Mustangs 4 Us
Sooty
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(Wild Horse, not the Car!)
Wild Horse & Burro Watching
Gentling and Training
Burros
Mustang Mules
Wild Horse & Burro Herd Areas
Mustang * Horse Colors
Helpful Videos
"Free to Good Home"
"Working With Wild Horses" Book
Cool Stuff to Buy
Our "Wild " Herd
How to Read a Brand
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NAPA MUSTANG DAYS

This is a non-commercial, independent website, owned and written by Nancy Kerson, for the benefit of actual and potential adopters of BLM Mustangs and Burros and similar animals.

Mustang T-Shirt

$19.95

Sizes & Style

 

Working With Wild Horses, Second Edition
Working With Wild Horses
(book)
Second Edition 
Printed Book $23
 or
$7.50 Download

This website is owned and created
by Nancy Kerson, a private
citizen - I am not the BLM or anyother branch of  government!

Information about BLM adoptions
is offered as a service, to help
mustangs find homes and to
promote public appreciation of
wild horses and burros.

For information about the BLM
Wild Horse & Burro Program,
please call (866) 4MUSTANGS
or Click HERE

Please direct adoption questions
to the BLM, not to me.

And I sure as heck am not a
Mustang car dealership!

I have NO horses or burros for
sale and am not interested in
buying or listing or otherwise
promoting your sale animals!

This website:
Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
All Rights Reserved.
I am happy to share, but please
give me a credit when you
"borrow" things off my website!
Thanks!

VIDEOS OF INTEREST TO MUSTANG & BURRO ADOPTERS:


Kitty Lauman:
From Wild to Willing:
Using the Bamboo Pole to Gentle Mustangs
More from Lauman Training available now!

DVD or VHS
(2-DVD or 2-VHS set) almost 3 hours of instruction!

$39.95 plus $5 shipping/handling = $44.95 total

BUY 2 DVD Set:

Can't Order Online?
No Problem!
Just email us and we'll tell you
how to mail order


Lesley Neuman:
The First Touch
Gentling Your Mustang
$45.00

Lesley works with 3 wild horses at a BLM adoption, and very clearly explains what is happening, what she is doing, & what she sees in each horse as it progresses. Study this video and you can learn "pressure and release" gentling techniques to gentle your own new mustang!

Format:


Help for Burro adopters!
Crystal Ward
Donkey Training

All the basics of gentling, handling, and training. A MUST for new burro adopters! Good for domestic donkeys, too!

FORMAT


 

 

The Sooty, or Smutty, Gene


Sooty palomino mustang from Salt Wells Creek HMA in Wyoming


Many horses have this aspect of what is most likely a form of natural camouflage.

The Smutty, or Sooty genetic modifier causes some black hairs to become mixed into body coat, sometimes creating dappling or brindle striping.

  • Sorrel becomes dark chestnut or liver chestnut. 

  • Bay becomes mahogany bay.  (Recent research in France shows that most Seal Brown horses carry Agouti, indicating that they may be Sooty Bays)

  • Palomino becomes sooty palomino, or, in extreme cases, Chocolate Palomino.


Wyatt, Kitty Lauman's Beaty's Butte mustang, has wonderful sooty overtones - almost brindle!

 


Sooty Palomino owned by Kristi Cantor

Sooty Palomino Appaloosa colt at Palomino Valley in August, 2001


This  PMU foal is either a Chocolate Palomino or Silver Dapples - the look is the same - only genetic/pedigree analysis can say for sure.

COUNTERSHADING is a form of the Sooty / Smutty gene which mimics the dorsal stripe associated with Dun:

left: countershading stripe on a buckskin; Many "linebacked bays" have this stripe - are lacking in any other dun characteristics

right: true dun dorsal stripe

 

BRINDLE results when Sootiness is grouped by the Brindle gene into irregular "drippy" or "tiger" stripes
 

Brindle horse the owned by Charpilloz family

For more about Brindle, click here:

Brindle Horse Website

Brindle Horse - another website

Sharon Batteatte's Brindle Horse Research Website

Denise Charpilloz' Brindle Horse Website

SOOTINESS IS OFTEN SEASONAL

Much sooty coloring comes and goes with the seasons. Many buckskins produce dun-like dorsal shading and facial and shoulder darkening during springtime. But it fades away with summer.


Benny in his Springtime Sooty Phase

Benny in summer after the sootiness sheds away


Benny's springtime sooty "fake dorsal stripe"


This Internet Adoption horse from Wyoming is about as "Sooty" as they come!
 

The Base ColorsRed   Black

The Dominant Genes: Agouti (Bay)  Appaloosa  Black Brindle     Grey   Pangare (Mealy)   Roan   Roan-like Variations   Sooty/Smutty   The Pinto Patterns: Tobiano The Overo Group: Frame  Sabino Splash

The Dilution Genes (Partial Dominants): Champagne   Creme  Dun Silver (Silver Dapples)  

The Recessive Genes: Red  Flaxen

Other Colors & Issues: White   Overo Lethal White

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copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Nancy Kerson, all rights reserved - I'm happy to share, just need to be asked and have credit given where due.

Disclaimer: Horses are inherently dangerous. Use the information contained within this website at your own risk.