Some Curlys are what is known in Curly circles as "extremes" and what this means is that the horse usually has a very curly winter coat and it will shed most if not all of its mane and tail in the summer. Usually the mane and tail will grow back at least somewhat over the winter only to shed out again in the spring. This type of shedding is actually common among Curly horses, but extremes do it to…well, to the extreme!


There are both benefits and downsides to this trait – the downside is that they can be more bothered by flies and such in the summer and also the look is fairly unusual. In our case, I do not mind the unusual look as it clearly sets my stallion apart from regular horses and most agree that he is handsome enough to get away with it!


Another of the popular beliefs is that these extreme Curly horses are thought to have a double dominant Curly gene, which means that they will throw a curly coat on every offspring that they parent, this is also referred to as being homozygous for curls. This is not a proven fact at this time, but it is believed by many of the old-time Curly breeders.


To date our *Sandman has sired well over 30 foals, many from non-curly mares - all of them have been curly coated and so far only a few of them look to be "extremes" like him. Two are out of the same Curly/Appaloosa mare and both foals are Appaloosas so this may be a trait in part from the Appaloosa heritage.

Since many of these foals are from non-curly mares, statistically speaking it appears that *Sandman is in fact homozygous for curls. This means that you can "custom make your Curly" using your best mare, either Curly bred or not and you have a very high probability to get a Curly foal. If *Sandman is bred to a non-curly bred mare there is a very high probability for full manes and tails and this has proven to be true so far in all our foal crops to date:

click here to see his 2003 progeny
click here to see his 2004 progeny
click here to see his 2005 progeny
click here to see his 2006 progeny
click here to see his 2007 progeny
click here to see his 2008 progeny

So, this extreme trait is not necessarily passed along and although some people actually prefer these extreme traits we recognize that this is not usually the case and so we choose mares with good, full manes and tails for crossing with *Sandman, thereby planning for quality offspring with good curls, full manes and tails and of course "extremely" good conformation, movement and temperaments!

When people ask me about his lack of tail I simply explain the aforementioned and then let them know that *Sandman is like a handsome bald man that can get away with it due to his extreme good looks…..think Bruce Willis – LOL.