Tales from the Body Box - The Tetrarch

If you spend any amount of time reading about horse colours, you're sure to have come across the more unusual spot markings by now. There's the dark Bend Or spots, named after the first famous thoroughbred who had them. Then there's tiny white Birdcatcher spots, named after a racehorse who didn't have them! And there's my favourite of the three - Tetrarch or Chubari spots, which either are named after the first famous racehorse to have them, or not, depending on which you call them - we seem to favour Tetrarch in Europe, and Chubari in the States.
The spots appear as slightly speckly or fuzzy oval patches of white in a greying dark coat, they vary in size, and number - some horses just have a couple, others are covered in a whole flurry of them. I've had the idea of wanting to include them in a grey paintjob for a long while, but recently got my hands on the new Stablemate walking thoroughbred mould, with it's long, lean, old-fashioned type, and was struck by an even better idea - rather than paint a modern horse with the spots that carry his name, why not paint The Tetrarch himself!

 

Because he pre-dates colour photography, my references were a selection of black & white photos (the clearest one shown above), and the colour paintings below, which don't quite agree but show him as a warmish hint-of-brown grey, so I adjusted my paint mix accordingly.

 

I picked a shade of grey somewhere between the two painted portraits, not quite so dark as the first or as pale as the second, and stuck with copying the photo for the placement of the spots - apart from those he just has a small white face marking.

What a difference the lighting makes! I think the first one shows his paintwork to the best advantage, but I liked the shadows in the second so I thought I may as well include it here too. I really ought to make a little two-sided 'stable' backdrop, so he could be photographed the same setting as he was painted. 

I'm now considering a few more mini Breyer portrait customs of famous racehorses from history; I've done a few current favourites while they're racing or shortly after retirement, but this is my first picked out of the huge back catalogue of greats from an earlier era. I just need a lot more of the new TB bodies before this plan can go anywhere!