White hairs

[connie B Berto <cberto@juno.com>]

When my Morgan mare grew her summer coat for her 19th year, a whole lot
of round white patches, between dime and quarter sized,  suddenly
appeared on one shoulder.  It looked as though someone had thrown a
handful of bleach on her.     These were determined to be "Birdcatcher
spots", named after an early  thoroughbred whose progeny apparently
carried this tendency.   Misschief's pedigree  didn't have any
Birdcatcher in it, but she kept those white spots  -- no pink skin
underneath, no disease/fungus/injury, no tack nor harness wear -- in
subsequent winter and summer coats until the day she was put down, age
25.
   OTOH, I was totally surprised when my young Morgan gelding (not
related to Misschief) grew a line of white hairs with last season's
winter coat.  It was on the left side,  starting behind the gullet  and
slanting rearward and upward along the spine, just about where the
padding line underneath the saddle is.   On his right side, he grew a
sprinkling of white hairs only down  where the  flap is.  His saddle is
an Albion and is in excellent shape.  No twisted tree, no uneven
stuffing, no hard edge along the gullet.   I sit and ride straight and as
balanced as possible..  So, what prompted these white hairs, and where
did the other white sprinkles come from?   This drove me crazy all winter
long.  I couldn't mitigate the cause because I didn't know why it
happened.  But --  the spring coat coming in now is...nicely and solidly
bay!    No white hairs at all!    My vet said that some horses carry an
"easy white" gene to the point that even suturing a wound will leave dots
of white hairs where the needle went through.   It's all a mystery.
Connie B (CA)

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