CHIMERA COAT: The loud brindle pattern may indicate chimerism as it has shown to follow that suit. It is usually loud and bold markings, fairly even on both sides of the body and has that “WOW” factor. The coat is very pretty in the summer and once the winter coat comes in it’s a little harder to see and describe but it’s almost looks like a smutty horse with just a tad different coloring of the brindle against the main base coat all swirled together in the winter hair. (unless it is a reverse type brindle with white/roan stripes)
The best time to see the brindle on the inheritable gened horse is DEFINATLY in the late fall coming into winter. As you will see on my site where I have the pictures of the inheritable horses the only pictures that look remotely like a brindle is when they have their winter coat on. Summer pictures right next to them and you really wouldn’t know they were brindle unless I took a really close up picture to show you the “marks of brindle”. The picture attached here is a close up of a more minimal but average markings from the inheritable line. This is why we call them a “seasonal brindle” although I can see the brindle at any time of the year on ANY of the inheritable horses I have, it’s only because I know what I am looking for. If you look closely you can kind of see the hair that stands higher then the majority of the body coat (Like the appaloosa and paint/pinto coats). There are several variations and again this is the typical minimal look from one inheritable parent. When double bred it is expressed much more.
What you will read below is More on the inheritable line…….. this has been “my experience” in working with the “inheritable brindle” line that originated from the AQHA mare “Ima Star Moon Bar“. These notes have been taken since 2003.
Speaking of these different patterns above I have worked mostly with the inheritable line as I stated so I can elaborate a little more. On the inheritable line the coloration in the brindle is almost always a little bit different, but I have never gotten the brindle markings to “pop” with great contrast in color, it’s usually a tad darker than whatever base coat the horse is. So like a buckskin it seems to be a buckskin with a little bit darker buckskin lines. Dun or Red Dun with just a little more darker red hair coloration in the brindle its self. I have never gotten the “black” per say lines on the inheritable line, not even on a bay based coat. On horses with the agouti gene the lines do seem to have more pigment to them.
Double bred brindles you can almost definitely see the brindle at birth. Single bred brindle you can usually see it if you really know what your looking for and if not wait until they shed their foal coat to see. I’m not convinced that the inheritable genes gets darker with each year as I first believed. I think I first believed that they got darker with each year was because the first year after they loose their foal coat and coming into the next fall, the “fall coat” seems so much more pronounced then the foal coat was BUT the lines on the body each year really don’t seem to wavier one way or the other. I think it’s really just the fall/winter coat that they are coming into is what expresses the pattern. When the horse hits a yearling and 2 year old and their coats mature it changes that way, but again not really darker. It’s not like you have this subtle look and when the horse is 5 yrs it’s going to be WOW like random indeterminate or even Chimeric type horse. Not even close, so don’t expect it. Mind you I am talking about the inheritable pattern crossed on ANY non brindle coat.
On the fall/winter coat it’s almost a sure bet to me on “how much brindle” each horse has due to that coat, because on many of my brindles it is so hard to see in any month that I almost have to wait to see their “fall” coat to tell how brindle they really might or might not be. Again, as the horses coat changes with sun, age etc I think the brindling changes with it but I don’t think it just gets darker and darker if that makes sence.
I do, however, think that the sun, sun fade, lighting, angle, and different coat types show brindling diffferently throughout the year and maturing of the foal into a horse. That is why we refer to it as “seasonal brindle” and not dun factor. From my experience of having well over 25 inheritable brindles they don’t necessarily get darker as in the lines get darker and darker, because they DO NOT ! . I have taken many pictures over the past years working with this line and on the same day, different angle, the difference of how the camera picks up the light, it almost always gives you a different “appearance” sometimes true to fit but many times darker or lighter then it really is. Again at first I think this is why I believed it got darker with age, but I think it has to do a lot with the different factors I mentioned. I would say this is probably the only downfall of this pattern, but it’s better then always getting solids when breeding for the brindle pattern. Beggers can’t be choosers they say (-:
I also think if you kept one in a stall, or fed a type of supplement that really brought out the horses coat, this would help to show the brindle on ANY coat pattern.
Also when breeding brindles they say to stay away from modifying genes. This does get a little tricky because in my searches I would say guessing that over 70% of brindles have some type of modifying gene like red dun, grullo, gray, roan etc. In saying this keep in mind when you breed for brindle I would say in my years of breeding them to definitely stay away from Grays, Roans and Reds, if you can help it. I say this because the Gray gene it’s VERY hard to see any stripes, keeping in mind I am talking only about the “inheritable line”. Same with the Roans because of the roan hairs and also roans have that typical “roan striping” that is deceiving to the eye when working with this line (see roan striping). The reds are ok, but they are even harder to see the brindle red on red as it’s much easier to see when you have the agouti gene on the base coat. Out of the three mentioned I would say Red is better then Gray or Roan by far.
The right pick for a brindle or breeding brindle is definitely a horse without any modifying genes and horses with the agouti, and smutty gene. In bays the brown, sooty, or mahogany is better then the red bay is a plus in my opinion, however it’s not always possible to do so.
In 2009 I Started to cross my inheritable brindle patterns on the indeterminate type patterns to see if I can’t get the brindle to “POP” a little more louder in color if those two patterns will come together. I figure crossing those two together is better odds then the Chimera type as we understand them they carry NO brindle gene, however at this time I’m not convinced that the indeterminate type can even pass the brindle pattern until I start doing some test breeding on those type of horses I have here. I have a mixed herd of Inheritable, indeterminate and possible Chimeric horses so I will be trying each Brindle type to each other in some uniform to find out if it is possible to have a Inheritable with a more stand out color by crossing different ways.
Below are a few more pictures of just the inheritable brindle line of horses. On the mares the pattern seems to be more pronounced then the colts. The fillies and colts can BOTH express the “inheritable traits” I talked about on the brindle horse page(more info below) but the fillies do show the stripes more often then the colts.
The first two pictures below I took of a mature stallion who passes on his inheritable brindle gene which is the son of Ima Star Moon Bar and I was able to capture his brindling even though the common belief is that colts/stallions from the inheritable line don’t show the inheritable brindle pattern.
I have SO MANY pictures of different variations of the inheritable brindle I think the best way if you would like to see more, is to ask and I will dig up the ones that would most sooth your curiocity.
I could go on and one about this gene and my experiences so if you ever want to chit chat about them please don’t hesitate to ask. There are also a few great brindle write ups out there and it may also help to read up on some of those.
Ok on this close up picture below of the Gray it’s so hard to see that I have not decided if I will keep it on the site or not but I have posted it for a couple reasons. This picture was taken of a 3 yr old GRAY stallion with the inheritable brindle gene and pattern. It is SO HARD to see that I really never noticed it until he was about 2 1/2 years old but he ALWAYS displayed the brindle “traits”(read more below) but I never saw lines. If I take the picture from the back side going forward to show the hairs that are raised you can’t see it because of the GRAY, hence the reason why I say GRAYS are one of the WORST to breed in this line of brindle horses. This stallion had 3 foals born his first foal crop and 2 of the 3 were GRAY. All 3 of the foals displayed brindle traits. 2 showed the pattern that I could see by age of 2 months and the 3rd showed stripes at approx 4 months of age she was the “BAY” filly not a gray. The one colt that I have by him is out of a brindle mare and the colt is obviously carrying two genes of the brindle due to his looks. I’m waiting until 2010 until I can get some pictures of him without his winter coat as he was a later foal, then grew in his winter coat almost before he shed all the way out. He was my first horse colt double bred inheritable that showed his kind of brindle traits. I have a few pictures of this stallions hip and sides that also show lines but they turn out blurry when I enlarge so I will try and capture them next year (2010).
The lines I am talking about are on the side of his neck, the darker marks coming from under his neck are NOT brindle marks.
On any other horse these marks wouldn’t really be considered anything much to speak of but since he is from the inheritable line and we bascially know what to look for I have notated them here to just show the inheritable on Gray and male. If it was another type of brindle it probably wouldn’t have even been noticed or notated.
The two pictures below are close ups of the Gray stallions progeny above the one on the right is a little fuzzy as I tried to blow it up to show the coat expression in the inheritable line. These two foals are from the gray stud above which of course you MUST have PROOF when saying you either have a brindle or your stallion produces it so here you are foals from 2009 from a son of IMA STAR MOON BAR.
INHERITABLE BRINDLE TRAITS:These pictures below I have added of the “traits” that Sharon Batteate noticed early on and I am posting the pictures here for you to see my experiences with this line. Again these traits as we know them are in the inheritable brindle horse line, not all brindle horses and not all of the inheritable brindle horses but common if seen.
#1 the “moth eaten” look, as you can see it almost looks like someone has taken a pair of siscors and randomly cut on them. Coat texturing and raised hair like the appaloosa, paint, and pinto horses.
#2 some Brindles display thinning hair on the top of the tail, forelock, and mane. As you can see in some of the pictures below the top of some of their tails almost looks like they have been rubbing on them or pulled for thinning purposes, even though they have not.
#3 Many of them display curlier hair on the lower legs, much more “wave” to their body coat and ears then the normal horse coat. 
Again these are just my experiences with the inheritable line, I am not a professional I only state what I have basically observed over the years in this line of brindle horses.
NOTE *** if Denise Charpilloz of WA. tells you that “I” say certain things about this line, if it’s not on this web then I probably don’t say it. Please ASK ME directly don’t take it from someone who is unprofessional and malicious towards me & my practices. THANK YOU ! I sincerely apologize to those who have had to experience the negativity from her and thank you for forwarding me the emails.
Indeterminate pattern on most below but not all. Not Chimera pattern either.