Crescent

Crescent (registered name Commander's Crescent Society, #128197M) was registered as chestnut, like most silver dapples in most breeds.  Very few registries have a category for silver (most don't even know what it is), and very few breeders know what they are.  They are usually assumed to be a dark liver chestnut with flaxen, in the case of black silvers, or an odd-looking flaxen chestnut with darker legs, if a bay silver.  One very good clue that a registered-as-chestnut horse is not chestnut is if they produce a bay, brown or black foal when bred to a chestnut.  Two chestnut parents can only produce chestnut foals, so when a bay/brown/black foal is produced from two chestnut parents, you can be sure one of them was not really chestnut.

Crescent's red-factor test from U. C. Davis, dated 9/27/02, showed her to be "Ee", and therefore not a chestnut.  She is very typical of a bay silver in horse breeds; basically looking like a bay horse with a flaxen mane and tail.  She does not have the prominent dapples that some silvers display, but these are less common on bay silvers than on black silvers, and less common in horses than in ponies. 

The source of her color is still uncertain.  When we first started researching it, it appeared to be straightforward -- the mares in her tail-female line are all registered-as-chestnuts, but her 4th dam, Satin Sally, produced a bay foal from a chestnut sire, and so did two of her other "chestnut" daughters.  (This would prove they are actually silvers, not chestnuts, as long as the pedigrees are correct.)  The 5th dam, Sophronia, was registered as "dark chestnut" and was out of a mare named Grey Fannie, with no further info available for her.  In addition, we've recently received reports of another line of "odd colored horses" which certainly sound like Silver Dapples (no photos yet, though) descending from Golden Gigi.  It certainly looked like an open-and-shut case. 

But then several months later along came a surprise -- pictures of a colt that looked for all the world like a bay silver, and he was sired by Crescent's sire (Society's Hot Spot) out of a chestnut Arabian mare.  A further clue that this colt is likely a Silver Dapple is the fact that Society's Hot Spot's tobiano gene is linked to his "e" gene -- all of his pinto foals are chestnut, and none of his bay foals out of chestnut mares are pinto.  This colt is not a tobiano, indicating that he got an "E" from his sire, yet his mane and tail are platinum-blond.  Unfortunately, we were not able to convince his owner to have him red-factor tested.  It's possible that he may be a weird chestnut after all -- the T/E gene linkage does "come apart" every now and then.  If not for the colt, it would seem impossible for the gene to have come from Society's Hot Spot -- in pictures he appears to be a normal-looking bay tobiano, with a black mane in the places it's not white.  Also, if he were a silver dapple, one would expect an average of 50% of his foals to have been silver also, but these are the only ones that have turned up.  Research is ongoing.

Crescent's foals

Crescent has produced three foals.  All are colts, and all are silver dapples. 

Her first foal, born in 2002, is named Silver Tomcat.  His sire is the National Show Horse, CN Moonlight Kamikaze, a black tobiano.  "Tomcat" is registered Pinto and Half-Saddlebred.  He is a silver dapple tobiano.  His red-factor test showed him to be "EE", or homozygous for black, meaning he will never sire a chestnut, no matter what color mares he is bred to.  He is heterozygous for agouti, tobiano, and silver.

  

Her second foal, born in 2004, is named Silver Brigadier.  His sire is the black Saddlebred, Lunenburg County.  "Silver" is a silver dapple on bay or brown, with no white markings.  He is registered as bay, since the Saddlebred registry does not have a category for silver dapple.  At the time of his registration, photos and a letter explaining the color and a copy of his red-factor test results (he also tested "EE", homozygous for black) were submitted, and although they did list him as bay instead of chestnut (what he "looks like"), they refused to call him silver, bay silver, or silver dapple; or mention the silver dilution gene or comment on his silver mane and tail in the "markings" section as requested.

  

 

Her third foal, born in 2005, is named Silver Commander.  His sire is London Times, a black tobiano Saddlebred.  This colt is also a silver dapple tobiano.  His red-factor test showed him to be "Ee" (heterozygous for black, meaning he is a black-based color but can sire chestnut foals).  He is also heterozygous for agouti, tobiano, and silver.