Appaloosa color question

[vineyridge]

I've got a varnish roan mare, and her entire skin is mottled black and pink. You can't see it under her coat, but it's there. Of course her muzzle and genitals are also mottled. I found this out after owning her for years because she got a bad tooth scrape on her back.

Is this the usual case with appys?

[Sonesta]

Not uncommon at all.

[trubandloki]

Pretty normal.

[belambi]

Its actually a trait.. so a good and desirable characteristic.

A good example of a similiar trait is how when a lipizzaner is wet.. you can still see examples of mottled skin as a remenant of when they were spotty.. 3 centuries ago!

[vineyridge]

Are the ones who are solid or solid with a blanket completely mottled from tip to toe under their coat as well?

I really found this fascinating and have no idea why I hadn't noticed it before. She's got so many smallish splotches under her coat she's probably 50-50 black and pink. I think the base coat is pink, but can't really tell. Her skin actually reminds me of a dals'.

[laskiblue]

When my frosted bay roan Appy mare is wet, you can clearly see dark and light skin patterns under the white part of her coat, so in her case, yes, the mottling seems to be under it all.

[Tango14]

Are the ones who are solid or solid with a blanket completely mottled from tip to toe under their coat as well?

I really found this fascinating and have no idea why I hadn't noticed it before. She's got so many smallish splotches under her coat she's probably 50-50 black and pink. I think the base coat is pink, but can't really tell. Her skin actually reminds me of a dals'.

Solid Appaloosas don't always have mottled skin over their whole body. Even F4 (or more) solid App's aren't always mottled over the entire body. Very often these don't even have mottled noses or genitalia. No white sclera even. There is often NOTHING physical to indicate these are even Appaloosas.

Blankets will have much more of a chance of mottled skin than solids.

Yours has quite a high % of mottling if it's 50/50. The base coat is never pink, it would be the darker colour (even if the pink is more apparent).

It's quite common for varnish roans to produce very colorful offspring, possibly due to them having lots of App characteristics including the 'roan factor' which is one of the 'unwritten' App characteristics.

[RiddleMeThis]

Its actually a trait.. so a good and desirable characteristic.

A good example of a similiar trait is how when a lipizzaner is wet.. you can still see examples of mottled skin as a remenant of when they were spotty.. 3 centuries ago!
Actually the mottled skin you see on a Lipizzaner is most likely vitilago.

[amdfarm]

I have two varnish roans (bay based) mother/son and their skin is exactly the same. They are neat looking when they're wet. :)