Bloody shoulder

[belambi]

Jorge
Somewhere, you were asking some questions re bloody shoulders in arabians?.. There is an interesting statement on this website that discusses them. I guess its just another point of view.
http://www.thehorseguide.com/HorseColors/Grey.htm

[accphotography]

I can't say that it's wrong, but I'll say that I disagree with it. As someone who has watched a foal grow up and gray out (and pretty much white out now) with a blood mark, I don't think it's flea bites at all. Flea bites are nearly an end stage in gray IME (usually just before or sometimes just after the "white" stage). Blood marks are there from birth. Flea bites nearly always develop with age and blood marks are developed with the first gray hair. The believed cause is "incomplete penetrence of the gray gene", aka, just a spot that gray missed somehow.

Here is one whose blood mark developed as soon as it became apparent he was graying (as a late suckling or early weanling) and is still there today when he is pretty much white (and you can see he was pretty darned light already in this photo).



I also think the vitiligo on that Arabian is fascinating.