Ante Up
Andy and Tim

Windhover Ante Up
"Andy"
12.1 3/4h Section C Silver Dapple (chocolate liver chestnut) gelding * foaled 1990
Gambl'n Man x Diamond Lil

Unlike cream and dun, silver dapple is a gene that dilutes only black pigment in a horse's coat This gene is responsible for the color commonly known as "chocolate chestnut" (which is actually not chestnut at all). On bay horses this leaves the mane and tail a flaxen color and the legs / face usually take on the same color as the body, or slightly lighter. The main body coloring is not affected, since silver dapple does not act on red pigment. For this reason, bay silvers are often mistaken for dark flaxen chestnuts. If such a horse produces a bay or black foal from a chestnut-based mate, however, it is obvious that they are actually silver dapple, since chestnuts cannot supply the black coloration. Black silvers take on a very dark liver color with a flaxen mane and tail, and are quite striking. Andy, pictured above, is a good example of this color. Chestnuts with the silver dapple gene, much like blacks with one cream gene, show no visual evidence that they carry it. Like dun, silver dapple is completely dominant and there is no visual difference between a homozygote (SdSd) and a heterozygote (Sdsd).


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