'Caveat Emptor' - or 'Buyer Beware'!

Some Simple Guidelines For Prospective Purchasers of 'Spotties'

Please remember that there are no absolute guarantees that a spotted horse or pony will not fade until it is at least six years of age, but fortunately there are some very good indications available to look out for. Whether you are a novice or more experienced I suggest that you observe the following ten simple guidelines. At least then you will be reasonable sure that your colour will last.

• Don't buy a spotted horse or pony of unknown or unregistered breeding, as this is asking for uncertainty.
• If you can afford it, a horse or pony registered on the main register of it's breed society is likely to have far more background information available as to its ancestry than one on the new provisional registers (or the previous grade registers which they replaced).
• Do not pay attention to the foal coat. This colour often changes with the first change of coat, and the normal heterozygous grey is never born grey.
• Ask to see both parents, or if this is not possible then ask to see up-to-date photographs of them. If these were issued after September 1995, they may also give you a warning about possible fading.
• Also ask the seller outright if there is any fading at all in the pedigree, before committing yourself to purchase. Then phone the registrar of the society with which the animal is registered. He or she is there to help you and will have a good knowledge of all the main bloodlines. They may know something which the seller does not know (possibly because they were not told when they themselves bought the pony).
• For at least a few weeks a fader usually develops grey 'spectacles' around the eyes, which may be present at the time of birth, or may develop within the first few weeks. This usually becomes apparent by the first change of foal coat. See if the owner has got any photos of the pony as a foal.
• Many spotted breeders are convinced from observation that brown and chestnut spots never fade, only black spots. This is for reasons which are not yet fully understood, but even with black spots, if you can also find a proper brown spot amongst them, then it is unlikely to be a fader.
• Feel with your finger whether the spots are raised and remember that raised spots seldom fade. Sometimes you can even see that the hair length of the spot is above that of the surrounding hair, and such spots are almost always permanent. If you know of a case where this is not so, the breed societies would be very interested to hear from you.
• Be aware that black 'splash' marked spots very often fade. These are the drooping crescent shaped kind of spots which look as if the animal has been 'splashed' with black paint which has 'dropped down' in the direction of the hair growth before drying.
• Be aware that scientific knowledge is expanding all the time and that scientific theory has to change in order to take account of all new discoveries. The ideas put forward here are only a guide to current thinking, but you can always find someone who will disagree with the theories put forward - and lets face it, - they may just turn out to be right!!

Finally, do not get paranoid about fading, which in its early stages can easily be confused with the effect of the roaning gene or 'R' Factor. This gene also attacks the spots of pigmented hairs, thereby losing much of the coat contrast. However roaning usually shows up around the first change of foal coat, and from then on changes but little through life (apart from the normal seasonal changes).

At the stage when a fader has only a few spots remaining, it can also be confused with a genuine 'few-spot'. Here ask for advice, as only an experienced breeder with an intimate knowledge of 'few-spots' can really "spot the difference"!!

If the worst comes to the worst and you find you have unintentionally purchased a fader, you will still probably have bought a very nice animal of good conformation and of lovely temperament who stands a 50% chance of producing offspring which will no longer carry this fading gene. In the meantime, it will remain entitled to all the benefits of the existing registration, including competing at the Breed Shows (where the judges are asked to judge first and foremost on conformation alone).

Further reading:- Hair Colour in the Horse - R. Guerts. (This is a translation from the original Dutch and is both comprehensive and cheap, but many find it difficult to follow). Genetics of the Horse - W. E. Jones & R. Bogart (Rather more readable than the former, but a more expensive text book, published in America, and therefore could be difficult to obtain).