Truthful Tuesday

 

So I've had Shiny four years now. She's my first palomino, so it's been fun for me to see her color change literally every season. When she came, she had a lot of brown in her coat. Mostly around her legs, and a little on her rump. In the fall, all of her amazing dapples come out, and then she turns very light for winter. If we clip her, she turns pink. Which is kind of awful and kind of adorable all at the same time. (Also, if you want to clip her ears, she will try to murder you very savagely. Medical intervention is necessary. I usually skip them.) The last few summers she has been mostly just golden. A really pretty deep yellow/golden color. Not so much with the dark points, maybe just a little on her legs. But this year? This year, she is VERY dark. Her legs, her entire bum, and I'm even seeing some darkening on her neck this year. 

Obviously, Shiny's ever changing hair color is not a confession. My confession is that I didn't know if this color change, the dark hair part, was "normal" or what causes it. I knew from observing other palominos that they tend to get lighter in the winter (which is so odd to me...) but I didn't know what her dark hairs were about. I initially figured maybe it was like how gray horses get lighter as they age. Since Shine didn't have much of the dark coat the last couple of years. But when it returned this year, I had questions. And I had to google it. I've been horsing for thirty-five years. I did not know her color was called sooty. Now I know. And so do you! But I'm guessing you already knew this. Haha!