To some people who see Dusty, they see his beautiful gold color and call him a palomino. Then to others who see him they see his dorsal strip and leg bars and ask "what the heck color is he, a red dun?"....Well, it just all depends on the person and what you read. When we registred Dusty he had no dorsal strip, and faint leg bars. So we registred him, as most would have, as palomino. But by his second year, when he shed out, there was a dorsal strip, as plain as day! So I started looking around.
What did I find? Well, like me, there are several horse owners who look at their beautiful gold horse and see two things. These horses for the most part sure look like palominos. But they have dun factoring. Under new rule books any palomino with dun factoring falls under "red dun." But not the buckskin, humm...funny. So someone came up with a name for this different color, a Dunalino. APHA goes off of the base color of the foal. A Golden Playboy 2002 colt by Dusty got reg. palomino, because his body color is a palomino gold. But Touched By A Goden Angel 2003 colt got reg. red dun. Both are dunalinos. I don't really care for the name, but it works.
So what does this all mean? Well, dunalinos are very good dilute color producers. 75% or better of their offspring being either dun factored, creme diluted or both. Yes, Dusty can put "true" palominos or buckskins on the ground. He carries both the cream gene and the dun gene!! That is why way we got a silver grullo out of a bay mare. So he can still produce cremellos or perlinos when bred to palominos or buckskins, but it is said, the chance is smaller. I have found some really good sites on dunalino, the one I really like, they even have a color chart of his offspring is Hass Quarter Horses home of Page Bull Parker. |
