This is HF Jewel’s Fluffy Tufts, foal name, “Fluffy,” and new life name “Brianna,” or “Bree.”

We thought for certain that Jewel was going to give us a colt after having back-to-back filly foals the prior two years, but she gave us a sweet little filly that reminded us a lot of her older sister Flo.  Fluffy was our fourth of six foals in the spring of 2024.

Fluffy didn’t start out Fluffy, but between Jewel who is a super hairy gray mare and sire, San Cler Nazareth of Bellissima Farms, a super sweet and super hairy chestnut sabino stallion, there’s absolutely no way she will avoid being Fluffy as an adult, so from the name bank we chose, “Fluffy Tufts.”

I’ve had several thought experiments over the years, and Fluffy was the subject of one of these experiments.  I’ve had foals that started their lives wary.  I’ve had foals that started their lives oblivious (yes, we have had dummy foals, and yes, the Madigan Squeeze was used to positive effect).  I’ve had foals that started their lives yelling out, “Look at me!  I’m your new best friend!”

I prefer the ones that know that humans are their friends from the get-go, but that’s not always the case.  Parents are an indicator for how they will be, but that’s not always the case.  We don’t get to choose.

We have a patterned order of events that we’ve become accustomed to following with foaling and raising foals.  Proper paperwork and documentation are very important to us.  The first order of business for us after ensuring the health of the foal and mama is genetic testing.  We prefer the Etalon Pro Panel due to the number of color/pattern tests, disease panels ran, and the size genetics testing (H1, H2, and Dwarfism).  We have no dwarfism (not super common in Gypsy Horses), but we have H1 and H2 markers in our herd, and we always like to tell potential foal buyers what to expect with estimated mature heights of their foals.  We also like to pin down the color/pattern testing so that when we officially register a foal, we know for certain that we are registering them with their true and proper color/pattern markers.

That brings up the issue of wary foals, though.

My thoughts go something like this:

On the first day of a foal’s life, their experiences with humans are 100% of what they know about humans that day and for their whole life thus far.  They will carry this knowledge forward with them.  First impressions are very important.

After about 10 days, something that happens in their daily lives with a human being involved is only about 10% of their experience with humans.  Any one of these days can be an anomaly for them.  Any one day’s events can be more forgettable when it’s only about 10% of what they know to be true about their interactions with humans.

For a super-friendly foal, not so much an issue.  For a hyper-vigilant foal, you better do things right or it’s going to take a very long time with a lot of effort and patience to undo something that you’ve done with them that wasn’t well received.

Fluffy started her first several days of life being very retiring and avoiding human contact.  She was on the wary side out of the womb.

So, the wrong thing to do was jump right into the barn stall with mama and baby and yank a patch of hair off her just so I could get my eagerly anticipated DNA testing results quickly.

I waited many days to gather my DNA sample with Fluffy and it paid dividends with her acclimation to the presence of humans.  Within a week, she was well on her way to being one of the friendliest foals of the year.  I think her new owner describes her as a “lap horse” now.

Each foal is different.  Some are similar, but each one has its own personality quirks.  I’ve had wary foals that resisted contact, but once you were leading them around and doing things with them, they became super quiet and compliant (Ach…you’ve got me…well, ok, then, we’ll just get with the program).  I’ve had smart ones, and I’ve had a few that just weren’t rocket scientists on the horse intelligence scale.  I’ve had bucket babies that thought that I was their parent and didn’t see anything wrong with being disrespectful about space with their parents.  I’ve had pickpockets.  I’ve had foals that thought that it was a fun game to rear and kick at humans during play time.  I’ve had foals that are always chilled out and compliant.  For each foal, I try to encapsulate a description of their personality for prospective new owners.

There’s a time, place, and proper mental maturity for training all things with horses, and it also often depends on expected boundaries of behaviors with their owners.  Obviously, a foal that thinks it’s fun to rear and kick at their owner needs correction, and quickly.  When it is dangerous for their owners, then proper training is required.  It is incumbent upon the person who owns the horse to properly care for the horse and to also provide the guidance for the horse for their expected rules of behavior.  That goes for horses of all ages.

I dislike seeing posts online about how someone received a horse with less than satisfactory behavior just so they can toot their own horn about how they’ve made such a big difference with training the horse.  What these posts fail to recognize is that perhaps the prior owner didn’t have the same set of expected behaviors for that horse, and by posting such things, they are denigrating the prior owner.  Once the horse is yours, if you do not like how the horse interacts with you, it is your responsibility to provide that guidance for the horse.  It’s hardly ever the horse’s fault that they are how they are, and most horses are malleable.

I’m a big guy.  6’2” and usually anywhere between 220 to 250 pounds.  What I find threatening from a horse might be different than what someone smaller of stature might find threatening.  Perhaps my expectations for respect are a bit less, and maybe I need to work harder on that, but some folks also do not like to have to undo some of the things that I might train into a foal.  It’s always a gamble of going too far or not doing enough.  I always try to be completely honest with new owners about a foal’s headspace, though.

But, back to Fluffy…

We received her DNA results.  Jewel and Naz outdid themselves again:

ee aa SB1-W32/W20 Gg PRLn PATN1n EDXW3n H1n H2n

That’s a mouthful!  Chestnut base with no Agouti (only affects black base horses to make them bay if present, but she didn’t have a marker), SB1-W32 haplotype (double KIT gene from Naz), W20 KIT gene from Jewel, Gray, carrying a Pearl gene (only activated when paired with an opposing Cream or Pearl gene), carrying a Pattern-1 gene (only activated if paired with LP), Eden White 3 (white patterning), one “Hand Up” gene, and balanced with one “Hand Down” gene.

Abbreviated:  Gray Sabino (she’ll be white by two or three years old like her older sister Flo).

Because she has the H1 and the H2 just like her dam, Jewel, we could estimate her mature height.  Jewel is 14.1hh with one of each.  Naz is 13.2hh with one H2.  Naz’s natural height without that H2 gene would be 14.2hh.  She should be an average of Jewel’s height and Naz’s natural height with a lean toward her dam (as is normal).  14.1hh would be our guess, but we are conservative because a lot of people like larger horses, so we would say 14hh and just maybe another inch when fully grown possibly.

She was just like her older sister Flo, but Flo was homozygous H2 and she also had one Agouti from her sire, Nazareth.  Some would say they’re both genetic jackpots.  Triple KIT gene mutation horses are a rarity.

Fluffy spent a lot of time with another one of our Sabino fillies from the spring of 2024 named Thistle.  The two of them were quite a pair.  They hunted down humans in their pasture to compete for the most attention, and most outsiders would think they were twins if they didn’t know the subtle differences between the two.  Personality-wise, Thistle was the more forward of the two, which was the other difference.  More on Thistle later.

Fluffy, like Flo before her, was a calm, quiet filly which was very similar to their dam, Jewel.  They both also had her momentary seconds of freezing to think about things before moving forward.  Some horses just need a bit longer to think things through fully.  This is not stubbornness nor contrariness nor fear.  It’s thoughtfulness and introversion.  This introversion also shows itself as respect for humans.

Fluffy joined Lucky who preceded her to an owner that is going to provide a beautiful life for a number of our prior horses this year.  We’re very pleased with all our foal placements for the 2024 season.