Warmblood Studs
Shamrock - Warmblood Studs is situated in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa in the heart of Summerveld.
Summerveld is an Equestrian area on the rolling hills of Shongweni.
Shamrock Warmblood Stud does broodmare liverys, Should you wish to have your broodmare with us throughout her pregnancy or just for her foaling down we can accommodate her.
Shamrock Warmblood Stud can also look after the mare in her post foaling period until weening or longer.Our we can also take the weanlings in livery until they are ready to be broken in. The youngster would run with our own, in a small herd of his or her own age group.
Shamrock Warmblood Stud has good quality mares that have had outstanding foals for us in 2011 – Rain Dance 1st foal was born on the 10/11/11 her name is Shamrocks She’s Lady Of The Dance;
She ia an exceptional little Lady.She has been bred from a beautiful flashy Dark bay tobiano mare who has both Walderar G and Carrick in her bloodlines.Lady has her mothers beautiful head and exceptional movement.Lady is by Synergy / Sandro Hit / Donnerhall.
Narnias 1st foal was born 1/12/2011 He is a stunning stallion prospect.Shamrocks Sacred Heart has some of the most amazing bloodines- To name a few < He is by Sir Donnerhit (BWBS)/Sir Donnerhall/ Sandro Hit. Out of Narnia(KWPN)/Oshi (IMP)/ Waldmar G/ Carrick.
Our goal is to breed warmblood horses that have exceptional movement.
Temperament is most important - We only breed from mares of the highest standard.
We believe our mares are just as important as the stallions we choose.
Therefore because of the high standards we have set, Shamrocks Stud will specialise in breeding horses with the ability to strive in dressage and most importantly with the ability, and talent to succeed at the highest level in competition.
Shamrocks Stud feels that we have something to offer every rider!
We breed horses that are future Dressage Prospects , Showjumper, Showing Horse or just an outstanding individual to hack with exceptional colour.
Shamrock Warmblood Stud has a retirement livery – At our Stud they will enjoy the life that they are entitled to after the faithful service and friendship they have given you over the years.
Shamrock Warmblood Stud allows our retirees to be horses, enjoying good pasture and the company of others, they are stabled in bad weather and through winter.
There are some fantastic new photographs of our horses on our Facebook page.Become a fan of Shamrocks Warmblood Stud on Facebook
Please do not hesitate to contact us if there is anything that you would like to know about, and can’t find on our site.
We would love to extend an invitation to you (by appointment) to visit our stud and meet our talented horses.
| Tobiano
Tobiano is a dominant color pattern, and is most common. A tobiano
 generally has four white legs, at least below the hocks and knees. The dark color of the pattern is usually covering one or both flanks and the spots are regular and distinct (smooth ovals or round patterns that extend down over the neck, chest, and/or shoulders giving the appearance of a “war shield”). Generally, face markings are just like a solid-colored horse (solid, blaze, strip, star or snip) and body color may be either predominantly dark or white. The mane and tail is usually mixed of two colors. A majority of tobianos have spots that are smooth-edged and not jagged like most overos, and many have white over their back and/or neck. |
Overo
On an Overo colored horse, the white will not usually cross the back of the horse between the withers and tail. It is desirable for all four legs to be dark, or at least one. Face markings are usually bald-faced, apron-faced or bonnet-faced. The white color throughout the overo’s body is generally irregular or sometimes ‘jagged’ instead of forming smooth lines between the colors.
Sabino Overo: Appears speckled or “roany”, mostly near the spot’s edges. This is the most common overo pattern. Sabinos often have spotted or roan-like facial markings, which can look quite wild. It is rare to find a sabino with a normal star or stripe for a facial marking. Another distinct characteristic of the sabino, is that they generally have three or four white legs.Frame Overo: White spots along the horse’s barrel, with a “frame” of darker color around the white. Over 95% of all frame overos are solid colored along the back from the withers to the tail, and it is uncommon for the mane to be of mixed color.Splash White Overo: This is a very rare overo color pattern. In my opinion, splash white overos look like a reverse-colored Tobiano…with smooth-edged color patterns, and with a white “shield” in the front covering the shoulders and bottom of the neck being a common trait. Splash whites generally have light-to-medium blue eyes. It is also common for splash whites to have 4 white legs.
ToveroThis color pattern most commonly comes from crossing a Tobiano horse with an Overo colored horse. In most cases, the result will be a mix of the two color patterns. For example: a tobiano with bald-face or apron-face markings, will most likely be called a “tovero”. Or, some overos with a large amount of white color in their manes or past the withers are sometimes considered to be a tovero. However, some overos or tobianos will appear to be toveros even when they aren’t genetically a tovero…this is the most confusing color pattern, indeed.
PAINTS AND PINTOS: TOBIANO, OVERO, TOVERO, SABINO, MEDICINE HAT The two most common paint patterns are tobiano and overo. They are controlled by genes at different loci, so it is possible to get a horse who is both tobiano and overo — a tovero.
TOBIANO:
“is apparently dominant and is characterized by white over the back and up the legs, and by a normally marked head.”
OVERO:
“apparently requires a pair of recessive genes and is characterized by color over the back and on the legs and by much white on the head.”
Dan Duval clarifies:
Generally, overo is a colored horse with some white while a tobiano is a white horse with some color. But don’t count on this, since some lines (such as Far Ute Keno and his progeny) are overo, but display more white than color, and I know of tobiano lines which are covered in color.
To be specific, overos tend to have color along the length of the spine between the withers and the top of the croup. They also tend to have color on all four legs (though not always.) Blue eyes (or wall-eyed) are an overo trait exclusively. Overos often have one or more white hooves (but again, don’t count on it.) The color on overos tend to have an irregular border (sort of like a map of Norway) and irregular shapes. The color on overos are often “bordered”, where colored hairs and white hairs are mixed in a region 3-10mm around the edge of the colored spots.
Tobianos most often have white crossing the spine. The legs are mostly white (usually only one or two will have color and this mostly at the top.) Tobianos do not have blue eyes (though toveros might.) [Tobianos tend to have "ordinary" looking heads, colored with maybe a star or stripe, in contrast to overos which tend to have very white, "exotic" heads.] Tobianos usually have all-black hooves (but again, don’t depend upon this.) Tobiano colors tend to be roughly regular shapes with clean, sharp borders (no bordering, no “maps of Norway”). I don’t recall seeing a palomino tobiano, but I suppose they are possible.
The final classification is tovero. These are overo-tobiano mixes and — boy — do they cause classification problems. They have characteristics of both strains.
Overo and tobiano are distinct genetic types — different genes express the characteristics, rather than different selections within the same genes.
Now an easy way to remember the difference in Paint color: OVERO: never white OVER the back. Never-over. TOBIANO: white goes over the back. tobiano=”top albino”.
Kind of like imagine a brown horse. Pour paint over his back and let it run down the sides and legs. TOBIANO Now turn him on his back and pour paint on his belly and let it run toward his back. OVERO
SABINO is a different white pattern, controlled by a completely different gene than either tobiano or overo. Sabinos tend to have completely white legs and big blazes. (Think of those Clydesdales with their big white stockings.) A sabino with a medium amount of white has white legs, an apron face, and white extending up onto the body from the belly. The white patches on the body are very ragged and flecked-looking. A very white sabino can be almost completely white, often with color left only on the ears, chest, and maybe on the flank and dock of the tail. Sabino is common in Clydesdales, where it is erroneously called “roan”.
SPLASHED WHITE is yet another white pattern, controlled by yet another gene. Like sabino, these horses usually have white legs, bellies, and faces. Large white patches extend up onto the body from underneath. Unlike sabino, the white patches have clean, non-ragged borders. This pattern occurs in some European breeds.
MEDICINE HAT is a horse that is mostly white but with colored ears (a “war bonnet”) and often colored eye rings. They can also have “shields” of color on the chest, flank and along the topline. These horses were thought to have supernatural powers by some Native American tribes. This color pattern can occur in very white paint horses of various genetic backgrounds, particularly overo, tovero, and sabino.
WHITE, ALBINO, AND LETHAL WHITE GENESThere are lots of horses that *appear* white but few are truly white (white throughout life, with pink skin).
1) Aged grey horses that have completely greyed out can look completely white. However, they were born with some other color. Even when white they still have black skin.
One of the earlier posters on horse color referred to Arabs as having a lot of white horses. Actually Arabs are NEVER white. All grey Arabians will eventually turn white with age, some faster than others. Although there are a few instances of Arabians being born “white”, these horses would still be registered as grey because they have the black skin. Therefore, although there are many white-looking Arabians, these are in actuality grey horses that have turned white with age.
2) Cremellos are distinctly off-white rather than true white. A double dilution of chestnut.
3) Perlinos are also off-white, with rusty points. A double dilution of bay.
4) True white horses can occur in Paint horses (tobiano, overo, tovero, or sabino) that happen to be born with a lot of white and hardly any color. All-white overo foals almost always die. It is unclear if this is inherent to the overo pattern, or whether it is a specific lethal gene that some but not all overos carry.
5) Another type of true white is “dominant white”. This is an all-white horse, white from birth, with pink skin and brown, hazel, or blue eyes. These horses are called American White Horses and have a registry. (They used to be called American Albinos, but the name has changed.) This is caused by a lethal dominant gene. Heterozygous horses survive and are white, but homozygous white foals die in utero.
No true albino gene has ever been discovered in horses. True albino means the absence of *all* color, even in the eyes. The “true whites” known in horses — all-white paints and dominant whites — still have dark or blue eyes instead of the albino pink eye. (I have been told that paint breeders call the all-white overo foals “true albinos” but they’re not.) This is strange as albinos have been found in almost every other species.
LETHAL WHITE #1 — All-white overos
In the Paint world, there is a genetic disorder of all-white foals called “lethal white”. These foals cannot absorb water, for some reason, and die within a few days of birth. So the last thing a Paint breeder wants to see is an all-white foal.
More information on lethal overo white, from Tracy:
There are actually several “lethal white” genes which everyone may or may not be aware of. The lethal white that has been discussed extensively on the net is a situation that occurs in paints, particularly in Overo paints. It is actually not due to a specific lethal gene, but rather to the overo pattern itself [this is controversial -- see below for another view]. For instance, unlike Tobianos, you cannot select for how much white or color you get when breeding Overos. Overos range from almost solid colored to nearly white or white. It is these white foals that suffer the intestinal problems that lead to miscarriage or death shortly after birth. A nearly solid Overo bred to a nearly solid Overo can have a white or nearly white foal; conversely a largely (though not totally) white Overo bred to a largely white Overo can have a solid horse whose only indication that it is paint is high white on the legs and a lot of facial white. The key factor in how much white is present in Overo babies appears to be womb temperature. Also, the gene responsible for Overo coloring is recessive, meaning that their must be one contributed from each parent to make an Overo baby. Now things get complicated, because Tobiano coloring and Sabino coloring are dominant genes and it only takes one of those to produce their color. Many medicine hat paints are Sabinos. Sabino and Tobiano nearly or totally white babies do not die at birth unlike Overo babies. However, because breeders have crossed all gene types together, a horse that looks like a Tobiano or Sabino may carry an Overo gene and when bred to another horse that carries an Overo gene may produce an Overo baby, and can rarely produce an all or mostly white Overo that will die soon after. By the way, the other way to produce the medicine hat pattern is with a horse that is both Tobiano and Overo, so called Toveros.
GREY VS. ROAN, FLEABITTEN GREY Both grey and roan horses have white hairs mixed in with the base color. However, roan horses are born roan, and the number of white hairs does not change much throughout life (it may change seasonally but after a year should be back where it started). In contrast, grey is progressive. A grey horse typically is born solid-colored, gets more and more white hairs with each coat, and with age will turn completely white. The rate of greying varies a lot; some horses grey out very fast, some slowly. Another way to tell grey from roan is that roan horses usually have dark heads, legs, manes, and tails, while grey horses usually go grey all over (but not always; some grey horses keep a dark mane and tail).
Grey horse owners need to be aware of the increased susceptability grey horses have to “grey horse melanoma”, a form of skin cancer.
Grey is caused by a dominant gene, G.
Roan is caused by the gene Rn. It is a homozygous lethal. Foals with one roan allele and one non-roan (Rnrn) live, and are roan. Foals with two roan alleles (RnRn) always die in utero. It is possible to have a horse who is both roan and grey.
Grey horses often show dapples as they grey out. A grey horse without dapples is called “iron grey”, especially if the base color is dark.
Roans typically don’t have dapples. “Silver dapple” is an unrelated gene that causes dilution of the base color, with dapples, and with a flaxen mane and tail. A silver dapple horse doesn’t have a mixture of white and solid hairs, like a grey or roan horse; rather, each hair is lighter colored. It is non-progressive. The silver dapple gene is rare in most breeds, but common in Shetlands.
Roans are given different names based on what the base color is. Some common names are red roan (base color red bay), strawberry roan (base color sorrel), blue roan (base color black), and purple roan (base color mahogany bay). “Rose grey” is used both for roan chestnuts and greying chestnuts. Sometimes roans have “corn” spots of darker color, instead of having the white hairs mixed evenly in. These roans are called red corn, blue corn, etc. A further variant is “silvering” or “varnish roan” in which there are darker areas over the joints and bony prominences.
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