Angora Color and Wool Length, Part 3: Chocolate Agouti to Ring or not to Ring



This is a beautiful chocolate agouti colored ring pattern...  (Ring Pattern is an alternative term for Agouti Band) 

... that belongs to the 3-month-old chocolate agouti junior buck.  (Up to the 1995 SOP, chocolate agouti is also called cinnamon.)  

 

This is also a beautiful ring pattern in the chocolate agouti, it's more orange than the first one.



Here is the baby chocolate agouti French Angora doe that possesses the ring pattern shown above.



Though they are both chocolate agouti, their colors are not exactly the same as there are modifiers that give the appearance more orange or more gray.



This is the wool comparison from the back.

These juniors both have excellent ring pattern, they are three months old when these photos were taken. Their wool is beautiful but way too young and too short and not dense enough to be competitive on the show table.  





Here is their daddy Freddie who has won all breed Best In Show, all breed Reserve In Show and so far 32 legs of which 16 BOBs,  but what about his ring pattern?



With tremendous length and density and being totally competitive on the show table, the chance of Freddie having the kind of clear ring pattern as a junior is impossible.   There are still color differentials on the wool but it's not as definitive bands as any of the juniors.  Why?   Let's try the rubber band demo again...

I put some purple stain onto the salmon rubber band.   In its non-stretched state, the stain is clearly visible.

Same rubber band, same stain and same dimension photo, when I stretch it out, the color of the rubber band lightens, and the stain is still there but it blends into the salmon color.    Once again, this is an analogy of wool growth, I am not suggesting that the wool is being stretched.  


The agouti patterned Angora do have bands, how good it is genetically, check it when it's a junior.   If you wish to have a show coat with length and density, you will have to accept the ring pattern being elongated and blended in.  






Two months after Freddie was cut down and starts to grow another coat, the ring pattern re-appeared.   His wool is only about 3 inches long but with nice chocolate agouti ring; however, the chance of doing well in shows is very limited.   By the time he is ready to rock the show circuit again, the bands will be elongated to a point of hard to tell the definitive ring pattern.    The visibility of the agouti ring pattern definitely has a lot to do with the length of the wool.