When Merry Yellow Rose was foaled on August 28th of 1958, I doubt her breeder knew that she'd one day be the center of a controversy regarding the origins of her cream gene. Her actual breeder is unlisted in TWHBEA's ipeds, but her ownership history is as follows: On 6/10/1967 she was transferred to the Estate of James F. Clark at 2511 Cranford Road, Arab, Alabama. On 7/31/1979 she was transferred to Andrew B. Barker of Arab, Alabama.

Merry Yellow Rose is best known as the dam of the well known palomino stallion, The Gold Rush is On. She is also the source of one of the color lines for Blue Gold, through his dam Big Star's Gold Lady and her dam Hero Merry Rose - daughter of Merry Yellow Rose registered as "chestnut." If she truly were chestnut, she couldn't have passed a cream gene. HOWEVER, many very dark (usually sooty) palominos appear to be chestnut at birth. (Take Jetstar's Sunrider, for example. Even as an adult, this genetically sooty palomino appeared the be a flaxen chestnut.) The other possibility is that she could have been a lighter colored smokey black or sooty buckskin, which can be mistaken for black or dark chestnut. Now, assuming that Hero Merry Rose did carry a cream gene inherited from Merry Yellow Rose, let's explore how this could've happened:

1. An Honest Mistake.
Despite everybody's best efforts, accidents do happen. I've known many people surprised by the fertitility of a young colt...and when Merry Yellow Rose was foaled there would've been no way to test her parentage even if her breeders had knowledge of color genetics.

2. Misidentified Colors.
As I said above, sometimes a sooty palomino or a smokey black can be misidentified as a chestnut. This could have been the case with Merry Gypsy Rose. The one photo I've ever seen of her (at right) shows a darker colored mare who is clearly sabino. The base color could be liver chestnut, sooty palomino (though I'd have expect more lighter colored mane and tail), sooty buckskin or smokey black. I can't say for sure. She was by Merry Boy, a black sabino...so she could have been black based. Given her producing a bay out of Merry Go Boy though, I'd hay to say she carried an agouti gene. In that case, she couldn't be smokey black. She'd have had to have been a sooty buckskin if she were black based and carried a cream gene (like Darrah's Cappucinno Girl). With no DNA samples available to test, we may never know.

3. Fraud.
Actual registration fraud did exist. Stallion owners seeking to promote their studs would lay claim to successful show prospects. Even to this day, I have personally met several "unregistered" but full blooded TWH geldings whose papers were pulled because they weren't going to make show horses and the stallion owner wanted to keep a reputation of producing more show horses. When spotted horses because popular in the 1980's, some suspiciously squre moving tobianos showed up in the breed to two solid parents...but it wasn't always about color! There are just as many bay, black and chestnuts who aren't who they are supposed to be.

We may never know the real story behind this mare and her mysterious color. While her presence in a pedigree excludes all of her desendants from International Heritage Walking Horse registration, we can still be sure that she regardless of her true parentage, this mare produced excellent foals who went on to shape the walking horse breed, typically in the western walking horses. Her daughter, Hero Merry Rose produced Big Star's Gold Lady, dam of Blue Gold who founded the Arrow's Walkers breeding program in Colorado. That line is renowned for producing smart, 4 beat gaited deep golden horses who excel in all walks of life. Blue Gold produced Golden Gambler, who founded the Westwood Farms breeding program in Virginia. Merry Yellow Rose also produced the palomino stallion, The Gold Rush Is On, who was owned and loved by Mary Ellen Areaux of Walkers West in Texas.

I reached out to her owner, Andrew Barker, via LinkedIn and he confirmed to me personally that she was indeed a palomino and that she passed away at the age of 36.

MERRY YELLOW ROSE TWHBEA #590180 DOB: 8/28/1958 DOD: Y COLOR: PALOMINO SABINO MARKINGS: FOUR STOCKINGS, BALD, WHITE MANE & TAIL.	MERRY GO BOY TWHBEA #431336 COLOR: BLACK MARKINGS: NEAR HIND SOCK.	MERRY BOY TWHBEA #350189 COLOR: BLACK SABINO	ROAN ALLEN TWHBEA #F-38 COLOR: CHESTNUT SABINO HEIGHT: 15.3H
			MERRY LEGS TWHBEA #F-4 COLOR: BAY SABINO
		WISER'S DIMPLES TWHBEA #370096 COLOR: CHESTNUT MARKINGS: OFF HIND FETLOCK, STAR, SNIP.	GIOVANNI TWHBEA #370291 COLOR: BLACK
			WISER'S MINNIE TWHBEA #400597 COLOR: CHESTNUT MARKINGS: OFF HIND AND FORE FETLOCKS, STAR.
	MERRY GYPSY ROSE TWHBEA #420902 COLOR: CHESTNUT? (SABINO) MARKINGS: BOTH HIND AND OFF FORE STOCKINGS, NEAR FORE CORONET, BALD, FLAX MANE AND TAIL.	MERRY BOY TWHBEA #350189 COLOR: BLACK SABINO	ROAN ALLEN TWHBEA #F-38 COLOR: CHESTNUT SABINO HEIGHT: 15.3H
			MERRY LEGS TWHBEA #F-4 COLOR: BAY SABINO
		GOLDEN GLOWE S. TWHBEA #431978 COLOR: CHESTNUT MARKINGS:	BON GALANT TWHBEA #11745 (THOROUGHBRED)
			CHESTNUT MARE TWHBEA #12219 COLOR: CHESTNUT

OFFSPRING

TWHBEA	NAME	COLOR	SEX	DOB	SIRE
622111	MERRY GOLD MAN	CHESTNUT	S	4/09/1962	PLUCK'S PRIDE
633294	GYPSY ROSE THE 3RD	CHESTNUT	M	5/04/1963	SHADOW'S SMOKEY JOE
643112	GIPSY ROSE'S ANGEL		M	1/01/1964	GO BOY'S FLYING CLOUD
651374	THE CHMN. OF THE BOARD	BLACK	G	7/31/1965	SPIRIT OF MIDNIGHT
685589	HERO GREAT SON	BAY	S	9/10/1968	SUN'S HERO
694854	HERO MERRY ROSE  - dam of BIG STAR'S GOLD LADY	CHESTNUT	M	8/23/1969	SUN'S HERO
704396	WISER'S GYPSY C.	YELLOW	S	7/15/1970	SUN'S G. T. O.
745806	SUNS YELLOW ROSE	BAY	M	11/10/1974	SUN'S LAST CHANCE J.T.N.
766232	SUN'S GYPSY BOY	BLACK	S	3/16/1976	SUN'S LAST CHANCE J.T.N.
796227	PRIDE'S CHIEF EXEC.	CHESTNUT	S	10/15/1979	PRIDES RED RAIDER E
810190	THE GOLD RUSH IS ON	PALOMINO	S	3/13/1981	SUNNY MIDNIGHT P.
820058	PAC MAN	BLACK	M	3/24/1982	SUNNY MIDNIGHT P.

Westwood Farms - Locust Dale, Virginia 22948 - stephanie@westwoodfarms.net - 540-825-1300