This website is owned and created by Nancy Kerson, a private citizen. Information about BLM adoptions is offered as a service, to help mustangs find homes.
Please direct adoption questions to the BLM, not to me. And we sure as heck are not a Mustang car dealership! | This website: Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 All Rights Reserved. I am happy to share, but please give me a credit when you "borrow" things off my website! Thanks! Just say, "author, Nancy Kerson www.mustangs4us.com " |
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! $49.95 plus $5 shipping/handling = $54.95 total  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!  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! Can't do Paypal? No Problem! Just Call TOLL FREE 1-877-345-6748 (1-877-FILMS4U) ____________________ Can't do Paypal? No Problem! Just Call TOLL FREE 1-877-345-6748 (1-877-FILMS4U)
If you don't want to buy online, Call TOLL FREE 1-877-345-6748 (1-877-FILMS4U)
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Home Up Adopt A Mustang Wild Horse Burros! Mustang Mules Wild Horse & Burro Herd Areas Mustang Wild Horse History Mustang - Link to History How to Gentle A Wild Horse What's Next After Gentling? Our "Wild" Horse Herd Mustang * Horse Colors Videos from Video Mike Mustang Links The Future? Mustang & Burro Events Lewis & Clark Mustang History, part 2 | | Silver Dapple yearling mustang from Sheepshead HMA at the Burns, Oregon, BLM facility.
|  Catana, from Sand Springs HMA in Oregon, adopted by Barb Montgomery
|  Karma, a Cold Springs HMA mustang adopted by Andi & Tom Harmon of Burns, Oregon
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"Z" denotes the Silver, or Silver Dapples gene. Also known as "chocolate" or "taffy", Silver is one of the dilution genes, along with Dun, Champagne & Creme. Silver not only dilutes black, but completely changes it, to a flat brown color (which may range from a creamy chocolate-with-milk color to a deep "Weimerainer" grey-brown), usually (but not necessarily) with dapples, and changes the mane and tail to white or very nearly white. The horse retains a dark, nearly black mask on its face, similar to Duns (especially Black Dun, or Grullo). Silver, or Silver Dapple, is neither silver nor necessarily dappled. It is entirely unrelated to dapple gray. It is a color gene that works to dilute Black pigment - creating lovely effects that include an extreme lightening of the mane and tail, and partial dilution of the body. Silver dapple does not effect Red pigment, but it dilutes a black or bay coat to look red. Silver can be carried by a red horse, who can then pass it on to offspring. The lighter Silver Bay horses are sometimes incorrectly identified as flaxen chestnuts. But the dark roots and darker face are diagnostic of black-based Silver. Silver Dapples is called "Chocolate" in the Rocky Mountain Horse breed, and the Australian writer J. Gower refers to it as "Taffy." Photo: Cathy Barcomb Many horses, such as this "chestnut" Pine Nut Pony, are labeled "liver chestnut" but are really silver dapple. (the dark face is a give-away) Likewise, Sooty ("Chocolate") Palomino and Silver Dapple Bay or Silver Dapple Buckskin can look much alike. Both The University of California at Davis and Animal Genetics, Inc. of Florida can test for the presence of Tobiano, Red, Frame, Creme, Silver, Sabino1, and Agouti (Bay). The test for Tobiano can determine whether or not a horse is homozygous of heterozygous (good to know if you are trying to breed for Tobiano). You can download forms for these tests from their website-- follow the links from http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu OR, from the Animal Genetics website http://www.animalgenetics.us/Equine.htm | The Silver gene is confined to just a few breeds in the United States. It's found most commonly in the gaited breeds of the different Mountain Horse breeds, Rocky Mountain Horses, Kentucky Mountain horses, Missouri Fox Trotters, Saddlebreds, and the Icelandic Horse. It's also common in the Welsh Pony, Shetland Pony, and Miniature Horse breeds. Mustangs with Silver Dapples are most likely descended from feral horses of these breeds. The Pine Nut herd, for instance, is known to have Shetland Pony ancestors. Some of the Eastern Oregon herds have a high incidence of Silver Dapples, and it shows up in the California herds once in awhile, too..  Silver Dapples is fairly prevalent in the Cold Springs Herd Area of Oregon Photos by Andi Harmon |  Silver wild stud horse From Cold Springs HMA, at the Burns BLM Corrals |  Silver mare from Northern California at a BLM adoption in Roseville, CA
|  Silver weanling from Sheepshead HMA in Oregon
 Sheepshead HMA mustangs
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 Silver Bay Shetland pony - you can tell it is Silver and not Flaxen Chestnut by the dark roots! |  Tinkerbelle, a silver dapple dun horse rescued by LipizzanLady | Silver can mimic flaxen chestnut. But the key is the roots: Flaxen manes and tails are flaxen all the way through. Silver manes and tails have dark roots.
 Castana, a Silver Bay mustang from Sand Springs HMA in Oregon, adopted by Barbara Montgomery of Indiana
 |  Tinkerbelle's darker winter/early spring coloring |  Tinkerbelle in summer |  Horses with the Silver dilution often have striped hooves, and often have light blonde or white eyelashes, especially as foals. | | | Palomino Valley BLM Wild Horse & Burro Center has some really lovely Silver horses in July of 2006: |  |  |
For more information: Thanks to the many members of the Yahoo discussion group "1Rainbowhorses" for most of these Silver Dapples photos. 
Up | Champagne | The Creme Gene | Dun | Silver Dapples | Dun or Buckskin? Up A Quick Overview of Horse Genetics | Horse Color Genetics Charts 2 | Equine Base Colors | Dominant Horse Color Genes | The Dilution Genes | Recessive Color Genes |