Our featured horse this month, Pocos Scooter Bar, a 1978 Grullo Quarter Horse with dorsal stripe and leg barring, is also a carrier of the brindle pattern, making him a good example of the combination known as "brindle dun." Like our featured horse last month, he is also another good example of how the brindle pattern can show yearly and seasonal variation. His owner at the time of his birth was Mavis Sellers. She reported to me that neither his sire nor dam showed any brindle pattern. His dam was a grullo, and the sire was a buckskin/dun. Pocos Scooter Bar was "born with the stripes all over. In the beginning they were brown. As he got older they turned black and brown. On his leg where he should have had a white stocking, his was tan." This "tan stocking" is fortunate, because it allows us to confirm that it is indeed the same horse seen in the various photos below.

Pocos Scooter Bar was gelded after he had been bred to some mares, and never reproduced his color. His current owner, Logan McKechnie of Grey Falcon Buckskins, reported to me that most all of the foals were solid colored or dark, but that he did produce a cremello from a light buckskin mare. However, records show he only has one offspring registered with the AQHA, and no offspring registered with either of the Buckskin registries, so some of the offspring must not have been registered. We would be interested in tracking these offspring. If anyone knows the whereabouts of any of Pocos Scooter Bar's get, could you please contact me.

Brindle has occurred in such diverse breeds as Arabians, Thoroughbreds, Mustangs, Quarter Horses, Bavarian Warmbloods, Russian Horses, Spanish Horses, and supposedly also in the Netherlands. Sometimes the pattern seems to be composed of dark hair (black or brown), sometimes of white hair (roan). Since so little information is available on the Brindle pattern in horses, we are not sure if they are from the same gene or not. There could be several genes involved, producing similar patterns ( much as pinto/paint spotting can result from several different genes). Many people confuse Dun Factor markings (stripe down the back, barring on the legs) with brindle. Indeed, there have been many examples of horses that were probably carrying both genes. However, the Russian cab horse, and Brindle mare in the photo you can click to see below, do not have any Dun Factor markings whatsoever. Brindle horses also have texturing in their coat, similar to that seen in some Appaloosa horses. The pattern seems to be inheritable, especially in terms of coat texturing, but the extent of striping is highly variable. However, before we start drawing too many conclusions about the pattern, we need to locate more examples for a study.

Volume 1, number 6. Written information was last updated July 1, 1997. We will update the written information approximately once a month - however, because Brindle Horses are so rare, we may not be able to update the photos in the slideshow that often. The address of this website is http://www.geocities.com/sbatteate - You may e-mail me at [email protected]