Appaloosa Horse

Origin: United States

Height: 14.2 - 15.2 hh. Not less than 14 hh.

Color: There are 6 basic patterns: frost, leopard, snowflake, marble, spotted blanket, and white blanket, thought many variations exist. The ost common group of olor is roan though Appaloosas may be of any color providded that their spots conform to an accpted pattern. Other colors are, however, very unusual, with this exception of the horse hhaving colored sposts on a white ground. Skin round the nostrils, lips, genitalis is mottled. White scier round eye. Hooves sometimes vertically striped.

Character: Tractable disposition combined with speed, stamina, hardinessand great endurance. Handy and quick on its feet.

Physique: Compact, large-boned, with short, straight back. Wispy maneand tail (called "rat-tailed" or "finger-tailed"). Hooves hard (striped hoovesclaimed by some Appaloosa-fanciers to be more resilient than ordinaryhooves).

The development of the Appaloosa is attributed to the Nez Perce Indians,who lived in the fertile north-western area of America now covered by thestates of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho watered by the Palouse river. Thename Appaloosa is a corruption of "Palouse horse" or "Palousy". In 1877, the Nez Perce were nearly wiped out in a 6-day battle with the US Army, and61 years later the horses they had bred were recognized as an official breed.Though still chiefly to be found in western areas of the United States, theAppaloosa has grown so much in national popularity that it ranks as one ofthe half-dozen biggest breeds in America. It is internationally admired for itsstriking appearance, and is much in demand overseas as a circus horse.

The precise origins of the Appaloosa are obscure, since horses with similarmarkings appear in ancient Chinese and Persian art and in much earlier caveart at Peche Merle. The claim that Appaloosas came to Nez Perce fromMexico through the agency of Cortes' importations from Spain in the 16thcentury is probably not far out, since all foundation American horses originate rom Spanish stock. It is possible that the forerunners of the medievalSpanish Appaloosa were bred in Central Asia (hence the paintings), butsere it begins to be necessary to distinguish between Appaloosa as a breedand Appaloosa as a COLOR: throughout the world there are ponies withAppaloosa coloring who bear no physical resemblance to the quality cow-pony type of the recognized American breed. Whether the coloring of theseNidely-varied types indicates a common heredity or simply a spontaneousluirk of evolution remains a mystery.