CONFORMATION
Silver has a lovely round topline, beautiful clean throatlatch and is built uphill. He is somewhat more refined than most curlies, but still maintains the great feet and bone the breed is known for. Though he has been compared to the Arabian and the Morgan by some, the breed he most resembles in looks and movement is the Andalusian from which the Lipizzaner descended. Silver has some pure Spanish ancestors, as do some of the Mustangs that curlies descended from.

CHARACTER
Most curlies have calm friendly temperaments and are often described as being more loving and playful like dogs. Silver has personality PLUS performance. His antics are endless and he loves to do tricks for visitors. He performs encores without request, to delay the end of a performance and his time in the spotlight. I have never seen a horse who loves to interact with people so much. Even on his own he plays with his ball (2MB video) until he exhausts himself. He also performs tricks at Expos.

Link to Sterling Curlies YouTube channel with more videos of Sil and his foals www.youtube.com/SterlingCurlies

As a stallion he has sterling character and has co-existed with the mares and his foals without leaving a mark on any of them. He is extremely intelligent and focused in his lessons.

COLOUR
Silver is a grey tobiano pinto, sometimes referred to as a blue pinto. His ability to consistently throw pinto colour into his foals is just one of the many ways he has exceeded our expectations. It has led us to do a little colour research.

Some of this research has shown the bay gene and the tobiano pinto gene are closely linked on the DNA strand and a bay horse is more likely to reproduce colour than a chestnut/sorrel. This may be the reason for his tendency to produce pintos, because he is not homozygous for it.

In Silver's case his greying removed the contrast of his pinto markings and they can now only be seen when he is bathed or if you know where to look.

Silver at 2.

For more info on horse colour and to chart the probable foal colours of the combination of your mare and Silver visit ... http://www.mhref.com/color/genetics/tour/basic7.html

The colour probabilities for my palomino mares and Sivler are:

• 16 Chestnut (25%)
• 16 Palomino (25%)
• 12 Bay (18.75%)
• 12 Buckskin (18.75%)
• 4 Black (6.25%)
• 4 Smoky Black (6.25%)
• 50% of which could go grey and/or be pinto

For HORSE COLOUR GENETICS go to...
http://members.aol.com/MFTHorses/sponenbg.htm

http://www.animalgenetics.us/CCalculator1.asp

Silver days old.

Many people are surprised to learn that Silver was born a bay pinto and has quickly turned grey. A grey horse has to inherit the gene from at least one parent. Greying in horses happens much faster than in humans, quickly covering up whatever colour they were born. They continue to lighten with each shedding and can appear to be completely white in under 10 years. A true white horse has pink skin a grey one has black skin.

Silver at a year in Michigan and at 18 months after purchase.

Age 2 playing with his new ball.

At 3 years, fall '02 and 4 years, summer '03.

Age 6 at Equine Review Horse Expo

YouTube Liberty Video