9/25 Grab Bag Unicorn COLT Picture Thread

Nice one Ruffian. 🙂
I wonder who got the “wild dog”one?

???? never saw a picture of that one….link?

Maybe you are thinking of one that Melody said was painted like a merle dog? (Blue merle dog ?) I don’t remember clearly and haven’t found the post yet. 🙂

Edit – Aha! I found it! From the store description for the Grab Bag colts:

“I airbrushed this batch in natural horse colors, (except for the one that turned out like a Merl dog).”
Still wondering what that one looks like!

I wonder if the one I got is the Merle because that’s what I thought when I opened the box lol, that and he needs blue eyes lol.

Nope, merle is a dog colour. It doesn’t show up in horses. There’s two different kinds of merle, ‘blue merle’ (most Australian Shepherds and Blue Heelers/Australian Cattle Dogs are this; it shows up in other breeds of well of course including great danes and less commonly border collies) and ‘red merle’ which is a lot more rare. Red heelers (also Australian Cattle Dogs; blue heelers and red heelers are the same breed, just different coloured – properly in their breed standard they are called Australian Cattle Dogs) are red merle. One of the prettiest red merles that I have ever seen was a dachshund, believe it or not! 😀 Merles are very pretty dogs. They seem to be most common in herding breeds. 🙂

Horses can get small discoloured splotches in their coats called birdcatcher spots but those are nothing like merle.

Blue eyes happen most often in blue merles; personally I’m not sure if the colouration of African Wild Dogs is actually called merle because they are a wild species which is not closely related to wolves/dogs (though yes, they are canine but despite their name ‘African Wild Dog’ they are a dog only in the fact that they belong to the evolutionary Family Canidae – their latin name is Lycaon pictus) – merle being a dog colour. The eyes of African Wild Dogs are always brown (blue eyes being a trait of domesticated dogs/horses/cats and does not generally occur in wild populations of mammals. They DO occur in mustangs but mustangs are not wild – they are feral and their ancestors were domestic.) There are brown eyed blue merles but they aren’t as popular as the blue eyed ones which is why you see more of the blue-blues. (Oh people, breeding for looks only, whyyyyy. 🙁 ) Brown eyes are really just as likely as the blue genetically (probably more, as I am guessing the blue-eye gene in dogs is recessive but when you have a lot of blue-eyed dogs getting together you get a lot of blue-eyed puppies) and it’s better to have brown eyes on one of these animals because sometimes dogs with blue eyes are born deaf. (Same with blue eyed cats.) Also, loads of blue eyed animals (especially dogs and horses) aren’t entirely blue eyed – many of them have both brown AND blue pigment in their eyes. 🙂

I’m a big fan of the brown-eyed blue merles; some blue eyes on dogs have a sort of intense ‘ghosty’ look that is a bit creepy. (Interestingly I’ve heard them called ghost eyes a few times.)

Really, you could also call African Wild Dogs calico if you wanted! Merle tends to be patches of the same colour in different shade gradients (like blue merle being a mix of silver, white and black. Red merle is mixes of dark reddish brown, chestnut and white.) Wikipedia (not that it’s the best source) describes merle as a colouration unique to domestic dogs.

Blue merle-like patterns can also be seen in some seal pups.

Sorry I’m an animal nerd. 🙁 And sorry this is getting off topic. *shuts up*

Here is my little colt! He actually arrived last week, but I’ve been busy and procrastinated on taking pictures. I actually found the delivery notice down the path by my house, apparently the wind had blown it off my door. Lucky I found it!

He’s a lovely rich, metallic red bay, with a blaze and four white socks. I was hoping for something a little more busy and/or unusual colour wise, but he is still lovely. And I really do like the red crystals!

I was hoping to put him up for trade, but right after taking pictures I accidentally jostled my desk and he toppled over (AHHHHHH! Curse my bust!) and now has a tiny chip off the paint on his left ear. It’s something I can easily fix once I find the right adhesive, but I guess I will be keeping him now. Gotta think of a name!

aww, that so sad about his little chip! I love the colour 😀

Thanks! I do really like dark red. blood bay on live horses. I feel like an idiot about the ear though.