Josephine

I have to interrupt my vacation pictures to show you all pictures of Josephine!! The first thing I did when I got back from vacation was go out and check on my animals. I was so happy to see that Ozzie had kept his weight up and that my fillies were doing wonderfully. There was just one thing tough, about Josephine. She changed a bit in the color department. But I think it's going to be an okay thing, it's a neat color. Here is the color she was when I left. And now here is the color she is now!! A bit different huh? I am really excited at how unique she is turning out to be. She is such a sweet girl. She lets me pick up all her feet and she puts up with me brushing her. Here is her butt shot. You can still see her white hairs on her lower leg. I knew those legs would shed out black, so that really wasn't a big surprise. It was her body that surprised me. This is a better shot at what her color really looks like. It's hard to take pictures of a horse when all the horse wants is to be in your face. She really is a nosy little girl. Here is a close up shot of her tail. She still has a faint dorsal stripe. But I think by the next time she sheds out it will be gone. The inside hairs of her ears are super light. I think if they were shaved they would be darker. Her mane is growing in black. So she looks funny with black roots and orange tips. But that is Josephine. All shedded out. I think she is super cute and very different. Does anyone want to guess what color she is? Okay, I won't make you wait. She is a smutty/sooty buckskin. She is a very dark one at that. I think she will lighten up. Her sire is a cremello. So, by breeding a cremello, that has a double dilute gene, to my brown mare, I get a diluted baby. So, there is no way my filly will ever be a bay or a brown. It's just not possible. It's like added a lot of bleach to your washer with black clothes in it. The clothes will come out a bit diluted!

Josephine can not be a smokey black, because her Dam was a brown horse, that isn't an option of color. So, when you take a brown mare and breed it to a cremello sire, you can get a palomino or a buckskin. And Josephine is defiantly not a palomino. So, that just leaves one option, buckskin.

The double dilute gene is so much fun!! There is so much that you can do with it! But that is an entirely different post. Here is a picture of another sooty buckskin filly. Seeing her makes me really excited to see what Josephine will look like as she grows and matures. I can see similarities in the sooty buckskin traits with that filly and with Josephine. But only time will tell and foals have a way with shedding out some pretty strange colors! But so far I am likeing what I see. Strange colors sometimes have a way with catching a judge's eye.