I'd been waiting to meet this last foal of the season for Chetar Arabians for many years.. The lovely Kaysand Kameeka joined the Chetar family way back when Azzaam was only a few months old, and was purchased with the sole view of being bred to Azzaam once he was of age. On the 5th March 2010 at 11pm, my long wait was finally over with the arrival of the second Purebred Arabian bred at Chetar Arabians. My hope was that we would be gifted with a chestnut or bay based foal that wouldn't grey out - Imagine my surprise when I saw this young lady in daylight for the first time! I realized quickly that all the white I was looking at was not foal cream but was in fact Maximum Rabicano! In addition she has inherited all of those prepotent characteristics - fine throat, hooky neck, huge shoulder, short back and length through the hindquarter - that Azzaam is consistently stamping all of his foals with. This young lady has also inherited her sires' cheeky, outgoing nature - So much so that she has been named "Chetar El Tayieshah" - The Arabic translation being 'The Mischevious Youngster'.. A name inherently suited to this gorgeous, playful rascal !
Tayieshah is a Flaxen Chestnut Maximum Rabicano in colouring. She was born with a fully fledged Skunk Tail [or coon tail] and intense white ticking with skin mottling throughout her flank, belly, chest, upper legs [forearm and gaskin], throatlatch, jaw, tail and dock. She also had faint rib barring and wither ticking
at birth, and mane, tail and leg frosting in addition! Most Rabicanos' are born with only the faintest of indications of the gene, with the certainty that they carry the Rabicano Gene coming when the foal coat is shed, as the gene [generally] develops and intensifies with age. The fact that Chetar El Tayieshah was born with all of the Rabicano Gene indicators for the Maximum to Extreme expressions - That usually aren't present until 6months of age even in the most intense of expressions - Is an indication of just how colourful this young lady will become as she matures. Tayieshah also possessed the very unusual marking of a large blaze in conjunction with no leg white at all - It is almost unheard of for extensive facial white to occur without any leg white whatsoever, and yet that is exactly what Tayieshah has! I knew from the first that Tayieshah was special, but even I didn't realize just how rare and unusual she really is 
when she was first born - It's taken a few months for her colour to partially develop enough to give some indication of the colours that Tayieshah will express once she has matured and for me to recognize just how truly special and unique she is!
Tayieshah's mane and tail colouring has gone from a blonde flaxen similar to her sire shortly after birth to silver with black hairs running through it at 9 months of age. The surrounding photos, taken at just over 9 months of age, show the last remnants of the blonde flaxen colouring she had as a baby. Just about all of the blonde flaxen hairs that Tayieshah had after her first foal coat shed have grown out completely, only to have replaced by a clear silver colour with enough black hairs highlighting the silver as to give the impression of being grey from a distance.
In addition to the strange development of a completely different mane and tail colour, Tayieshah's lower legs have also undergone a curious colour change. Her lower legs from mid forearm and gaskin down were white with black hooves at birth. The underlying skin was black, and the extensive white I put down to a combination of Rabicano Frosting along with the regular foal cream commonly present at birth. Over the months since her birth, Tayieshah's legs have slowly lost their original white colouring, as can be seen in the photo to the right, only to replaced with the same silver highlighted by black hairs that is now present throughout her mane and tail. The surrounding photos clearly show the abrupt change in colour 
from chestnut to silver highlighted by black at the fetlockand pastern. The silver with black highlights is only intensifying at the fetlock and pastern as Tayieshah gains more maturity- There are no chestnut hairs whatsoever within the silver w/black colouring of the lower legs either, which is a very strange development to say the least! Tayieshah was also born with black skin around the eyes and muzzle as apposed to the ususual 'pinkish' coloured skin that chestnut based horses are born with - I considered this to be an oddity that was due to Tayieshah's unusual colouring but didn't really consider it too big of a deal.
Tayieshah now also has fully black tipped ears as well.
Now, as a rule, Chestnut Based horses are genetically unable to produce black hairs. The receptor responsible for producing eumelanin, the black hair pigmentation, is blocked in Chestnut Based horses, therefore making it genetically impossible for Chestnut based horses to produce black hairs anywhere on the body. Since Tayieshah now has clearly black hairs at her points, its' impossible for her to be the Chestnut I originally thought her to be... And yet, she is clearly not outrightly Bay either! While she does indeed clearly have black hairs at her points, they are relatively very minimal when compared to the colouring of common Bays... And then there's the whole other aspect of the odd mane and tail colouring of Tayieshah, that also happens to apparently be genetically impossible for a Bay based horse to express without it carrying additional dilution genes. So... is Tayieshah a Chestnut or a Bay?... And how can her strange opposing attributes be accounted for under whichever catergory she happens to fit when they're reported to be genetically impossible? I have a good idea of what colour genes are at work here, and have already set in motion confirming this beyond any doubt. I won't mention my thoughts just yet as it is really a remote possibility and yet I cannot account for Tayieshah's colouring in any other way... Rest assured I will let everyone know the results of Tayieshah's testing as soon as I have her colour/s confirmed - In the mean time though, I would love to hear from anyone who would like to hazard a guess as to the colour genetics of this beautiful, unique filly!
by Amir El Shaklan by El Shaklan
From RDM Maar Hala by El Hilal