Silver in the Welsh Mountain Ponies

I thought I'd share a little horse color news while I put the finishing touches on the lottery horses.

There have been confirmed silver dapple Welsh in this country, but many British breeders suspected outside influence and doubted the purity of the ponies involved. And a number have prominant Welsh breeders have publicly insisted that the color did not exist in purebreds. Add in the fact that many bay Welsh sport flaxen tails, and it could be hard to be sure.

Still, I have long suspected that some of the Forlan ponies were truly red silvers, particularly the stallion Fronbach Hello Charlie. So many of his descendants - and quite a few of his relatives - looked silver to me. It turns out that it was there all along, with Charlie now the first Welsh in Europe to have tested positive for silver. This is especially neat because he comes from very old lines, which suggests that the color has been within the breed for some time.