What is this, the Chrome show? 🙂 Would anyone be upset if that happened to be the case?!
It won’t be the case, but he does figure prominently – after all, this stunning stallion has emerged as one of the most dominant in Spring Creek Basin the last few years.
The title of the post refers to the fact that Chrome had left his band to visit another band; they’re now to the right, and Chrome’s band was up a hill to the left. A few more images may be coming from this encounter. …
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
Hmmmm, intriguing. What will happen next?
He went back to his band on the hill, and Comanche grazed happily with his band below. All was well. 🙂
I will never tire of looking at him or any of the other wild ponies out there, or anywhere else :-). Thank you for never tiring of taking their pics!
Never in a million years. 🙂
Is Chrome a grey or a roan?
He’s grey. Spring Creek Basin doesn’t have any roans.
A major characteristic of roans is that the heads and lower legs (generally from knees and hocks down (and not including leg markings)) generally stay the body color, so a red roan’s head and lower legs generally will be fairly solid sorrel/chestnut, a blue roan’s head and lower legs will be black, and a bay roan’s head will be brown and its legs will be brown to black like a bay – depending on how low the roaning goes. Some roans are very light – lots of roaning – across their bodies from neck to shoulders to barrel to flanks and hindquarters; others, like my red roan Quarter Horse mare, have minimal roaning. Colors of manes, tails and forelocks can vary. In fact, to use her as a further example, her forelock is red, her mane is silver, and her tail is nearly black. Also, many roans vary between their summer and winter coats – being lighter or darker, depending on season.
The reason grey horses are called grey (alternate spelling: gray) and not white is because they “grey(/gray) out” from birth throughout their lives. Roans are roan. Also, most grey horses start greying out from their birth color in their faces/heads, while roan horses keep their foundation color in their heads and faces.
Our Spring Creek Basin greys (and most greys) are born black, brown, bay, “rusty red” and sorrel. My grey Quarter Horse mare was born palomino. Grey is by far the dominant color in Spring Creek Basin, owing to two grey stallions introduced with a pinto stallion in the late 1990s to protect genetic diversity (since then, mares have been introduced). Some people incorrectly identify our greys as roan, and at times in their young lives, they do look “roany.” But they’re not; they’ll continue to “grey out” until they are as light – or lighter – than Chrome (example: Houdini, an older mare who has lost nearly all her original “shading”). Note that the manes and tails of grey horses also “grey out” as they age. Some of the “freckling” you see on Chrome – especially his face – is called “fleabitten.” Grey, our famous grey stallion known officially as Traveler – also is a fleabitten grey.
Thank you for the detailed (and historical) rundown!!!
Thank you TJ, another pic of beautiful Chrome. And thanks also for the great tutorial on horse colors, something I sorely need!
As Kat says, Chrome and his band really are the greeters and ambassadors for Spring Creek Basin, and a lot of people are able to see them when they visit. 🙂 And with nearly the whole band some shade of grey, they’re walking examples of our many “shades of grey”!
Lol, cool TJ! And I love Kat’s “greeters” moniker for Chrome and his band. That has been our experience as well.