Painted Thoroughbreds

Two Thoroughbred models have sent me on a search for pinto Thoroughbreds-- sabino, mostly, but the frame overo pattern also helped me track down a pedigree for a hard to decide model, as well.

When I got Carrick earlier this year, I wasn't sure what to do with him. He is fairly cute in person, but I didn't have anything specific planned in my breeding groups for him. It wasn't until I saw his photo close in order with Sato's that I realized I wanted them to be related, Carrick the sire of Sato. And so I started my search for a sabino Thoroughbred, and a whole ton of painted Thoroughbred popped up on my screen.

It wasn't until I read this page: http://www.whitehorseproductions.com/pintotbs.html (third down in the Google search for 'sabino thoroughbred') that I realized Thoroughbreds also came with the frame overo gene. For some reason, this information had not crossed my path until then. But when it did, it opened up a whole 'nother door. See, I had this guy: 

I knew he would have to be a warmblood of some type, but there's a limited amount that allow overo. Yet, once I realized Thoroughbreds could be overo, I knew if I could find a registry that allowed Thoroughbred crosses and did inhibit color options, I would have a breed for him. And since he is fairly thick, it didn't take me long to find what I was looking for-- Irish Draught Sport Horses aka Irish Sport Horse (although this term is usually used for horses that can have other than Irish Draught breeding), and Irish Hunter. And even though the Irish Draughts don't come in overo, the TBs do. That's all I needed to feel happy about that!

And so from there the search continued to find him a parent. 

A Google search for overo Thoroughbreds led me to this great Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/simbion/unusual-thoroughbreds/. They have a variety of neat-looking horses, including many overo and sabino patterned ones. 

I also tracked down Ellusive Quest, one of the more popular overo studs, I think: http://www.colorworld-ranch.com/questfoals.html. I ended up using him as sire to my Irish Draught Sport Horse stallion, and named him Ellusive Treasure. 

The other two are still undecided, as I have to also find a parent with the cream gene to pass down, but I will write an addendum as I do.