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Book BUY THE BOOK!
Working with Wild Horses
Second (Improved) Edition
A Handbook of
Gentling and Training Tips
By Nancy Kerson
Paperback $22 or
Downloadable E-Book $7.50 For more information about the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program, please call (866) 4MUSTANGS or Click HERE This website is owned and created by Nancy Kerson, a private citizen - I am not the BLM or any other branch of government! Information about BLM adoptions is offered as a service, to help mustangs find homes and to promote public appreciation of wild horses and burros.
Please direct adoption questions to the BLM, not to me. And I sure as heck am not a Mustang car dealership! I have NO horses or burros for sale and am not interested in buying or listing or otherwise promoting your sale animals! | This website:
Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
All Rights Reserved.
I am happy to share, but please give me a credit when you "borrow" things off my website! Thanks! Just say, "author, Nancy Kerson www.mustangs4us.com " |
VIDEOS OF INTEREST TO MUSTANG & BURRO ADOPTERS:
Kitty Lauman:
From Wild to Willing: Using the Bamboo Pole to Gentle Mustangs
More from Lauman Training available now!DVD or VHS
(2-DVD or 2-VHS set) almost 3 hours of instruction! $39.95 plus $5 shipping/handling = $44.95 total 
Lesley Neuman:
The First Touch
Gentling Your Mustang
$45.00
Lesley works with 3 wild horses at a BLM adoption, and very clearly explains what is happening, what she is doing, & what she sees in each horse as it progresses. Study this video and you can learn "pressure and release" gentling techniques to gentle your own new mustang! 
Help for Burro adopters!
Crystal Ward
Donkey Training
All the basics of gentling, handling, and training. A MUST for new burro adopters! Good for domestic donkeys, too! Can't do Paypal?
No Problem!
Just Call TOLL FREE
1-877-345-6748
(1-877-FILMS4U)
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OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN
WILD HORSE GENTLING:
 
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Silver Dapple yearling mustang from Sheepshead HMA at the Burns, Oregon, BLM facility.
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Catana, from Sand Springs HMA in Oregon, adopted by Barb Montgomery
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Karma, a Cold Springs HMA mustang adopted by Andi & Tom Harmon of Burns, Oregon
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"Z" denotes the Silver, or Silver Dapples gene. Also known as "chocolate" or "taffy", Silver is one of the dilution genes, along with Dun, Champagne & Creme. Silver dilutes black to a flat brown color (which may range from a creamy chocolate-with-milk color to a deep "Weimerainer" grey-brown) and lightens the mane and tail - sometimes significantly. The horse retains a dark, nearly black mask on its face, similar to Duns (especially Black Dun, or Grullo). Silver, or Silver Dapple, is neither silver nor necessarily dappled. It is entirely unrelated to dapple gray. It is a color gene that works to dilute Black pigment - creating lovely effects that include an extreme lightening of the mane and tail, and partial dilution of the body. Silver dapple does not effect Red pigment, but sometimes the way it dilutes a black or bay coat may resemble red. Silver can be carried by a red horse, who can then pass it on to offspring. Silver Bay horses are sometimes incorrectly identified as flaxen chestnuts and Silver Black horses are sometimes incorrectly identified as Liver Chestnuts. But the dark roots of the mane and tail, combined with the darker face are diagnostic of black-based Silver. Silver Dapples is called "Chocolate" in the Rocky Mountain Horse breed, and the Australian writer J. Gower refers to it as "Taffy." 
Photo: Cathy Barcomb Many horses, such as this "chestnut" Pine Nut Pony, are labeled "liver chestnut" but are really silver dapple. (the dark face is a give-away) Likewise, Sooty ("Chocolate") Palomino and Silver Dapple Bay or Silver Dapple Buckskin can look much alike. Both The University of California at Davis and Animal Genetics, Inc. of Florida can test for the presence of Tobiano, Red, Frame, Creme, Silver, Sabino1, and Agouti (Bay). The test for Tobiano can determine whether or not a horse is homozygous of heterozygous (good to know if you are trying to breed for Tobiano). You can download forms for these tests from their website-- follow
the links from
http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu OR, from the Animal Genetics website
http://www.animalgenetics.us/Equine.htm | The Silver gene was believed to be confined to just a few breeds in the United States, although with recent interest, it is being identified in breeds that formerly did not recognize it. It's found most commonly in the gaited breeds of the different Mountain Horse breeds, Rocky Mountain Horses, Kentucky Mountain horses, Missouri Fox Trotters, Saddlebreds, and the Icelandic Horse. It's also common in the Welsh Pony, Shetland Pony, and Miniature Horse breeds. Mustangs with Silver Dapples are most likely descended from feral horses of these breeds. Some of the Eastern Oregon herds have a high incidence of Silver Dapples, and it shows up in California and Nevada herds once in awhile, too.. 
Silver Dapples is fairly prevalent in the Cold Springs Herd Area of Oregon.
Photos by Andi Harmon | 
Silver wild stud horse From Cold Springs HMA, at the Burns BLM Corrals | 
Silver mare from Northern California at a BLM adoption in Roseville, CA
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Silver weanling from Sheepshead HMA in Oregon
Sheepshead HMA mustangs
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Silver Bay Shetland pony - you can tell it is Silver and not Flaxen Chestnut by the dark roots! | 
Tinkerbelle, a silver dapple dun horse rescued by LipizzanLady | Silver can mimic flaxen chestnut. But the key is the roots: Flaxen manes and tails are flaxen all the way through. Silver manes and tails have dark roots.
Castana, a Silver Bay mustang from Sand Springs HMA in Oregon, adopted by Barbara Montgomery of Indiana
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Tinkerbelle's darker winter/early spring coloring | 
Tinkerbelle in summer | 
Horses with the Silver dilution often have striped hooves, and often have light blonde or white eyelashes, especially as foals. |
| | Palomino Valley BLM Wild Horse & Burro Center has some really lovely Silver horses in July of 2006: |  |  |
For more information: Thanks to the many members of the Yahoo discussion group "1Rainbowhorses" for most of these Silver Dapples photos. 
Up | Champagne | Creme | Dun | Silver Dapples | Pearl Up A Quick Overview of Horse Genetics | Horse Color Genetics Charts 2 | Equine Base Colors | Dominant Horse Color Genes | The Dilution Genes | Recessive Color Genes | Miscellaneous Color Issues |
