What is
going on? If Ransom could speak, I knew that’s what he would have
asked as I tied him to the hitching post. Those bewildered eyes watched me hop
on the feed cart and drive dinner past him.
Ten minutes before, my plan was to ride and then feed at
six o’ clock like every other Wednesday night. Then Alana walked up to me with
a brilliant idea:
“There’s hardly anyone riding in the lesson tonight. Do
you want to join? Let me ask Charles if you can feed early.”
While I waited in limbo for an answer, I mounted and
walked a few laps around the arena. The beep of my phone brought good news: a
text that simply said “yes.”
So instead of riding, I was tying Ransom to the hitching
post to wait at the barn while I fed the other horses. I hurried through my
routine, sweeping up the loose hay with vigor. I finished the outside loop with
five minutes to spare before the lesson began. That didn’t leave much time to
prepare, mentally or physically. Hoping to squeeze in a quick warm-up, I put
Ransom on a circle at the lope. But I had barely started when Charles walked
through the gate, took one look at me, and launched into instruction.
“Push him up. More. MORE!” Ready or not, the work began.
We were flying – Ransom by a flurry of legs and me by the seat of my pants.
After we gave up the hot seat to someone else, Ransom
seemed happy to hang out with those watching from the far end. He sidled up to
Zone and sent flirtatious glances at Arya, Merideth’s sleek black hunter mare,
while I watched the others ride.
Afterwards, it was back to the hitching post to watch
dinner drive by for the second time that night, so I could finish feeding the
main barn. It was almost dark by the time I untacked and patient Ransom finally
started dinner. Well, the afternoon
didn’t go how I expected. It went
better.
One of the things I love about Ransom, and appaloosas in
general, is the fascinating variation in coat patterns. I’m a bit of a nerd
when it comes to genetics; that was one of my favorite classes in college. I
did my final project on lethal white syndrome in paint horses with overo
patterning. These days, I let others do the heavy science for me, and I just
read up on their research. My favorite blog on the subject is Lesli Kathman’s The Equine Tapestry. 
Ransom displays every classic Appaloosa characteristic:
mottled skin, striped hooves, a sparse mane and tail, and the white ring around
the eye known as the sclera. The gene
responsible for these, the leopard complex (lp), also modifies his base color
(bay) to produce a varnish roan coloring. Ransom is heterozygous for leopard
complex (one copy = spots), and the lp gene interacts with a major pattern gene
(PATN2) to create his blanket pattern. At least that's the abbreviated version. There are a host of other pattern genes
which alter the pattern in subtle ways, all to create one perfect phenotype.