Our featured horse this month is The Tiger Dude, a 1976 Quarter Horse deceased in 1996, bred by Leverne Hurst of South Carolina. He was by a bay sire out of a dun dam. His breeder reported to me that he was brindle when he was born. He had a dorsal stripe and was black from the knees and hocks down, but showed no sign of leg barring as would have been expected on a dun horse. Barbara Baker, his owner in North Carolina, told me he was more of a bay color than a dun color. He was registered with AQHA as a "dun with zebra stripes", although from his photo, it appears to me that he was more likely to be an example of a bay brindle, rather than a brindle dun, due to the absence of leg barring. His dorsal stripe could have been one of the countershading variety, and the presence of countershading would have accounted for the expression of the darker stripes on his body. She mentioned as an aside: "when the breeder tried to register Tiger with the AQHA, he was turned down. The AQHA thought the horse was merely sweating, and requested a better set of photographs. Eventually, the AQHA sent a representative from the AQHA registration headquarters, to see this unique horse with their own eyes. They said he was the only QH with that coloring that they'd ever seen."

Barbara Baker further says "I bought Tiger (already named) as a yearling, from his breeder in South Carolina. I then sent him to Ken Smith, a Quarter Horse trainer, for breaking and training ... eventually I brought him back to my farm, and taught him to be a hunter, and later, a driving horse. He grew to be about 15.2 hands, with good manners and a friendly disposition. He was a true, versatile QH, and willingly did everything I asked. I showed him quite a bit, in everything from one day, "country-cowboy" shows, to "A rated" AHSA shows. He won as a pleasure horse, working hunter over fences, hunter hack, dressage, a one-day combined training event, and even a lead line class with a friend's toddler in the saddle! He was quiet enough to be used as a "guest horse", but had plenty of spunk for the capable riders, too. Unfortunately, he was a ridgling, was sterile, and was never bred. He was castrated when he was about 3 years old (after checking with a lot of vets on the sterility question)."

So far, The Tiger Dude is the oldest registered Quarter Horse I have discovered with a brindle pattern. Pocos Scooter Bar (photo in the slideshow) was born two years later in 1978. I imagine there are possibly older ones, but as AQHA does not require photographs for registration, they could have gone unreported, or have just been considered heavily marked duns.

Volume 2, number 2. Written information was last updated © March 1, 1998. 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. When returning to this site, remember to select the refresh or reload icon from your internet explorer tool bar at the top of the screen, so your screen will reload the latest information. The address of this web site is http://www.geocities.com/sbatteate

You may e-mail me at [email protected] Click here to e-mail me!

You may also contact me: (209) 477-1536, J. Sharon Batteate, PO Box 8535, Stockton, CA 95208 USA
Click this type for a picture of a Brindle Horse with contact information you can print.