The girl's got connections......

I was looking for something to read last night and I came across a book I'd forgotten I had, The Appaloosa by Ann Hyland. So I started to read it and I found a section all about the Capitall Stud in Clwyd, where Skyfaxa's sire, Capitall Hadrian, was bred.

Sky's great granddam (and also her great great granddam) was a mare called Chanson Bleu, a tri coloured leopard foaled in 1970, by an American stallion based in Ireland. Two of her best known foals were by the Thoroughbred stallion Paper Cap who was the grandson of the Derby winner Pinza. These are Capitall Cyril, Sky's great grandsire:

and Capitall Martha, Sky's granddam:

Capital Cyril sired Capital Hefin, who won the yearling class at the 1989 National Show:

And he sired Capitall Hadrian.

So she has a show champion and a Derby winner in her ancestry!!

Capitall Cyril also sired Capitall Harold, who was given to the Sultan of Oman by Prince Charles:

So her great uncle had royal connections!

What colour is Kinna?

Have been looking at Appaloosa coat patterns to try and determine what colour Kinna is. For the record, here are the main patterns:
Leopard - white pattern exhibited to an extreme with base coloured spots of various sizes covering most of the body, like Sky's sire Capitall Hadrian:













Near leopard:



















Few Spot - base colour is nearly obscured by its Appaloosa white patterning covering up to 90% of its body. Horse may exhibit patches of colour on the heads, knees, elbows, flanks (called 'varnish marks'). Some may have as few as only one or two spots.




Snowflake - white spots, flecks, on a dark body. Typically the white spots increase in number and size as the horse ages.



Varnish - dark points (legs and head) and some spots or roaning over a light body. May occur in conjunction with another spotting style and change with age. Often starts out as a solid coloured horse that gets more white as it ages, but is not a grey.



Frost - similar to varnish but the white hairs are limited to the back, loins, and neck. May occur in conjunction with another spotting style and change with age. Often starts out as a solid coloured horse that gets more white as it ages.



Blanket - Most common and well known White blanket over hindquarters. Can have clean edges or be roaned. Most have dark spots on blanket field Spots may move and change with each shedding.



Snowcap - Similar to blanket except blanket field doesn’t have spots on it. White area can extend across most of body .Usually retain colour on head, legs, flanks and elbows.



And of course some horses can have a combination of these patterns:


So looking at all that, I think Kinna is a snowcap Appaloosa.

Researching her pedigree

I spoke to Skyfaxa's breeder the other day to get the details of her breeding. Not a lot for her mother, she's registered with the Gypsy Cob Society simply as "Melba", a white cob. Bit of a dead end.

Much more detail with the stallion though. He is Capitall Hadrian by Capitall Hefin out of Capitall Martha, both Appaloosas.

Capital Hefin

Capitall Hefin's sire was Capitall Cyril (left), he was 15.2 hh.

Capitall Martha was by a Thoroughbred called Paper Cap, he was 16.2 hh, so maybe she'll get bigger than I thought!

Playing with the babies

So I've been in the UK three whole days and have been to see Skyfaxa twice. She's lovely and curious, she comes right up to you and sniffs around, even tries to nibble.......she's in with the herd, there are several foals and they play together all the time. Yesterday it was a windy day and the babies were feeling playful, they kept crowding round and trying to nibble us so we chased them off then they came back, we walked away, they followed, we chased them off etc etc, it was a great game to them, but after a while the stallion came over as if to say, "What's all this about?" and disciplined a few of them that got too close to him and they were stretching their heads down and licking and chewing "we're sorry dad, got carried away", it was so funny, as soon as he wandered off they started playing again just like naughty children!!