# feathers?



## Gidget (Jan 19, 2010)

Okkkay,so I read up and maybe it isn't real feathering.

I feel dumb.


I never seen any other horses like her with long hairs on her fetlocks. She's always had them year round. 

I am on the hunt to see if she is actually a pinto because I am beginning to think she has something else in her.

Does she look full QH to you?


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## mumiinek (Aug 4, 2010)

Are you sure we're talking about feathering here? This is what feathering is










it doesn't need to be that extensive of course but I can't see anything like that on your horse. Was that photo taken after you trimmed her legs? What I see on your photo is what I see on almost every horse around.


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## Gidget (Jan 19, 2010)

they have gotten longer since then..not by much. 
I know what feathering is but I was curious if she could have some type of other breed in her.

Feathering I guess was the wrong word to use,lol.Sorry.

does she look like a QH to you?


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## mumiinek (Aug 4, 2010)

She actually looks like a very unique coloured Przewalski to me :lol: I'm kidding, though the big head and roached mane do a lot... But seriously, I have no clue what breed she might be crossed with, she does look QHish to me but then again I don't know much about QHs. I just always thought their head was... smaller


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## Gidget (Jan 19, 2010)

see thats what I thought! They usually have smaller heads....a lot smaller.
She has a HUGE head with a little body.


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## Gidget (Jan 19, 2010)

You know her big head and roached mane do make her look like..however you pronounce that word.


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## wild_spot (Jan 30, 2008)

Every horse has 'feathers' to some extent - They are designed to stop water running down the legs from pooling in between the heel bulbs and causing thrush and greasy heel. They are a natural defense.

The AMOUNT of feathering is what distuingishes a draft. Some light horses also have a lot of feather - It just varies.

Most show horses have their feathers clipped off, but if left to grow, sure enough they would have them too.


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## mumiinek (Aug 4, 2010)

It's not true that all horses have feathers. They all may have 'feathers' (as you said, note the '') but those are NOT feathers even though people like to call them so.
"*Feathering*, or *feather*, is a term used to describe the long hair on the lower legs and fetlocks of some breeds of horse and pony. On some horses, especially draft breeds, the hair can almost cover the hooves. While nearly all horses will grow longer hair on the lower legs and back of the fetlocks at times, particularly in the winter, "Feather" refers to the particularly long, luxuriant growth that is characteristic of certain breeds."
​Another very interesting thing I never knew before was that feather is a recessive gene. I found a few articles about this.
"Feather is a recessive, and it is accumulative. If you breed a feathered horse to any non-feathered horse, you DO NOT get a feathered horse."
​(About a drum horse) "Many times people ask the GCDHA if they can register a horse that is a non-feathered spotted draft. The answer to that question is no; the horse must be a blend of one or more of the above mentioned _feathered_ draft breeds because feather is a recessive gene, and a mark of the Drum Horse breed in America. The only way to preserve the heavy feathering of the Drum Horse is to breed feathered horses to other feathered horses. Breeding a smooth legged horse to a feathered horse will result in a smooth legged or lightly feathered horse, which would not meet the Drum Horse registration requirements."

​I will not go into details and start polemizing about where's the border between "feathered" and "non-feathered" as officially even Friesians aren't a feathered breed but one definitelly can't say that every hrorse has feathers.


Unless there is a difference between the terms "feather" and "feathers" which I'm not familiar with...


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## iridehorses (Oct 22, 2007)

Gidget, all horses have that hair growth, as wild_spot posted - and for the reason she said. As for what your horse is a x with, if you truly want to know, you can have her DNA tested, and that will settle any argument. Even if she does prove to have some draft in her, what your horse appears to have going on with her legs has nothing to do with draft blood and is not feathering.


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

I've seen this come up on several threads lately - has there been some new development in horse DNA testing I am not aware of? Last I understood it, there is no DNA test out there that can DETERMINE breeds or mixes thereof in horses. The only DNA testing currently done on horses is to prove parentage - by matching the DNA profiles of get to the DNA profiles of sires/dams.

Gidget, to me your horse looks like a QH type paint. Not all of them have smaller babydoll heads, just like not all walkers have big jugheads and not all arabs have tiny little dish-faces. I don't see any reason to assume she is mixed with anything - particularly not that little bit of fuzzies on her feet.


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## iridehorses (Oct 22, 2007)

Indy, you may be right about DNA testing. It's routinely done for parentage and it can be done in dogs to determine breed. I mistakenly made the connection that breeds can be tested for in horses too.

That being said, it can be next to impossible to determine the mix in horses due to the variations within any particular breed. All anyone can say for certain is that a horse "looks like it can be...".


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## CheyAut (Nov 26, 2008)

The dog test (there's not a horse one) is HIGHLY unreliable. It often says obviously purebred dogs are mixes of a breed that they are obviously not


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## Gidget (Jan 19, 2010)

thanks guys 

Always learning!


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Yep, the amount of feathering varies greatly even within a chosen breed. Some QH will have none at all and others will have great heavy feathers. What your girl has is about typical for most stock breeds.


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## wild_spot (Jan 30, 2008)

Then what do you call the long hair on the back of the fetlock?

It may not be correct but here in AUS everyone I know just calls it feathers :]


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