There will be drops of milk at the ends of the teats that have hardened and it looks like wax almost. I guess it works as a plug until the baby is born. I'm not sure that all mares develope that, but our two did, previously and this year.
I didn't know about the sooty thing either till we talked about here in regards to Harley.
Last week when Celia was coming out she noticed the spots he gets on his rump that look appy. She asked me who that horse was:) When I told her Harley she was surprised. She seems to think he has some app breeding somewhere in him. I don't know if I mentioned last year that he not only has that large dark spot on his one shoulder, but he also has a smattering of dark spots over his rump. They showed up last year very pronounced in the spring, then faded to where you couldn't see them. He has them again this spring.
I looked at the picture of your palamino again, and his smuttyness is different that Harley's. Have you ever seen smuttyness that is more spots? Harley has been DNA tested according to his papers, could he still have app in him somewhere? Wish I could take a picture to show you, but it looks like app spots.
Becky