What Color is That? 2

I was curious if this is a dark bay.

Last year a fellow Fell Pony breeder questioned whether I had accurately identified the color of one of my foals.  I provided lots of pictures as evidence in support of the color black, also based on my twenty years’ experience with the breed, and I let the conversation end.  Since then I’ve learned about other colors in the Fell Pony breed besides the breed standard’s black, brown, bay and gray, and my confidence about color identification has been shaken!

When I got started in the breed, I had only jet black ponies, so when my first summer/fading black arrived, it was the beginning of my color education.  This past winter as I watched two young ponies mature, their assumed black coats seemed to have a brown tinge with black points (mane, tail, and lower legs), as shown in the photograph.  Since one has a bay mother and the other has a chestnut sister, I began to wonder if the black color I had assumed was correct.  Could one be a very dark bay and the other be a liver chestnut?

Since I can, I decided to color test these two.  When the results came back, I got a good chuckle.  Both black, as I’d originally assumed.  At least now I don’t have to wonder!  Those black points were just an illusory color, not an indication of a base coat.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

More observations like this one on the Fell Pony breed can be found in my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.