mystery 4

"Mushroom" - a New Dilution or Silver Variant?

The Gletness Connection

The Gletness Stud was established on Shetland. Mainly chestnuts were bred & certainly some "mushroom" coloured foals were produced. Probably the best known stallion bred there was Gletness Rocket who has a number of "mushroom" descendents. Gletness Rockall was a threequarter brother who was exported to Sweden, where he has established lines of very dark liver chestnuts with near white mane & tails, and a few "mushroom" coloured ponies. My large "mushroom" stallion is Clibberswick Hammerite. He has been red & silver factor tested at the Swedish University at Uppsala, the result of which said that he is red but negative for silver.

Clibberswick Hammerite "mushroom". Foal reg. dark chestnut.	Cawa of Berry red & white	Ward of Houlland chestnut & white	Sprite of Berry white roan. Foal reg. piebald Gem of Houlland chestnut
	Cawa of Berry red & white	Kalan of Berry black	Bon Bon of Berry grey & white Flaxie of Berry chestnut
	Pearla of Clibberswick black	Gardie Trigger black	Sam of Gudden black Lady of Gardie black
	Pearla of Clibberswick black	Pearl 11 of Clibberswick black	Clothie Clett black Elita of Clibberswick black

Gem of Houlland was by Gold Dust of Berry & out of Bliss of Houlland who was by Nero of Houlland x Nutkin. Bon Bon of Berry traces to Houlland lines. Sam of Gudden was by Gletness Rocket from whom many "mushrooms" are descended.

Hammerite as a foal.
Tested as chestnut but negative for silver

Hammerite as an adult. His mane & tail have a lot of dark hair throughout giving the appearance of silver grey.

Also by Cawa of Berry, I have a mare, Tanya of Sandalbrae. She is a very dark "mushroom" skewbald that I bought as a foal, registered as chocolate & white. At the time, all the long guard hairs had creamy coloured ends instead of the normal red of a normal chestnut. She has several lines that lead to Houlland ponies and her grandfather was Gletness Rocket, by Fireball of Marshwood who traces to South Park lines. Rocket also has Houlland in him. In 2007, she had a chestnut & white foal by Kellas Peerie Plover, also chestnut.

Tanya of Sandalbrae foal reg. chocolate & white	Cawa of Berry red & white	Ward of Houlland red & white	Sprite of Berry foal colour: piebald Gem of Houlland chestnut
	Cawa of Berry red & white	Kalan of Berry black	Bon Bon of Berry blue & white Flaxie of Berry chestnut
	Jolene of Gudden red & white	Gletness Rocket chestnut	Fireball of Marshwood dark chestnut Rose of Belmont chestnut
	Jolene of Gudden red & white	Jill of Gudden piebald	Noggin of Luckdon black Dandy of Gudden chestnut

Sandalbrae Tanya as a foal showing cream mane & foal coat.

Tanya as an adult. Mane is white, tail has dark hair.

Tanya of Sandalbrae

Tanya of Sandalbrae. Note creamy hairs on face.

Hammerite has thrown no "mushroom" foals as yet. His foals have been: to 3 black base mares - 2 black base foals & 3 chestnut. To chestnut base mares - 7 chestnut base foals, 2 palomino (from palomino dun).

Barclay Arms Wilma, dam of Kellas Windfaerie on the 1st page, has several crosses of Fireball of Marshwood who was by Firebird out of Nun of Houlland. All 3 Gletness ponies in this pedigree were by Fireball of Marshwood.

Barclay Arms WIlma dark mushroom, white ticking through body. Foal reg. mink. Adult reg. dark brown	Rob of Gue chestnut	Gletness Rocket chestnut	Fireball of Marshwood dark chestnut Rose of Belmont chestnut
	Rob of Gue chestnut	Goldie of Gue chestnut, white mane & tail (was described as looking "near palomino")	Gold Dust of Berry chestnut Dusky of Gue grey. Foal reg. grey
	Petula chestnut	Gletness Sunset chestnut	Gletness Fireman chestnut Gletness Sunstar chestnut
	Petula chestnut	Patsy of Murrian chestnut	Sunburn of Marshwood bay April Sun roan. Foal rg. roan

Bayhall Magic is a yearling colt who also traces to the same lines. His summer coat is much the same colour as his winter foal coat.

Bayhall Magic

Bayhall Magic mushroom (foal reg. "dun")	Scapa Fireman chestnut	Jumbo of Bothen chestnut	Gletness Rocket chestnut Rosebell of Bothen chestnut
	Scapa Fireman chestnut	Scapa Flame chestnut	Scapa Reekie grey Scapa Roma black
	Bayhall Bubbles chestnut dun	Zorro of Berry very dark chestnut	Victor of Houlland skew Beryl of Berry chestnut
	Bayhall Bubbles chestnut dun	Kexie of Gott cream ches dun	Penmorfa Barnaby skewbald Susan of Gott cream ches dun

Notes: Victor of Houlland was a great grandson of Fireball of Marshwood. Penmorfa Barnaby traces to Helga of Houlland (Houlland page). Susan of Gott was a great granddaughter of Firedust of Marshwood - a full brother to Fireball of Marshwood.

Gardie Zara as a yearling

Gardie Rosebud (at 2 years old), dam of Zara.

Gardie Zara is "mushroom" & white. Her mother, Gardie Rosebud is an unusual shade of chestnut with heavy white roaning through her body & chestnut roaning through her blaze. Gardie Zara has three crosses of Gletness Rocket and two crosses of Gletness Rockall. in her pedigree, which also has several lines that trace to Houlland and South Park.

"Mushrooms" are being increasingly found in different countries. Vorden Buddleia, sire of the bay Adam v.d. Spuitjesdom, comes into many of them. Buddleia was out of Park View Betty Boo, registered as "cream chestnut", a mare by Thor of Houlland.

Gletness Rockall, a threequarter brother to Gletness Rocket, comes into more of the Swedish "mushrooms".

Kismet v. Bunswaard, a chestnut stallion, combines some of these lines I have mentioned in these pages. He is by Golden Fleece of Annandale (Avening bloodlines) x Kipper of Marshwood (Fireball of Marshwood x Kitten of Houlland).

The South Park Connection

When one looks at the pedigrees of these "mushrooms", they have a double cross of one pony, or a cross of 2 or more of the ponies, usually tracing to Houlland or Avening, both of which usually trace to South Park blood, more particularly to one mare, Café au Lait 886, a "dun & white" mare born in 1891 & purchased by Lady Estella Hope from Shetland as a filly. She was by Lodinn (dun) who was by Lord of the Isles. Lady Hope was a first class stockperson who knew her ponies very well & gave detailed descriptions when registering foals. Dun foals were given the base colour rather than being described as simply "dun". On a couple of occasions, she only described ponies as "dun" - with regard to Café au Lait ("dun & white") & this mare's great grandson, Cuckoo, who was described as "light dun". Could it be that she did not know how to describe these ponies that may have been "mushroom" duns?

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