Leopard Patterns - Information and open discussion

[Neon4]

Hello! Sorry to bother you all here, i was just wondering if anyone could explain this for me?
I have a stallion that does not appear to have any bronzing or snowflake and yet he still seems to throw foals with blanket? The mares are also lacking snowflake and bronzing from what I can tell...
Foal 1 Mare 1
Foal 2 Mare 2
Foal 3 Mare 3

I have no idea whats going on, but is it possible that they do have bronzing but it is not yet visible or perhaps they carry the Lp gene but no/very little bronzing? Is it possible to have no bronzing?

Also, as a side note, if anyone has some smaller horses with a lot of white they'd be willing to sell, that would be amazing

[BlackOak2]

Hello! Sorry to bother you all here, i was just wondering if anyone could explain this for me?
I have a stallion that does not appear to have any bronzing or snowflake and yet he still seems to throw foals with blanket? The mares are also lacking snowflake and bronzing from what I can tell...
I have no idea whats going on, but is it possible that they do have bronzing but it is not yet visible or perhaps they carry the Lp gene but no/very little bronzing? Is it possible to have no bronzing?

Also, as a side note, if anyone has some smaller horses with a lot of white they'd be willing to sell, that would be amazing

This is what the post title says, it's an open discussion and information log. So you're welcome to bother us.
Your stallions dam has a pattern. I am leaning toward believing that your stallion has some hidden snowflakes either under his mane or possibly not visible on this side (we still don't know if the other side of the horse has exactly what the visible side has, or may have different patterning).
Also, your stallion definitely looks like he's varnishing. He's still pretty young and there are genes out there for a very slow varnish, plus he's already a light color. He is definitely the reason why you're having patterned foals, in my opinion. He is an Lp carrier, although he may not be a pattern carrier. In other words, if any plain-looking horse carries patterns, but cannot express them because they don't have the switch, of crossed with him, their foals can offer whatever pattern that's been passed on to them.

As a reminder, bronzing is generally what refers to the black color turning red. Varnishing is what happens when the horse's original coat mutates color as they age.

I have smaller (though not tiny) horses. But my lines are still closed. It may still be some time before I start selling my leopard tarpans to the public.

[Neon4]

This is what the post title says, it's an open discussion and information log. So you're welcome to bother us.
Your stallions dam has a pattern. I am leaning toward believing that your stallion has some hidden snowflakes either under his mane or possibly not visible on this side (we still don't know if the other side of the horse has exactly what the visible side has, or may have different patterning).
Also, your stallion definitely looks like he's varnishing. He's still pretty young and there are genes out there for a very slow varnish, plus he's already a light color. He is definitely the reason why you're having patterned foals, in my opinion. He is an Lp carrier, although he may not be a pattern carrier. In other words, if any plain-looking horse carries patterns, but cannot express them because they don't have the switch, of crossed with him, their foals can offer whatever pattern that's been passed on to them.

As a reminder, bronzing is generally what refers to the black color turning red. Varnishing is what happens when the horse's original coat mutates color as they age.

I have smaller (though not tiny) horses. But my lines are still closed. It may still be some time before I start selling my leopard tarpans to the public.

Thank you for the information! This definitely helps

[BlackOak2]

Next batch. I lost one of the mares this round.

Edit: rehomed this batch of offspring. No proof of theory.

[BlackOak2]

Next batch. I lost another mare with this set.




That last one has some decent coverage. Only one so far with that much. But it still offers me no new info. But then again, maybe that's enough to offer proof that the belgian could have the agouti extension.

Edit: rehomed this batch of offspring. No proof of theory. Holding last foal for time being.

[BlackOak2]

Next batch. Only four mares left and I'm not too sure how much longer the stud will hang on.

Decently nice looking filly, good coverage. This is the second foal that looks like this. However, it still doesn't offer me any new information. This filly will be kept as an example with the other three. Extension example foals found in post below.

Edit: rehomed this batch of offspring. No proof of theory.

[BlackOak2]

I lost the stud after the last batch was rebred, so this is the final batch.

Edit: rehomed this batch of offspring. No proof of theory. Experiment complete.

Now that the very last foal has dropped, here are my final thoughts.

There were approximately ten foals born to each of six mares (I lost a couple mares from old-age before the stud passed).

So many of these foals had almost the exact same pattern. That could be Silverine's herd has the same or nearly the same pattern genes. When patterns were thrown (solid foals accounted for between a third and a quarter of all dropped, which is much less than the approximately 50% expected), this similar/the same pattern appeared in well over 75% (I'd go as far as to say almost 85%). One mare offered less pattern, but also threw foals with the same pattern as the others.

The black AC belgian certainly carried the ability to allow a lot of pattern passage, although he didn't offer any agouti extension beyond the neck, he certainly offered extensive patterns and even offered the same pattern design (in multiple cases with multiple mares, exactly the same coverage pattern).

So what does this tell me? That certain belgians (in this case black-carriers were the only ones I studied) offering black genes have the ability to carry extension beyond the usual hip blanket areas that a great deal of AC horses offer. Beyond this, the question 'which AC breed most likely carries the agouti extension up the neck?' remains unconfirmed. I am of the belief that black-colored AC belgians carry the key, or at least part of the key to expand the white area of Lp beyond the neck on agouti and black horses.
I may revisit this experiement at a later date and only breed black AC belgains to Lp switch AC horses (shetlands or tarpans) to give a proof-of-theory attempt again.

I will keep permanently (to save the outcome of this experiment) three examples of the 'exact patterns' that consistently showed up and one example of the most pattern (of which two were born).
They are as follows:
Exact Patterns (the only differentiation's were on the hind leg and flank)







Most Pattern

[Eclipse Ranch]

Hi all! I've started my own breeding program experimenting with breeding leopard patterned horses from scratch. My ultimate goal is to end up with a herd of tiger-eyed, barb-type leopard horses, perhaps even leopard-patterned 100% NABs if I breed for enough generations. but in the mean time, I figured this would be a good place to post my progress. I don't know if it'll provide any new information on the leopard patterns, but I might as well post what I have so far.

I started out w/ 5 foundation stock:
Cosmos Redshift 7, a stud list Tarpan with a snowcap blanket (thank you, North Star Ponies!)
Peach Schnapps Liqueur, my (sadly passed) varnish snowcap Shetland mare
Felix, a Caspain stallion that throws blankets w/ leg white
Dawn Treader, a Caspian mare that's produced a couple pretty varnishes w/ blankets
Zobel II, a Forest mare that throws nice large spots

So far I've gotten about 6 different stages of blanket, and just recently got a couple that could maybe be called semi-leopard:

Simple blanket example

Tail white example

Extended blanket example

Single leg white example

Double leg white

Semi-leopard


Aaand that's what I've got so far. Felix is available for stud if anyone's interested. I've also got a few horses for sale, both failed foundation stock and some blankets I want to get rid of. I'll update in the future with any new developments.

[BlackOak2]

Hi all! I've started my own breeding program experimenting with breeding leopard patterned horses from scratch. My ultimate goal is to end up with a herd of tiger-eyed, barb-type leopard horses, perhaps even leopard-patterned 100% NABs if I breed for enough generations. but in the mean time, I figured this would be a good place to post my progress. I don't know if it'll provide any new information on the leopard patterns, but I might as well post what I have so far.
...

Aaand that's what I've got so far. Felix is available for stud if anyone's interested. I've also got a few horses for sale, both failed foundation stock and some blankets I want to get rid of. I'll update in the future with any new developments.

Welcome to the study!
New information or confirming questionable information is always welcome.

[Silverine]

Went on hiatus for a while, so nothing new to report, but check out the white space on this filly: