Cool Colours

Jags Fleeting RocketWhat defines the American Paint Horse? The awesome variety of flashy coat colours and patterns.

We begin with the most common pattern and an uncommon colour. Fleet (pictured left), is a red dun base colour with the tobiano pattern. This 2008 gelding is owned by the author and is her first official APHA.

Fleet's pattern is slightly unusual due to his very large blaze, which he gets from his sire, Jags Leo Rocket. Tobianos usually have smaller areas of white on their faces. Tobiano is defined by four white legs, a coloured head, coloured spot on the chest, coloured spot on the flank, and usually a coloured or dual-coloured tail. The size and shape of each horse's pattern is very individual and usually determined by genetics.

The red dun colour is indicated by the darker dorsal stripe and "red gold" shade of his coat. Without the characteristic dorsal stripe and often dark horizontal stripes on the backs of the knees and hocks, the red dun would be mistakable for sorrel or palomino.

Fleet gets his pattern, body type, and face from his sire. His base colour comes from his dam, who is a red dun minimal splash overo.

Sheza Mosey Kidd, pictured below, is a classic sorrel tobiano mare with an easily discernible coloured head, chest spot, flank spot, and four white legs.

   Sheza Mosey Kidd, owned by Nicole Potsic. This beautiful tobiano mare, "Char", is sadly deceased.

The other popular paint pattern is the "overo", which comes in a wide variety of genetic types and appearances. Overo can be broken down into two main sub-types: Frame, and Splash.

The frame overo is one of the flashiest patterns. Characterized by vibrant splashes of jagged-edge white, a coloured tail, and a large white blaze or white face, the frame overo pattern is also one of the risky ones. In it's homozygous form, the genetic disorder called "Lethal White Overo" will cause the death of any offspring at birth. The only cure is for breeders to get their stallion and mares tested for the genes, and avoid breeding two LWO-positive parents.

 A flashy buckskin frame overo gelding.

The second type of overo, splashed white, is very unique and cool to see. To quote the APHA, splashed white "makes the horse look like they were dipped in white paint." It can appear in a variety of forms and the amount of white often varies. The splash pattern is often seen in the Appaloosa and sometimes in Quarter Horses. The horse below is a good example of splashed white at its best.

A cool splashed white gelding!

Two other patterns that are commonly associated with overo are sabino and dominant white.

Sabino has been a source of controversy since it seems to have a multitude of expressions and regularly appears in several other breeds of horse, including the Quarter Horse. It is often confused with dominant white and can appear as loudly or as minimally as showing no characteristics at all. The sabino is characterized by oddly shaped white markings on the legs, face, and body, roaning and roany patches of white hair on the body, especially near the flanks, and sometimes belly spotting. The legs are usually white, but sabino horses can occasionally have a coloured leg and foot.

Jackson is a sabino APHA gelding.

Dominant white is seen in several other breeds, especially the Clydesdale and Miniature Horses and even Thoroughbreds. It is a bright, flashy and "speckled" sort of pattern that can sometimes resemble splashed white. Dominant white is often confused with sabino, and many sabino horses have now been genetically tested as dominant whites.

 They may or may not also have sabino. Sabino seems to overlay with many colours and other patterns, as does splashed white in its minimal form.

A dominant white Thoroughbred filly. Photo courtesy of the Equine Genetics Blog.

The APHA also offers registration to horses with at least one registered APHA parent and either a registered AQHA or registered Jockey Club (Thoroughbred) parent. Horses listed with the Solid Paint Registry are also called "Breeding Stock Paint", even if they are a gelding and cannot produce foals. Solid Paints may also be double-registered rarely, and receive many of the same benefits as patterned paints.

Lukas, pictured below, is a double-registered AQHA/APHA gelding. Lukas' sire was Luke At Me(AQHA), and his dam was Quit Staring (JC/APHA), a frame overo Thoroughbred mare from a line of rare frame overo Thoroughbreds. AQHA conveniently forgot that she is a flashy girl, and Lukas was given AQHA papers based on the "one AQHA parent and one JC parent" rule.

Quit Luking (Lukas) is a double-registered AQHA/APHA gelding, registered as Solid Paint in the APHA.

The only hints that Lukas may be more than he seems is the little bit of frosting over his right eye and his white sclera (third eyelid).

Most of these patterns appear in other breeds and in crossbred horses. But with its wide array of base colours, the American Paint Horse Association takes "a horse of many colours" to a whole new level!

Even the Wizard of Oz couldn't dream up horses like the APHA has to offer!

Comments

[misty]

Goodness, I love horses. These pictures are great. I especially love those beautiful midnight black arabians. Which is your favorite horse?