Safyre Sporthorses
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Safyre Sporthorses

Silver Dapple Warmbloods  &  Sport Horses

DRESSAGE   |   HUNTERS   |   JUMPERS   |   EVENTING

A Little About Us

Safyre Sporthorses is a small breeding farm in Northwest Oregon  Our focus is creating warmbloods & sport horses with temperaments that are enjoyable and trainable for amateurs but have the correctness, gaits and blood for top competition in Dressage, Eventing, Jumping &  Hunters.  We want Amateurs &  Professionals alike to enjoy developing & being competitive with their horses! 

As a bonus some of our horses will have a little extra bling with the addition of the silver dilution gene often referred to as "silver dapple".
Picture

a Rare & Unique Silver Dilution

Since the silver gene is so rare, we had to start our program using horses with some blood that is non-traditional for warmblood breeding.  However, we feel it is very important  that this non-traditional blood be quality & graded through the warmblood inspection system & judges so we have a quality foundation for silver warmbloods & sport horses to build from.

The mare descending from this bloodline have been presented for grading and approved by ISR/Oldenburg N.A.  

In 2011 as a young 3 yr old, our foundation mare, Safyre, was presented and earned 102 pt score with an 8 for her walk and several 7's.  

In 2012 she had her 1st warmblood/sport horse foal, Sachi, who was an ISR/OLD Premium Awarded Filly & the Site Champion! 

In 2012 Safyre's paternal sister, Khepri  (renamed Chanel),  was also presented for breeding approval where she earned a score of 105 pts.  This is a Premium score, however, because she isn't 100% approved blood she was not added to that book.

Also in 2012 a paternal 1/2 sibling was also presented for breeding approval in Georgia and she earned 102 pt score.  All three siblings have the same sire and the quality is obvious with the consistency of scores.

To our knowledge these 3 sisters are the only approved horse-size silvers in the ISR/OLD studbook so far. 

Silver Characteristics

Silver is often called  Silver Dapple  and/or confused with dapple grey horses.  It is not a grey gene!  Silver is actually is a very rare and unique gene in large, non-gaited horses.  It is a dilution gene like cream, however, it dilutes black pigment to a pewter/chocolate color and in  extreme expression the manes & tails  are white/flaxen in color.  Most people know the color when they picture Shetland ponies or Rocky Mountain Horses. 
  • MANES, TAILS & FORELOCKS - diluted from black to flaxen/white to self colored (body color)  i.e. bays do not have black manes & tails
  • LEGS - legs will have a webbing pattern and the black points will be diluted to a silvery brown mushroom color
  • EYELASHES - sometimes when a silver foal is born they will have white eyelashes
  • DAPPLES - it is thought that silver creates or accentuates dapples.  However, good nutrition is also thought to create dapples and not all silver diluted horses have dapples.
  • HOOVES - some silvers have striped hooves
  • BODY HAIR - some silver also have silvery/white body hair similar to roans or rabicanos.  It is not known whether this is the silver gene at work or another gene.
From 2003 - 2010 our farm was Meadow View Farm.  We initally specialized in quality cream dilute Warmblood Sport Horses while we search for silver.  In the summer of 2005, we decided it was time to have our own stallion. We purchased a brown silver dapple AQHA yearling stallion prospect named, Champs Guthrie.  At that time there was no test for silver dapple dilution so it was what we saw that his sire produced and faith that he truly carried the gene. 

While anxiously awaiting for him to grow up so we could start the next phase of our program the silver gene was identified and a test was developed and offered to the public in October 2006.  Hair was pulled and immediately sent in to U.C. Davis.  We were on pins and needles waiting for the results.  The email came through and he was in fact carrying the silver 'Z' gene.  Yahoo!!!

Once again we needed to wait for him to grow up.  While waiting we weighed doing a show carrer first with him or breeding him and allowing his foals to prove their sire.  We opted for breeding.  Part of this was due to the fact that there were so few silvers worldwide.  Even today (Jan 2012) there are only 5 k Safyre Sporthorses is developing and specializing quality silver dapple dilute warmbloods for Dressage ... Hunters ... Jumpers ... Eventing. It is very important to us that we are not just breeding for the silver color. It does no one any good to breed the color with out the quality to back it up.

Our foundation mare is Safyre. She was recently inspected for mare approvals with ISR/Oldenburg N.A. She received 102 points!  This score is better than most Warmbloods & Thoroughbreds presented get.  It's just shy 3 pts. shy of a Premium Score.

Safyre earned:

8 - Walk in hand,
7 - Breed, Mare Type,
7 - Correctness of Gaits,
7 - Overall Impression & Development,
7 – Head, 
7 – Hind legs.
All her scores were 6’s and above.

She is entered into the Mare Book due to her pedigree. She is 58.5% Thoroughbred.

We are also carefully choosing the stallions we use so that the silver foundation we develop and offer will have exceptional temperaments, quality conformation, as well as, movement & talent for Amateurs, as well as, Professionals.

What is the Silver Dapple Gene? The silver “Z” gene dilutes only black pigment. Depending on the modifying genes a horse carries, body colors can range from a pewter color to a dark chocolate. Manes & tails can range from almost white to dark chocolate. The black on the legs are generally a diluted, golden mushroom color to dark chocolate with webbing. If you know the color of what most of the Rocky Mountain horse are then you are familiar with silver.

Thank you for visiting!  please take you time and look around the site. 
If you have any questions about our horses or color, please feel free to contact us.

Monique Matson

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Last Updated  ~  July 7, 2020

 © 2003-2020  Monique Matson /Safyre Sporthorses | All Rights Reserved

  • Home
  • About
  • Safyre
    • Satori - 2017 Filly
    • Sachi - 2012 Filly
  • Satori
  • Foals
    • Foals We've Bred
  • Publications
  • Silver & Links
    • Silver 'Z' Gene
  • Contact