Monday 15 July 2013

The grey coat colour in horses

I once owned a flea-bitten grey pony with the delightfully misleading name of 'Diablo'. The rumour about this sweet, chubby gelding was that he was half Welsh Mountain Pony, half Standardbred, the product of an unsanctioned dalliance at a local agricultural show. This was completely plausible, since like most ponies he could get fat on the hint of a whiff of a single straw of hay, but wow could he trot; he regularly gave horses with at least two hands on him a fright as he floated gracefully past in our Pony Club trotting races.

This Welsh Mountain Pony has a lot in common with Diablo... grey: tick! Bulges that may not exactly be muscle: tick! Very enthusiastic trot: tick! Now just imagine that he's four hands taller, with a good dusting of dark freckles through his coat. Pic linked from here.