Mushroom

Mushroom coloring.

So, what are the characteristics of this color? The foals I have bred were pale at birth, some pale beige, others more fawn with a greyish or pinkish tint but unlike any other color seen in Shetland foals. The mane and tail are usually the same color as the body. Birth color varies depending on how dark it is, but has no trace of the redness seen in a chestnut-based foal. The bottom of the legs are usually very pale in color and the hooves may be white at birth. They appear to have blue-gray eyes at birth which turn brown over the following months in common with those of other dilutions such as dun or palomino. The foal's color may darken or lighten and the true shade of the color may not become apparent until the following year. A Mushroom color foal can be born to any parent color. Similar colts have been registered by other breeders as "grey", "dark brown", "roan" or "cream". Pedigrees and photographs show that the foals are none of these.

Adult color.

The typical Mushroom colored pony is fawn or taupe in color with an almost white mane and tail, but some can be much darker and appear brown with an almost white or silver mane and tail. The lower legs are the same color as the body or light linen. Although "black" hair may grow in the mane and tail as with other brown-based colors, the mane, tail, and lower legs are never black. The summer coat seems to be generally the same color as the winter coat of ponies that live outdoors. When the new coat grows out, it appears to be a bit darker than the old one, but fades very quickly, regardless of the weather. Often, if the pony has a long, thick mane, the color of the coat under the mane is much darker. Paler mushrooms appear to have lighter roots on the hair while darker coats have a grayish root on the hair. Some have very light colored manes and tails while others have lots of dark, almost black and silvery hair throughout the mane and tail. Some of these ponies have a white ticking through the coat. The true hue seems very difficult to capture in photographs, as different light causes the coat to appear a different hue and looking at the pony from different angles changes the perceived hue. Some of these ponies are a very pale beige, like in a young Mushroom-like Mushroom, others much darker in color, like in an older Mushroom. The color of the hooves varies. Some are black, some horn-colored, and some have varying degrees of white striping although there may be no white markings on the legs.

The Mushroom should not be confused with the cream brown dun or brown dun which have a yellow or orange tinge to the coat. The important part of identification is the absence of any traces of red in the coat. The coats all have a rather washed out look as opposed to the intense, shiny color of the normal base color coat. It's like someone took all the red out of the color pigment. Darker Mushrooms sometimes show creamy ends with long guard hairs and pony beards. My own Mushroom's skin color seems to be mostly gray in color. In some there is some degree of marbling around the dock, but nothing too unusual. Many of these Mushroom have a linen mane and tail, and in the brown forms the eel stripe is sometimes absent from the mane and tail, although it is present as a dorsal stripe on the liver. However, there are darker Mushrooms that have darker manes and tails that have silver hair through them. They seem to vary widely the same way shades of brown vary from a pale red to a dark liver shade.

An equine vet has examined the eyes of some of my Mushrooms. So far, they seem to lack pigment in the back of the eye, so their eyes look like those of a chocolate Labrador dog.

 Note. Mushrooms can be found in dun, roan, or foot combinations. In the dun form, the dorsal stripe is usually liver-colored.

  I have researched some of the most common lines where these foals appear and give some examples on the following pages. Some lines have been bred chestnut for several generations with no unexpected berries or browns (as one would expect if the silver gene was present). Other Mushrooms appeared from black to black mating. All appear sporadically and in small numbers, with a mare possibly only producing one in her lifetime depending on whether the stallion used carries the fungus gene or not. Mushroom breeding at Mushroom has produced only Mushroom colored foals. Recent research by Dr. Rebecca Bellone shows that the homozygous Mushroom (2 copies of the gene) appears as a colored Mushroom in a chestnut-based pony. Heterozygous (1 copy of the gene) does not usually show up in a pony.

All of my Mushroom ponies were tested with the red factor, the result proved that they were all chestnut based color. All of my Mushroom ponies have been tested for silver and they all came out negative for the silver gene. Since then many other Shetland Mushrooms have been tested for red and silver. All were red but negative for silver.

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WARNING TO BREEDERS. 
Breeders of purebred Shetland ponies should be aware that a stallion, Luxus, has been tested as positive for the dominant silver gene. Silver has never been found in Shetland ponies of UK parentage. Luxus was bred in Germany & has a recognized paternal line that traces to UK breeding but his maternal line traces through few generations of unknown ponies from unknown origins & with no apparent lines tracing to UK stud-books. It is most regrettable that any breeder should wish to bring outside blood into an ancient & pure breed but foals from this stallion are now in Denmark & Sweden. Most Shetland pony breeders will undoubtedly wish to maintain pure Shetland pony bloodlines so should be aware that some ponies with the silver gene can mimic the mushroom color. Breeders should also be aware that silver is carried unseen by chestnut or chestnut base ponies. If there is any doubt, there is a simple DNA test that can determine whether a pony is genetically silver or carries the silver gene.

The silver gene has been identified as being connected with a particularly nasty eye problem, Anterior Segment Disorder (ASD), also known as Multiple Congenital Ocular Anomalies Syndrome (MCOAS). Heterozygous silver-coloured equines have eye cysts & may be myopic while homozygous silver shows cysts & severe deformities of the eye.

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So far we can only be sure to recognize the color in Mushroom colored ponies. Some Shetland berries, homozygous for Mushroom, look like buckskin but have no cream dilution in their parentage. Much more will be learned about this dilution when more ponies have been tested for the presence of Mushroom in Mushroom-carrying ponies that are not themselves Mushroom colored. It is important for breeders to ensure that a foal's registered color clearly indicates that it is not normal brown or dilute cream if great confusion is to be avoided in future years. . It is also important to remember that all research on Mushroom colored ponies has been carried out on registered Shetland ponies of British origin and their descendants only.

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Hair samples from left to right: 1) Body  2) under the mane so not faded; 3) chestnut; 4) dark chestnut; 5) bodysuit 6) under the mane where it does not fade. When looking at these samples, it must be remembered that you only see the tips when looking at any pony.

Text & some photographs are copyright of Beth Mead unless otherwise stated