The appaloosa colored horse has a long history before it ever became an established breed in the United States. Although the Nez Perce from the Northwestern United States are credited with creating this wonderfully spotted breed, the original spotted stock came over to North America with the Spanish Conquistadors.

Cave paintings in Europe showed that the appaloosa marked horses have existed for thousands of years. This is also confirmed by paintings and drawings from 11th century China.

The Nez Perce and other Native American tribes began acquiring horses through trade with other tribes in the 1700's. For more information on how the acquisition of horses influenced the Native American tribes, check the link at the top to "The Influence of the Horse."

History of the Spotted Horse

Appaloosa History and Information

A Breed with a Colorful History

Frequently Asked Questions

How are Appaloosas different from Quarter Horses?

Well Appaloosas (the most foundation bred ones) are more like a Spanish mustang with color. These are the horses that descended from the Nez Perce herds and they definitely DO have a different conformation than the more modern Appaloosas. Some of the more foundation bred horses are also gaited and have what is termed the "Indian Shuffle" The current appaloosa horse club allows cross breeding between TB, QH and Arabians with the appaloosas. In many cases now days the horses are only less than 1/8th true appaloosa bloodlines.

I knew someone who had a solid Appaloosa. Can they still show in appaloosa classes?

There are quite a few Solid horses called "non-characteristic" That do NOT have any obvious appaloosa coloring or specific characteristics like the mottled skin, White Sclera, or stripped hooves on non white legs. However now we get in the genetic part.

It takes TWO separate genes Currently being called LP and PATN by appaloosa geneticists. The LP stands for the leopard complex and the PATN stands for the pattern of the white. A non-characteristic horse can be recessive for lp and still have a patn. But without the lp the characteristics cannot show up. When an lplpPATNPATN horse is bred to a characteristic horse it WILL produce a characteristic pattern on the foal. (Small letters indicates recessive CAPs indicates dominant)

The two color patterns that have been determined to be homozygous through multiple test breedings are the few spot leopard pattern and the Snowcap pattern. There is a group trying to isolate and get a testing for the genetics to prove their homozygous theory. For more information on this group and appaloosa genetics you can visit the following website.

The Appaloosa Project

YES a solid colored appaloosa can still show but that is dependant on the actual registry it is registered with. There are quite a few different registries at the moment so it depends on the association, but the ApHC does allow it.

What are the other color classifications?

I personally like the leopard pattern, the pattern I dislike the most is the varnish roan. That is because the roan is similar to a gray gene where the pattern gets "Washed" out by the roaning process. It IS different that the gray gene because there are certain places where the markings DO NOT roan out or wash away.

Anyway the other patterns include blanket with spots; snow cap (blanket with no spots in side the blanket); blanket with roan; snow flake; few spot, usually a nearly white horse with minimal spots; leopard, white with the base coat spots all over; and Frosting.

It is interesting to discover that Appaloosas these days retain such a small percentage of true blood. Is there a push to regain the authenticity of the breed, or is it really too late?

There are a couple of registries the ICAA and the FAHR that are ONLY registering appaloosa-to-appaloosa bloodlines while the ApHC is allowing the out crossing to Thoroughbreds, Quarter Horses and Arabians. The Colorado Ranger Horse association is registering ONLY horses with particular bloodlines. The ApHC does have a foundation-bred program to help promote more appaloosa-to-appaloosa breeding. But it is not a strict as the other two registries. The biggest problem is that WAY back when the government took away the horses from the Nez Perce they killed a great deal of them and then scattered most of the rest. Then they brought in remount stallions to " upgrade" the breed. The registries did not start until much later and by then many of the original horses from the old Nez Perce herds were no longer available for breeding.