A HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR

Bays, greys, chestnuts and roans;

The colors of most of the horses I've known.

Perlinos, cremellos, claybanks and duns;

Palominos who shimmer like gold in the sun.

Piebalds and skewbalds, appaloosas too;

Sorrels, browns and grullas (who are blue).

Socks, snips and blazes, dapples and stripes;

And for bad guys and good guys, classic blacks or whites!

The horse in the picture is Sombra when she was four years old. If you are a horse person you already know the grey horse's story; born black or bay but each year more and more white hairs come in. By four most greys will be a deep shade of gunmetal grey; by six or seven, dapple grey with a bluish cast. By the time a grey reaches twenty to twenty five, they will be mostly white (see next post). I love that about having a grey; your horse changes from year to year!

As I've told you before, I was born horse crazy. I could never satisfy my intense desire to know everything about them; the names and traits of each breed, the colors and markings, and the care and training of them. I checked out every horse book from the library at least ten times, commited every page of it to memory, and when we would visit other people's homes I would check out their encyclopedias for information, and most of all, photographs! (what Google Image search would have meant to me back then!!) I learned to draw horses by copying photo after photo after photo... I have drawn thousands of horses in my lifetime, no kidding! Every breed, every color, every pose! I used to make up these elaborate tests on the colors of horses, with drawings of horses of every hue, and make my sister take them (nevermind that she had no real interest in horses, much less the various colors they come in, but, Hey! that's what little sisters are for, right Kiks?) Those were the days of loooong lazy summers and no all-day kids television programming, back-to-back summer camps or video games! I'll have to try the horse color test on my boys; although somehow I predict it might not be such a hit! (Thanks, Kiks, you were always a great sport... quick! what's a yellow-gold horse with a black mane and tail? That's right! See? Betcha wouldn't know that if it weren't for me!)

When I inherited Tango, his previous owner and I mused over his color. He's registered as a bay (reddish-brown with black mane, tail, and legs), but that's not correct. His dorsal stripe and mealy muzzle prove that he's actually a bay dun with the pangare factor. WHAT?? I know, that's more than most people would ever want to know if they asked, "What color is your horse?" :) But now you know anyway! I have always been drawn to the more rare colors in anything, not just horses. If I see a field of Holstein cows, which are usually black and white spotted, my eye will be drawn to the one brown and white. But in the horse world brown and white paints are more common, so it would be the black and white that would grab my attention! And who can deny the beauty of the Weimaraner, with its singular silver coat? Or the one albino parakeet in a cage with the yellows, blues, and ubiquitous greens? So if you've read the interests on my profile, and thought "What the heck?..", now you know. I'm not some weirdo with a thing for albinos (please, no offense to anyone who may be an albino, I AM fond of albinos!). On second thought, maybe I AM a weirdo! This whole post definitely has a "weirdo vibe" about it, doesn't it? OK, next time we'll talk about something more normal :) Cubby and Chico, off to the beach today, say " Go Spring Break 08!!" Love, RED