay like his dam), which meant he should show any brindle striping if he carried it, like his grand dam "Brenda". However, by the time he was 2 weeks old, he was beginning to loose most of the coat texturing. I tried to take some pictures of it at that time (above right), but berated myself for not taking pictures of it when he was born. He continued to loose the texturing, and ended up being an ordinary non-brindle mahogany bay as shown below on the left. He did retain his countershading stripe down his back, but this should not be confused with brindling. Rather, sooty/smutty/countershading (darker hair mixed in on the body) is just one of the factors that seems to be involved in helping make a brindle pattern visible.
Thus, I found that coat texturing in a foal is no guarantee that they are carriers of the brindle pattern. In fact, I know of numerous other foals (from non-brindle breeding) that have also exhibited coat texturing as foals. Both the foals shown above on the right had odd texturing and striping patterns on the hindquarters which they lost as they matured. In general, the young of many species often exhibit primitive patterns which they loose. Examples would be lion cubs, tapirs, and deer. Both lion cubs and baby tapirs have stripes in their coats which they loose as they mature. Fawns have white spotting in their coats which they loose as adults.
Pedigree
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