Silver Dapple
Chestnut
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Silver dapple, or just called Silver, is a dilution gene that dilutes the black on a pony. Dapples are not required on a silver dapple. A silver must have a silver parent in order to be silver. Silver dapple on black is called black silver. Black silver shades can range from light grey looking color to a dark chocolate color. Silver dapple on bay is called bay silver. Bay silvers have a normal bay colored body but their black points are pale. Both black and bay silvers usually have light colored manes and tails of varying degrees. Silver dapple on chestnut is not visually expressed, because there is no black to dilute, the pony looks like a chestnut but carries the silver dapple gene. Silvers can go through many color shade changes throughout their lifetime. Silver foals will not have dark legs until they shed their foal coat.
The gene for silver was discovered by researchers in 2006 and there is now a genetic test for the silver gene. Previously the way to determine if silver dapple was present was if a suspected silver sired a bay or black based foal with a chestnut as the other parent.
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Copyright 2008
