Did I ever mention how much I don't like Norman's breeder?

It's just American Cream breeders in general, I guess. Cream breeders are all about the trademark pale champagne color, which is the breed standard. I've seen some less-than-pretty Creams because of it. (Not the ones pictured. Those ones are actually pretty nice looking) The thing I find ironically amusing is that Creams aren't homozygous for the champagne allele. Go figure.

That's why Norman came out flaxen chestnut. His breeder wasn't happy with him at all. So, she gave him to this family of backyard horse owners in a little podunk town in Wisconsin, as long as they promised to geld him right away. Which they did. Well, his breeder claimed that his dam threw a red sorrel gene and that's why he came out the wrong color. Miss Brehm apparently doesn't know much about equine color genetics. I bet she'd be bummed to know that flaxen chestnut doesn't show up in the offspring unless both parents are carriers of that allele. It requires a chestnut base and a flaxen color modifier. So, her prized stallion had just as much of a roll in Norman's color as the dam.

Frankly, I don't want to know what would have happened to him if that family hadn't taken him. (I don't like them for a number of reasons, but I am grateful for that.) I've heard horror stories of many foals being put down simply because of their color.

Miss Brehm also is the one who gave him that cruddy name. She thought his stripe kinda looked like Norman Rockwell, so she called him Norman. I despise that name. I wanted to change it when we got him, but my mom wouldn't let me. I don't know about you, but I don't see Norman Rockwell on his face. An unusually shaped stripe, but no profile of a human. There's no resemblence. I wanted to call him Tyson. Oh, well. Too late. I'm thinking of Cavalier or Illuminati for his show name. He's going to be a hunter jumper. I don't think he can be registered because of his color. Males have to have pink skin and light color. Only females are permitted to have dark skin, for whatever reason. It's weird.

OT, but I haven't ridden Victor since the show. Shame on my lazy self.