VP at the PA Horse Expo 2012

Ok, so this is about a month overdue.  But last month Heather and I went to the PA Horse Expo.  And we found out what happened to that horse from Family Guy.

Plush blanket-a-fications!

It's a blanket (for people and not ponies) that conveniently zips up into a horse head.  We assume this is supposed to be given as a gift to an unsuspecting recipient under their bed covers while they are sleeping. 

It also comes in bay.  And its soulless eyes follow you.

Speaking of dismembered fictional horses.  (Ok, that was an awful segue and I apologize.)  We got to see Tommie Turvey's red roan mustang stunt horse Blade.

 A.K.A the cute horse that got eaten by zombies in The Walking Dead.

Personal confession, I cried when Blade got devoured by a hoard of shambling undead.  It got to me, because in real life I hold a red roan near and dear to my heart.  It's kind of the same reaction I get when I watch that one episode of Futurama with Seymour the dog.  Because he looks like my Border Terrier.

Walking Dead is show so I know it's all fake.  They couldn't actually film a horse actually being eaten by those infected with the Z virus for the sake of entertainment (ASPCA has standards y'know). Since then I have met several other people who either ride or own red roans who also watch Walking Dead.  And all of them had the same reaction.  Those who lacked a red roan heart horse did not.  There is a psychological study in there somewhere...

Anyways.

We also got to see booths, Breyers, orange tack (Heather has a thing for orange tack, and I mean orange orange tack).  Something we noticed is that a good number of the booths had those animatronic life-sized shetland pony toys.  Hey it works though.  People come in to check them out, they model products, no clean up, and parents trick their small children into thinking they pet a real pony without fear of them losing any fingers.  

We all know real ponies eat children's fingers to gain their power.

There was a real horse who painted pictures with paint and a brush while sporting a tiny little blue barrette.

Micro fashion.  He has, how you say?  The MAGICS! 

We also got to meet this one leopard tiger horse with crazy mismarks in his pattern.  I've only ever seen pictures of him in Google image search so I kinda, maybe, sorta, geeked out over his somatic mutation.  I apologize to the lady at his stall for my geekout.  Your horse's color is really really cool.

And we also found out that Odd Job Bob, Tommie Turvey's gypsy cob, (hey that rhymes) was in a movie.  In a car.  And all we can think now is.  Eventually, for better or worse, we're going to have to review this...

...

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Thanks to the very nice and people from Champion Saddlery for being understanding of the weird need to blog about the horse blanket in their booth.  

(No one pays me to link to them in my blog.  Check them out they were nice. :)

And a huge thanks to Heather for taking pictures because I always forget to bring a camera.

EDIT:  Ok change that to blame Heather now.  She told me I had to put a picture of myself on this blog somewhere, and she lovingly edited it for me so I would post it.  Here ya go!

Update on Lack of Update

Hi again!  So the first video of the War Horse Play Retrospective is complete and on YouTube.  And it kinda has been complete and on YouTube for awhile.

It's missing piece, the second part, is still in production, but with some hope, will be done possibly later this week.  Premeire Pro worked very well for the first video and like many Adobe programs, decided to not be so consistent the next time around.  Plus some things going on in my life like teaching a Chainmaille and Metal Weaving class at my alma mater have taken over more of my free time.

Also, UC Davis just released a test for Splash.  Commence the equine genetics enthusiast enthusiastic freak-out!

Test them...

To learn more about the Splash pattern and the sheer awesomeness of there being a test, with not 1 but 3 mutations isolated, check out Equine Tapestry by Lesli Kathman and Equine Genetics at blogspot by Riddle Me This.

More Sims 3 Pets Demo and Youtube Roundup!

Ok, I'm just going to stop planning what I'm posting. Otherwise it's going to make me a liar when I end up posting something completely different. XD

Without further delay the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Sim ponies! Had to do a bit of tweaking with the markings options, but for what was available I'm glad I could get them this close. Controlling precise marking locations in the pet maker is a sketchy and hard to control when the markings get tiny. I'm thinking it will only be a matter of time before the MLP fan masses create Sim modifications to make horses exactly like the cartoon.

Rainbow Dash

Applejack


Pinkie Pie

Twilight Sparkle

Rarity


Fluttershy


Dr. Whooves!

I also fiddled around with the breeding options in the demo. If you're looking for genetic accuracy don't look here. It uses the blending inheritance theory. A long disproven belief held in the 19th century that offspring are a resulting mishmash of mom and dad. Dominants and recessives be darned!

Behold, a puggle.

It's totally understandable that this game would use this method of making offspring. You can make completely unrealistic colors and markings. What would the inheritance of a lightning-rainbow-cloud marking be anyway? And the color purple. Is it recessive, or the result of the blue modifier working on a red-based coat? Are teal and green eye color co-dominant?

Confused yet? Yah, accurate genetics would fail in this uber-customizable setting.

That said I performed something blasphemous and attempted a breeding between Rainbow Dash and Dr. Whooves. It illustrates the game mechanics of inheritance fairly well. The first offspring looked like a pretty even split of both parents, while the second looked exactly like rainbow Dash but inherited the Dr.'s eyes. So the degree of how mixed the offspring become varies.




Sims 3 Pets also has had a whole bunch of commercials for it recently. Some of them are exclusive only to the internet. Do you know Randall? You might. Because honey badger don't care. (Language warning. Not that you guys who still watched the Equus Retrospective after being warned will care anyway).

The Sims got Randall to do a commercial for them explaining all the animals you can get by pre-ordering S3P. Sadly, no unique pre-order horse designs. Sigh. I wanted a robo pony.




Also how cute is this commercial tribute to the Old Spice guy for Dreamwork's Puss in Boots movie?




Also...



Cowboys and Equestrians
We have come full circle.

My Little Realistically Colored Ponies

Ok, another MLP post. I've been doing some work on the eventual My Little Pony Friendship is Magic episode between the Riding Star work.

The infamous Riding Star episode is making progress although slowly. Windows Movie Maker Live sucks. Just throwing it out there. They reduced the program to a slide show maker with almost no options for further customization or editing. However, Windows Movie Maker the older version before Live, is nowhere near as frustrating to work with. I'm an Adobe Flash person, so WMM has a learning curve. With luck I might have the review done by next week's post. YAY!

Back to My Little Pony FIS. I've been watching the show, taking notes, making the Mo puppets, researching bronie culture... So dangitt I have MLP on the brain.

Also Kelpie and DemonicSymphony have gotten me to thinking about real life MLP colors. I affectionately blame you both this week.

So here is a personal take on possible coloration of the FIM ponies. WARNING: The following contains a horse genetics geek-out. I apologize if I sound like a raving lunatic who makes no sense. We sadly do not provide glowsticks for the rave.

Twilight Sparkle

Seal Brown Roan - E( ), At( ), Rn( )
Her body is lighter than her mane and tail, and she has too much warm in her tone to be a blue roan, but not enough to be a bay roan so seal brown is a happy medium. Even, Dr. Sponenburg a horse color genetics researcher calls Seal Brown with Roan 'Purple Corn'. (Please, Dr. Sponenburg. The names! The silly phenotype names!) Speaking of silly...

Pinky Pie

Chestnut Roan with minimal Frame or Splash - ee, Rn( ) with ON or SplN
Chestnut roans are pink. XD Frame and Splash can cause blue eyes and in minimal form don't always leave white markings.

Rarity

Grey with dark mane and tail, minimal Splash or Frame - E( ), A( ), G( ), with ON or SplN
Rarity is mostly white with a purple mane and tail. So a dilution for her wouldn't work since none of them would allow a body that pale with a mane and tail that dark. So she could be a grey with a black mane and tail that have yet to follow the rest of the body. A bay base would more easily allow the body to get lighter first because of the red pigment which often grays faster. And for the blue eyes she could have minimal Frame or Splash. Poor fashionista would get gray hair soon at this phase of grey progression.

Applejack

Gold Champagne - ee, Ch( )
I have to go with Kelpie on this. Flaxen sorrel was probably the color intended for her as DemonicSymphony stated. The light mane and tail, golden body and green eyes would all fit perfectly for a Gold Champagne (Chestnut + Champagne Dilute) As an added bonus the Champagne dilute exists in stock horses like this western gal.

Fluttershy

Perlino - E( ), A( ), CrN
Fluttershy had me wondering for awhile. Her mane is too dark for a palomino even though she is a pale yellow elsewhere. Her light colored eyes made me realize that Perlino would be a good possibility for her. 2 cream genes on a bay can create a light cream toned body and almost rust colored mane and tail. It also makes those light colored eyes. I guess you could also get a palomino with pinto blues and dye the hair pink. Someone has to do that for a costume class. :P

Rainbow Dash

No clue... ??, ??, ??
Nope, no idea. If you leave a blue roan under a rainbow you might get that color for awhile. Then again, she could be the mount of the Native American Thunder Spirit (pictured above) who has a rainbow for it's tail. It is strangely fitting since she can control rain clouds...

If you guys have your own theories share 'em. Speculate the madness!

Color Genetics Simulator by Jennifer Hoffman

As some of you may know, I am an equine color genetics geek. Hardcore. How genetics influence an animal's appearance and health is fascinating to me. I have old books from my mother's days in college studying pre-vet courses that I grew up reading as a kid. It is my addictive hobby that does not have a 12 step program.

So some of you may have come across a color simulator that had a 3D horse with buttons for each gene at a particular locus. The color would change on the model depending on what genes were activated. It was a bit outdated with its genetic accuracy but it was still fun to play. And I have to give kudos for it having a 3D horse with texture maps applied to it.

The only things I really ever successfully made in 3D were a coffee cup and toaster. I attempted my own horse color simulators twice. One in PowerPoint and the other in HTML for college projects, but neither were spectacular by any means. And for me coding is not a forte. So this simulator has a whole lot of respect from me.

Well, recently it's creator Jennifer Hoffman has given it a complete revamp with more colors, a 2D horse for the examples and she has been updating the genetics to be more accurate. There are all 4 options at the agouti locus, LP and PATN1 interact as partial dominants, gray actually grays out, and you can only have 2 KIT mutations at a time. I know most of you probably have no clue what I'm on about but it's really neat I assure you.

Click for the Color Genetics Simulator

Jennifer joined Horse Grooming Supplies Forum after seeing a critique of her simulator and asked the color gurus for help in making everything more accurate. Myself and the other equine color genetics enthusiasts on HGS got to help contribute information on how the genes and colors interact with each other. I asked Jennifer if I could feature her here on this blog which she agreed to.Give us a quick run down of who you are and how you got involved in horses.
My name is Jennifer Hoffman.
I'm a 3D tech artist/animator by trade (I do animation and the systems set-up it requires for 3D media). I had a horse crazy spell in middle school when I knew a few people who had horses and I could go riding with. And while it sort of tapered off when it became clear that I would never own a real horse myself, it seems like once you taste the horse frenzy, it never truly leaves you. One of my other hobbies / off and on fascinations is genetics, so its no surprise that horse genetics is something I think about from time to time.

How did you come up with the idea for the color simulator?In 2007 the game studio I worked at shut down, and in my period of joblessness that followed I played with the idea of doing web design instead. That was when I started to work on the original color simulator. I had been playing with fantasy genetics sims online and was disappointed in their lack of depth, but before I could build up the courage to invent my own genetic schemes, I thought I should tackle a project with real genetics first. That became the horse color simulator. I did eventually go on to make my fantasy genetics sim, which is a griffins virtual pet game.

What programs and methods were used to create the color simulator?
I'm sort of old fashioned with my web work, so the horse simulator was made in HTML, CSS, and vanilla Javascript by means of a text editor. The original simulator used a horse model I had made for the game studio that closed its doors, which I had extensively re-textured to cover all the variation I needed. In my revamping I switched to painted graphics so I could have more control over the subtle color changes.

What has been the hardest part of creating this project?
The hardest part of the project was, and probably still is, accounting for all of the ifs, ands, and buts with regards to genetic interactions. Finding good information on just how all of the different moving parts mesh together is tricky, and its also rather tedious to make all of the minor but important changes to the various graphics. A thing like palomino vs dunalino is subtle, but if you don't include it the genetics just aren't very solid. The duns and silvers in particular probably doubled the number of graphics files I had to make.

What is/are your favorite horse color(s)/pattern(s)?
My personal favorite colors are any variety of gray (not the gray gene in particular), and I usually gravitate towards grullo. I have a friend with a really lovely Peruvian horse which I think is a dark-maned black silver. He's got a lovely chocolate coat with a slightly more caramel colored mane and some really striking eyes. I've been leaning more towards that lately as a result, but I'll probably eventually wind up back at gray.

Who is your favorite fictional horse? (mythological/literary/movie/video game ect.)
My favorite fictional horses are actually not named characters, though they really stole my heart. They're the horses from the video game Assassin's Creed. I saw a joke once about the girlfriend who stole "Assassin's Ponies" from her boyfriend, and I think it probably applies to me. Don't get me wrong, I love the game overall, but I spent way more time than you're supposed to just riding around on their horses. It's got some of the best controls I've ever seen for horse riding in a game, including the games that are supposed to be completely about horse riding. I adore the almost imperceptible delay between when you give a command and when the horse obeys. It doesn't do exactly what you ask every time, but the result is a smoother ride where some of the idiotic button presses you make get ignored.

I have a website where I showcase my professional work, mostly consisting of animated shorts or animation-related stills: www.jenniferhoffman.net

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Check out her stuff it's really neat. The moving horse animation she has done is adorable. Equine game developers take note.