We will probably DNA her...will that tell us what we want to know???
Color typing matters especially if you're gonna breed her (or momma) to Mr Big and Handsome HONDO for a KMSHA foal someday
I am a KMSHA examiner and RC has submitted the paperwork too become an examiner, so we will be able to fully certify Panda and her filly KMSHA.
The foal color calculator is fun, and will tell you the possible base colors you could get when you breed her to specific colors. Your mare is black based and carries red (you know she does because she now has a red foal). Eeaa.
Color Calculator
She looks palomino to me, which is Red based with creme. Golden Champagnes with Creme are often mistaken for Cremello. This one definately doesn't look like that. The blue eyes are most likely from the Sabino spotting gene, giving her that loud color and bald face.
Hondo is buckskin, carries red. Black based, with agouti (bay) with creme, carries recessive red. EeAaCrcr So he can produce both buckskin and palomino foals. He also carries hidden sabino 1 which is one of the pattern genes that give you the color pattern in the foal. He has 2 very small white socks. I just don't breed for spots, since mine are Rockies and Kentucky MHs and too much white is not registerable, so i get some bling from him, but no body spots. I can breed him to a solid spotted mountain horse mare and have a good chance of getting body spots in the foal. Hondo is black based, carries single agouti single creme and red. EeAaCrcr
The bigger question is about movement and way of going. Does Panda rack (back and forth motion like your Pasos) or do a running walk or stepping (broken) pace (is she more pacey/side to side)? Many SSH are racking horses because of the paint (trotting horse) influence used to get the color.
Either is fine for Hondo, since he is a strong saddle racker who moves laterally (which is correct), breeding a lateral moving pacer/step pacer to a strong saddle racker or racker creates a good structural balance in the foal for an easy, natural saddle rack which needs no conditioning to maintain or develop (obviously the best kind of foal!).
Breeding a hard trotter (very diagonal) to a pacer or step pacer (lateral) can and usually does produce a fox trotter which is more diagonal rather than lateral, kind of pacey behind and trotty up front, and for the most part, is still smooth but takes some time to develop and to keep conditioned. A fox trotter is the hardest gait to outcross, since it is diagonal in nature and should be bred to another foxtrotter to maintain consistency in the foal, but that's not always possible, depending on the breed.
The best Walker/Rocky cross would be a step pacer (running walker) to a natural saddle racker or a racker. This will very likely give you a saddle racking foal that is eligible for both the KMSHA and the RHBA registries, which need that smooth consistent racking gait to certify (showing no pace or trot).
