Diary of Dexter: Wet Paint

Diary of Dexter is a series within Past the Grandstand about my retired racehorse, Wet Paint (AKA Dexter). Periodically, the blog will feature updates on the grandson of Storm Cat. You will really grow to love this wonderful horse.

Photo by Mary Cage

Nearly every time I tell someone Dexter’s registered name, they chuckle. And almost every time someone sees him for the first time, they say something like: “Look at all that white!” or “Oh, that’s why he’s called Wet Paint.” I even get the question: “Is he a Paint?”

No, he’s not an American Paint Horse like three of my other horses are. He’s a Thoroughbred grandson of Storm Cat, who at one time stood for $500,000. With Chelsey Cat as his sire, a Lost Code mare named Little Betty Blue as his dam, and no horse in his pedigree that would hint at a name like Wet Paint, there is only one explanation for how Dexter got his registered name: his markings.

Photo by Mary Cage

His face is characterized by a wide white blaze and a splotch of roany hairs above one of his eyes. On each of his front legs are two white stockings that reach his knees, making jagged white edges where they stop. His right hind leg is marked with a low sock and on his left hind leg is one of his most identifiable markings: a big white diamond on the front of his hock.

Dexter would probably want me to point out that his name is nowhere near as funny as his neighbor’s name, Tommie Sue. My beloved twenty-seven-year-old Quarter Horse mare is registered under the name Sheza Ripe Tomato. While Tommie Sue does not resemble a tomato at all, Dexter looks like he’s been splattered with white paint, hence the name Wet Paint.

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