A to Z - C is for Chrome and Color (picture intensive!)

C is easy!  Chrome and Color!  :D  For those of you just joining my blog, Chrome is my horse.  I don't talk about him very much on this blog anymore because he has his own blog called Equestrian Journey (LINK).  So for those just joining or for my regulars who don't read my other blog I'll share a little about Chrome and a bunch of pictures (since I LOVE pictures!).

Me and Chrome.

Chrome is a Friesian/Arabian cross.  Here is a picture of his dad (the Friesian) below.

I just got to meet him for the first time recently.  You can see more pictures of him here (LINK).

Here is a picture of him mom (the Arabian).  Her color is called flea-bitten gray.

I don't have a lot of pictures of her.  

I want to go visit her again sometime and get some new ones.  

That's Chrome as a baby. :D

Here is a close up of her so you can see the speckles that give her color the name flea-bitten gray.

Another fun C topic is Color genetics.  I'm going to explain this as if there are people who are completely unfamiliar with horses, so I hope that doesn't bother the ones who do know about them.  I love teaching people about color genetics and I don't want to confuse anyone who hasn't been around horse much or ever in their lives.  :)

So you've seen his parents (black and flea-bitten gray), so now check out the color changes Chrome has gone through (so far, he's only four so he will change a lot more throughout his life).  Chrome was born a bay (brown with black legs, mane and tail)...

...but he is slowly turning gray...

See how his face is starting to turn white in 2012?  

Now look at the first picture in this post again.  It was taken late last year.

Almost every gray (white colored) horse you see (the ones with black skin which you can see around their eyes and muzzle) start out a dark color and gradually turn gray.  Dappled gray is stage of gray and I think Chrome is dappling out this year as he sheds his winter coat.  :)

See the very faint dapples on his neck and shoulder?  

Eventually he should look like this...

Not my picture.  HERE is a post I've done on my other blog about gray horses.

I told you I love talking about it!

I bought Chrome when he was only five months old.  Here are two pictures on the day he came home.

 

I've done all of his training.  Raising him has been so much fun!  Anyway I won't ramble on since everything you could ever want to know (if you're interested) is on his blog.  Instead I'll share pictures of my handsome boy in all of his many colors.  :D  Notice how his tail goes from black to blonde?

 Playing with a whip.

 Windy day!

 With his first girlfriend before she went to her new home.

 

 

 Smiling is his favorite trick!  He does it on cue, but offers it on his own a lot too.  :)

His color changes a lot from summer to winter too.  

This is a summer shot where his coat bleached out to a really light brown.

 Playing with his hula hoop.  This is his darker winter coat and you can see the white showing up in his coat making him look steel gray.

 You can see the white showing up in his coat and tail.

 

 All dressed up for his second birthday.  

This is his coat in the spring before it bleaches from the summer sun.

 

More smiles!

 

Face was starting to get much lighter here.

 

 See how it's still black at the top, white in the middle 

and blonde at the bottom?  The bottom would be whiter if I washed it LOL!!

 

 See how much lighter he's gotten?

 More smiles.  He loves smiling!

 

 

 See how his chest is getting dappled?

His color changes so gradually that it's hard for me to believe that someday he will look like his mom (it could be another ten years or more before he looks like her).  :)  It's fun watching him go through so many changes though.  Anyway I hope this has been interesting and if not I hope you loved the pictures as much as I do hehe.