Belina with her 2009 filly, Encantara The Spring of 2009 was an exciting time at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve. Kevin and I were eagerly anticipating the second "crop" of foals that Altamiro and his four mares had created.
First on the landscape that year was the amazing Encantara.
Born to Belina on May 10th 2009 (Mother's Day as it happens), Encantara's birth story is chronicled here.
Belina, is our pony-sized mare whose Sorraia characteristics are not as pronounced. We were not sure just what type of contribution she would make to the preservation of these endangered primitive Iberian horses, formerly called "zebros" (which are now thought by some to be remnants of the "Iberian Tarpan"). However, as a maiden mare Belina delighted us by producing Fada, a lovely example of what one would expect an "Iberian Tarpan" to be--albeit diminutive and uncommonly dark in colour. And when we saw what Belina and Altamiro had created for their second offering to the conservation of ancestral horses, our mouths dropped in disbelief. Those stripes! I remember exclaiming to Hardy Oelke when I shared with him the good news of a new filly that "The Zebro is alive and well at Ravenseyrie!"
To learn how Encantara came by her well-fitting name, read this journal entry from May of 2009.
Now, for a long photo documentation of the enchanting Sorraia Mustang filly, Encantara:
Spring 2009
Here Fada checks out her new full sister, whose presence means for Fada that she is now cut off from Belina's udder and from this day forward will no longer consume mother's milk.(Unlike humans, who not only continue to drink mother's milk beyond infancy, but are drinking a beverage that is made for baby calves...)
Here Encantara is standing with Animado, her older half-brother out of BellaSummer 2009
I love the way the grullas look in this particular type of summer sunlight!Autumn 2009
Winter 2009
Spring 2010
Summer 2010
Autumn 2010
Winter 2010
Encantara grazes through the snow, with Animado in the backgroundI will add more photos to this page (and the other pages I've put up so far documenting Altamrio's offspring) when Spring arrives on Manitoulin once again.
I hope readers appreciate seeing the photos of our Sorraia Mustang youngsters in this way. I find it is incredibly interesting and illuminating to take note of the alterations in coat colour and body shape as these horses move through the change of seasons and phases of growth. Of course it isn't just the grulla colour, or the contrasting stripes that make for the phenotype of the Sorraia--it is these in combination with the distinctive bone structure, bearing and behavior that one comes to appreciate how strong and persistent and alive the ancient genetics of the "Iberian Tarpan" are and how fortunate we are to not have lost them for ever, like so many other extinctions.
To see more photos and read some meaningful moments I have shared with Encantara please check out these earlier journal entries:
Touching Encantara and Rites of Passage
Encantara is part of the group that will be going to live in Cheyenne, Wyoming at the Soul of Sorraia Ranch, to help intensify the conservation efforts Mike and Sheri Olson have begun with their own Sorraia type mustangs. To learn more about Soul of Sorraia, please click on the link for them I have posted in the side bar of the Journal of Ravenseyrie.
17 comments:
Wonderful photo's of Encantara and Ravenseyrie in all the different seasons. Thank you so much Lynne.
It's so interesting to see a series of photos of the same youngster at different stages - to see their personality and physique develop and change, but also see the consistencies.
Do you think Encantara will keep her shoulder and neck stripes as she grows?
peter_be :
Lynne, have you already trained the "moving-horses" in any way to make loading easy and to accustom them to the journey to come ?
I think Bella is a kind of "enhancer" genetically, the genes that account for the blackening of Fada, may be the same that enhance the striping on Encantara ; but certainly, Altamiro is doing his part to, since he too, is very dark, and he is making the same combination with Ciente.
Annemiek, I'm glad you and June can appreciate seeing Enantara through the seasons and years of growth.
June wrote:
Do you think Encantara will keep her shoulder and neck stripes as she grows?
Absolutely. Look how her mother has retained her shoulder markings. The only way she would not is if she were, like her sister, Fada, an extremely dark grulla...but she is not as dark as that, so these stripes remain nicely visible.
Peter inquired:
"Lynne, have you already trained the "moving-horses" in any way to make loading easy and to accustom them to the journey to come ?"
I'll make you a deal, Peter...if you answer why your perception of equine coat colour appears to be contradicting what present day equine genetic researchers are putting out there, I will answer the above query.
You see (as stated before) I'm confused. Is the colour of these types of ancestral wild horses:
a)mouse dun/grulla, which is being melanized into various darker, sometimes virtually black shades as you seem to be saying, or
b)grulla is a dun dilution on an otherwise black base coat like the colour geneticists at the University of California Davis and other colour specialists are saying?
Will you direct me to literature where I can read what you are saying about equine coat colour? I would like to know more.
I'm sure you meant to say that "Belina" not "Bella" is the "enhancer", since Encantara and Fada are out of Belina. ;-)
peter_be :
well Lynne, this is a hard one I've been chewing on for a long time already and I'm still pondering my answer on the dark-to-black-grulla....
I do not think so much differently from geneticists on colour but it intreagues me for a long time already. I've been breeding appaloosas for a while and last years I was a subscriber to the appaloosa-project which is led by scientists-geneticists trying to resolve the "appaloosa-complex". It is very clear that some things are known about colourgenetics but much more is unknown. And wildcolour is a very specific one. First I'd like to stipulate that to me DUN is NOT a dilution but it is the colour-of-origine, just like wild-bay may as well be another colour-of-origine, both from which all other colours have mutated away. Dun is a very stable gene not like Cream, or champagne because such horses tend to end up almost colourless by breeding them repeatedly, all the while dun-to-dun-breeding allways ends up looking like... dun!
And yes there is a difference in pigmentation on body and points, but there is also the bicolouration of manes and tails, the stripping, the dorsalpigmentation, de cobwebbing..... and geneticists haven't to my knowledge found out how these traits really act : are wildstripes only masked on "normal"coloured horses (black-bay-red) or have they been genetically "erased" ?!
The reason why you find so few easy-reading-scientific information on the internet on (horse)colour, is because too few is allready known and defined. All info is only basical, even on plain colours as black-bay-red.
So, your two "black" horses are indeed like UCD points out : a grulla dilution on a black base reading as : a horse with no developed red pigmentation and with the specific gene-combination that lightens up the bodycolour to a shiny mouse colour, leaving the mane, tail, legs, face dark-to-black, all the while producing the typical markings known as "primitive" (here I'd like to suggest that mane and tail could be whitish with the dorsalstripe running up and down through it provoking the appearence of bicoloration)
Apart from this there is a modifier at work causing the bodycolour to intensify to black or almost black, once shed from the foalcoat.
This modifier can be described as a form of melanism, which only means that the amount of black pigment is at a higher level than in a common shade. So Altamira has a form of melanism upon his grulla-genes, and probably the mares do to bring along another melansim-factor which results in black or almost-black though grulla foals....
is this making things a little clearer to you ? (or have i been melanising your vision even more ?)
Peter wrote:
"First I'd like to stipulate that to me DUN is NOT a dilution but it is the colour-of-origine [...snip...] So, your two "black" horses are indeed like UCD points out : a grulla dilution on a black base reading as : a horse with no developed red pigmentation and with the specific gene-combination that lightens up the bodycolour to a shiny mouse colour..."
Dear Peter,
Of course I was hoping you would have been able to direct me to research that settled these matters one way or the other, but I am not surprised that such resolution is currently unavailable...I've surely been looking far and wide.
I agree that these are complicated issues (especially with the original wild colours) and geneticists are at best still exploring these matters and not able to give finite answers.
Peter, I felt I was following along with you pretty well until reading those items quoted above, which I have tripped over.
You make a distinction then between "dun" and "grulla"? What I am getting from what I've quoted from your answer is that a "dun" like a Przewalski's horse is not displaying a dilution but shows the original wild colour--but a mouse dun/grulla of the Tarpan type horses is displaying a dilution with modifiers on a black base?
(And I suppose within the type of dun that Przewalski horse is, we must note there is a "pangare" modifier at work, versus other duns like the dun (not grulla) Sorraia and Mustangs which have at play often a "sooty" modifier? And I understand many researchers feel that the striping may be from a gene that is actually separate from the genes responsible for dun or grulla! Complicated and difficult to understand indeed!
While I do try to follow these researches, for me I admit, it is not important that I have a scientific explanation for why they occur--I'm much more interested in the bigger picture, which is providing these horses opportunity to live as their ancestors have as much as possible. This will have to be accounted for one day in research too, now that the realm of epigenetics is being exposed. Imagine all the variations that play into triggering the various nuances of wild coat colour!
I'll post this and then return to answer your question, which was part of our "deal".
Thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts regarding equine coat colour, Peter. How nice for an Appy breeder in Belgium to take note of what is happening here at Ravenseyrie.
Peter inquired:
"Lynne, have you already trained the "moving-horses" in any way to make loading easy and to accustom them to the journey to come ?
Soon after the winter storms are behind us, we will bring the youngsters who are leaving Ravenseyrie into a holding pasture we've fenced off around a two-part cattle sorting corral. They have already been taking their morning breakfast in this holding pasture each day and are accustomed to coming into it.
Here I will consolidate and formalize the ground training I have already been "playing" with them while at liberty in the big wide open.
Then they will be ready to meet the veterinarian and undergo the necessary inspection and drawing of blood for the Coggins test.
As for any sort of preliminary training for loading onto a trailer, we will not be doing this.
We sold our Brenderup trailer when we immigrated and have not replaced it. Even if we did have a trailer to familiarize them with, I am of the state of mind at this point in my life where I wouldn't do it anyway, though I know most people feel differently. (Look at the Parelli folks who get their horses to the point where they can upon command walk backwards into a trailer, which I think this is utter nonsense.)
Our youngsters are not show horses, nor are they horses that will be hitching frequent rides on trailers, so to at this point in their lives attempt to desensitize them to such things seems to me like it would be more disruptive of their lives than is necessary.
I have witnessed the amazing adaptability of these horses and their sensible, calm attitudes when they are allowed space, time and companionship. They are comfortable with me and have a trust and understanding--we are able to communicate well, I think. I also know that when Mike and Sheri come for them we will take all the time necessary to load in a quiet accepted manner.
Altamiro had no preparation to make his first ride in a trailer (and then to be loaded on to an airplane!) except that he had been trained to be haltered and lead. Bella, Belina and Ciente had not even been halter broken and came to us in complete calm, unscathed.
So, I do not worry for them for loading and journeying to the western U.S.
I confess, though, my stomach gets tight and my eyes get wet when I think of them rolling down the road to their new lives and no longer a part of the Ravenseyrie landscape...
Lynne, I just love looking at the photos. While the colour and markings are very interesting, I find the bone structure of their face, above all, to be very distinctive - quite noble looking.
I am with you about the trailer also.
peter_be :
Lynne,
I think I need to put things a little clearer :
- when you say “many researchers”, I rather think it is “just a few researchers”, since horsecolour is not really an economical issue, few money and thus few time is spent on this type of research, allthough a lot of fysical (and probably psychical ) problems are related to defective pigmentation : it affects hearing (deafness, partial or complete in paints, bordercollies....), sight (nightblindness in appaloosas), UV-resistance, wear & tear-resistance (in Cream-affected horses = cremellos, perlinos, + champagne, paints, appaloosas...) even intestinal problems (LWO) or psychical diseases (alzheimer seems linked to pigmented braincells) and it’s only according to the progressing insight in certain deficiencies that genetic research on pigmentation-relation is increased.
For sure even certain breedregistries are reluctant towards genetic research in order not to conflict with longtime policies, believes or industries......
- in regard to DUN : I was a little clumsy in the use of grulla and dun. Dun is indeed the combination of lighter body, black points plus primitive markings and yes in the grulla-version of Dun, the red pigment is not turned on, like it is in the baydun- (also called linebackbuckskin) –version. When Dun is in combination with turning off of the black pigment, than you get a reddun (also called claybank), which to me, is a much further erosion of the original genotype of a predomestication horse.
If we look at the prezwalskis it’s clear that they are rather a baydun than grullo, they also carry a form of pangare (mealymouth, just like archaic ponies like the exmoor) but you can ask yourself the question how far przewalskis are really genetically complete horses since they do have 66 chromosomes instead of the usual 64 in all other horses, and which is probably due to a structural abnormality, and because they stem from a very small genetic pool. Thus maybe their baydun appearence is due to a mutation (or erosion) of there original genetical makeup.
The reason I suggest this is because according to a study of “dr.” Ben K. Green in the 50s to 70s (and i must admit the man was not realy an adept fo Mendel’s laws, which as a scientists speaks against him, and he seems to have been a colourful person himself and is notified as being a veterinarian-without-a-degree, which in the first half of the 20th century did’nt seem to be an obstacle) in which he studied microscopically thousands of horsehairs of every colour, he was able to describe in word and in drawing the difference in horsehair-pigmentation of all colours known at that time by every old-time-cowboy.
Up to now, I have not found another study defining in such a clear way the filling of hairshafts and bulbs as in this little booklet ( the Color of Horses, The scientific and authoritative indentification of the color of the horse, by Dr. Ben K. Green, ISBN 0-87358-327-2).
Well, in this book the only colour that stands out because it’s very specific repartition of pigment is GRULLA. All other colours are drawn as a lesser or more intense and complete or partial filling with pigment of the hairshaft, by which the pigment is clustered or blotted and sometimes levelled to certain degrees. But with the grulla colour the drawing shows very clearly a central cilinder of pigment which is hold by three partitions running the full length of the hair and which is causing a particular breaking of the light resulting in the apearance of “diluted” black. The drawings of Dun (baydun) and buckskin show the hairshaft with only a “deposit” of black pigment on the bottomside of the hair, as if het original central cilinder has exploded and swirled and sedimented......
( I should notice here that BKG describes buckskin as sometimes apearing with a dorsal stripe, which we know now as belonging to the baydun-genome...)
peter_be : part 2
- concerning the distinction between dun and grulla : again, grulla is a form of dun !
The pangare dun of the przewalski is not a dilution, and grulla as well is not a dilution, it is only called a dilution because the bodyhair has the apearence of being lighter than average, in contrast to het real dilutes like cream and champagne in which the amount of pigmentparticles is realy decreased compared to the average horse but all the way the distribution of the particles is similar to the average-colour.
- Concerning the bigger picture, the living conditions of the horses you are right, I realy agree, but a sound horse in a sound surrounding needs a complete genotype in order to cope with all factors of that surrounding. And as I explained at the beginning of this post, there’s more to colour than the my-little-pink-pony-approach which a lot of horsekeeping and –breeding people tend to nowadays.
- And about me as a belgian appybreeding ravenseyrie follower : it was a boysdream having a tough and spirited original (ab origine) and why not, colourful horse, and I was mesmerized by the native people of the americas......so I ended up with appaloosas. But after years of digging through the pros and cons and why and why-nots of breeding and colourrelated problems, I took my distance, my youngest is 5 years of age now (I do have 5 generations here ) and I’m not breeding anymore.....unless I’d come upon a nice sorraia or a grullo lusitano......and perhaps some handpicked konikmares....
I try to keep my horses as natural as possible, in a nicely mixed group, but looking at your somewhat 140 ha (1 ha = 2,5 acres), running free...... at prices here up to 50-60.000 euros /ha (about 70.000 USD) I can only be very very very very very jealous !!!!!
Peter wrote:
"For sure even certain breedregistries are reluctant towards genetic research in order not to conflict with longtime policies, believes or industries......
What an oversight on my part to not have considered the detrimental physical effects that some degenerate coat colours have created. It would be typical that many people with vested interests in breeding for colour would not want the genetics of coat colour explored too fully, and special interest groups are responsible for roadblocks and smoke screens occurring in a way that affects the way the science is being performed and reported on.
We have two eleven year old Australian x Blue Heeler dogs. Shelagh and Maeb are full sisters and began losing their eyesight as ten year olds and at this writing are virtually blind. "Lens luxation" was the diagnosis and it is linked to the "merle" gene, in this case "blue merle". Shelagh and Maeb were bred by an Amish couple, who probably didn't know that breeding two blue merle coloured dogs would produce pups that 70% of the time have ocular issues that result in blindness. (Shelagh and Maeb do amazingly well, working now off their other quickened senses.)
I read a paper recently taking breeders to task for knowingly breeding dogs that pass on these types of genetic defects, but greed short-term profit seems to win out, and probably even more so in the upper-crust horse breeding operations.
Peter thank you for further clarifying the perception you have regarding dun and grulla, and for bringing up Green's work. I am familiar with what he has written through a paper titled, "Dun Factor Horses - Kiger Mustangs and Additional Discussion About Horses" (Phillips 2007)
Peter remarked: "Up to now, I have not found another study defining in such a clear way the filling of hairshafts and bulbs as in this little booklet"
I just yesterday came upon a website that made a brief mention of hairshafts:
"Dun is controlled by the dilution allele (DD) at the D locus. It causes the pigment granules in the hair shafts to be concentrated to one side, causing the other side of each hair to be translucent. This makes the coat color appear dilute.
The site discusses colour genetics even down to their enzymatic underpinnings:
http://www.horse-genetics.com/
I'll have to explore the different pages devoted to the various colours and see if this helps my layman's brain know a little more about colour genetics. Maybe I will be able to see how the old knowledge and anecdotal accounts of dun horses (like in Green's work) does--or does not--corroborate with what laboratory diagnosticians have been discovering.
Maire wrote:
"While the colour and markings are very interesting, I find the bone structure of their face, above all, to be very distinctive - quite noble looking."
It stirs my wilderness heart to know that "primitive" does not always mean "coarse" or ill put together. There is a sort of imperialistic bearing that type of convex profile exhibits.
I'm appreciating your comment, Maire, especially because it tells me the photos are doing a good job of showing readers that there is more to the Sorraia phenotype than colour.
Peter wrote:
"I’m not breeding anymore.....unless I’d come upon a nice sorraia or a grullo lusitano......and perhaps some handpicked konikmares...."
Well if you do get back into breeding with these horses in mind, I hope to read about it one day and view photos, of course!
Peter commented:
"but looking at your somewhat 140 ha (1 ha = 2,5 acres), running free...... at prices here up to 50-60.000 euros /ha (about 70.000 USD) I can only be very very very very very jealous !!!!!"
Ouch!
We are daily thankful for having been able to purchase this rugged land and come here to make our lives simpler, but "richer"!
At one time (maybe ten years ago) we had contemplated immigrating to Dursey Island off Ireland's southwesterly Beara Peninsula. (Maire do you know it?) There was a windswept derelict farm for sale, but on inadequate acreage with no hope of acquiring more. It would have been lovely in a different way, but here on Manitoulin Island is where we feel "right".
At the time we purchased this land the average price per acre for rural/agricultural land on Manitoulin was around $600.
What a contrast eh, Peter?!
Remember, we are part of Northern Ontario...very remote, very cold in the wintertime...kinda keeps things underdeveloped here in all the right ways.
Janet says. . .
Was the winter of 2009 a difficult one for Encantara? Or did you think her condition was OK. She looks very thin in those photos. Maybe it was just her stage of growth.
Wonderful photo timelime, Lynne!
Janet wrote:
"Was the winter of 2009 a difficult one for Encantara? Or did you think her condition was OK. She looks very thin in those photos. Maybe it was just her stage of growth."
Given that the winter of 2009 was Encantara's first winter ever, that she was abruptly expelled from the family band by her sire in early spring while not even a year old, that she lives a semi-wild existence and as a primitive type of horse has a leaner muscular structure, I think her thinness is exactly what one would expect for a growing filly. Her condition is one of a very fit, active youngster...she could run circles around a chubby, stable-kept Quarter Horse of any age! ;-)
Hi Lynne,
I just dropped by for a visit. Never disappointed as you provide so much wonderful horsey visual stimulation for me ;o) something I am sadly lacking of late.
Hugs to all,
Leslie
Leslie wrote:
"I just dropped by for a visit. Never disappointed as you provide so much wonderful horsey visual stimulation for me ;o) something I am sadly lacking of late.
Hi Leslie!
I take it you are still keeping up the work photographing for archaeologists and missing those fun equine shoots, eh? No doubt your horsey clients miss you too! I will always treasure your visit to Ravenseyrie...golly way back before there were foals being born. Time flies!
I'm glad you check in, Leslie, Kevin and I think of you and David. Give Frankie a good neck rub for me.
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