Silver Draft? Introducing the Noriker Draft!!!

I first found this breed in Dorling Kindersley Handbooks (www.dk.com) Horses under Heavy Horses page 220.The picture provided clearly shows a Silver Dapple stallion!!! The colors are listed Brown, Black and "Chestnut" and then I found these videos of some Noriker Stallions notice that they are either Black Or Silver Dapple!!!

Notice the comments about the beautiful "Liver Chestnut" color!!!

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/Home/Animals/Mammals/Odd-toed-Hoofed-Mammals/Horses-and-Relatives/Domestic-Horse/Heavy-Horses/Noriker/Noriker-1.html

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/DKIMAGES/Discover/Home/Animals/Mammals/Odd-toed-Hoofed-Mammals/Horses-and-Relatives/Domestic-Horse/Heavy-Horses/Noriker/Noriker-2.html

Oh yes. Based on what I've seen the Noriker is MOSTLY silver. The breed association doesn't seem to realize it though. Someone I know once found a site with tons of in-hand photos from a show and easily 90% were silver, 90% of which were bay silver. Simply amazing. I have seen some black silvers, blacks, bays and the occasional chestnut, so other colors are out there, but I think for the most part they must be EE AA ZZ.

Really???

I felt the photos posted looked like dark liver chestnuts or the black chesnut that is talked about sometimes. The legs looked red to me.

I didn't posted because I wanted to see what you (ACC) said first. Can you post another photo of one of these horses that shows silver better?

Sure! I do agree that one particular horse looked chestnut, but there are loads of true silvers in Noriker.

Well crud. I got my foreign draft breeds confused. It's the Comtois that are silver, not the Noriker. Duh. *whimpers*

However, I did find one Noriker that looks maybe silver to me:


And another breed that is very closely related to the Noriker that appears to maybe have silver:


So I don't know for sure if they do. How frustrating.

here ar some videos of the horses. Maybe this will clear it up. You can clearly see the horses are either black or what appears to be SIlver. At least I think so!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHWO8-9myuo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaNHhid6tNg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDtQf4zjYI8

At least two, if not three of those definitely look silver.

I've been reserching some belgians in Canada that seem to carry the silver gene, which makes sense why noone knows about it in there breed because they are mostly a chestnut base. i noticed after a few generations of crossing with black based breeds. As a result theres a Roan Silver Buckskin Overo Warmblood Stud, Sadly the Farm where he was bred Sold his dam who was a Silver Bay (she was a Percheron/Belgian) and i Haven't been able to locate her. It makes me wonder how many chestnut breeds maybe hiding the Silver gene.

I am about 98% certain American Belgians carry silver. I've seen multiple clearly silver horses out of Belgian mares and by Thoroughbred stallions. I find it fascinating how something could have been there all along and no one ever realized it (and it never shows). However now with these eye anomalies that silvers have, I wonder if it might be worth sending a vet to a Belgian show and just looking around to see how many they can find with the anomalies.

ok get the wedding ready i am marrying that silver Noriker!!! omg i love it!!