Appaloosa Horse Club
2720 West Pullman Road
Moscow, Idaho 83843
www.appaloosa.com
International Colored Appaloosa Association, Inc.
P.O. Box 99
Shipshewana, Indiana 46565
www.icaainc.com
Wherever there are horses, chances are there is an Appaloosa among them. That is because the word is out about this beautiful horse. Not only are Appaloosas different from every other breed, but each one is also different from any other within the breed. It is the handprint of color—what Appaloosa enthusiasts call “the chrome”—that is an intricate part of the breed’s mystique. People who own Appaloosas appreciate the difference.
The Appaloosa’s distinctive color patterns make it the easiest horse to identify, setting it apart from all others. Its patterns come in an infinite variety—from no spots at all, to more spots than can be counted. Some Appaloosas look as if they have fresh-fallen snow over their backs, loins, and hips. Some Appaloosas are described as “leopards,” with Dalmatian-like spots, while others are Appaloosa roans. This is one of the exciting aspects of the Appaloosa: its enormous range of coat colors and patterns. Any number of spotting combinations is possible. The variety and unpredictability is especially intriguing to breeders.
Appaloosa stud horse. Marybeth Nemec
There is even more to the Appaloosa than meets the eye. Breeders have worked hard to preserve the Appaloosa’s other special characteristics as well. By selecting for top performance and conformation traits, they have developed a truly extraordinary horse. The Appaloosa has proven his remarkable talents repeatedly by competing in the upper echelons of virtually every sport imaginable—from cutting or reining to racing. While the Appaloosa more than lives up to the athletic demands of today’s serious competitions, no other breed can duplicate the quality and characteristics that make the Appaloosa unique. It is the horse Nature destined to be different.
History
The Appaloosa has a bold and colorful heritage, originating some 20,000 years ago. Its coat pattern has fascinated humans since the first hunters recorded its spotted image on their cave walls in what is now France. The peoples of Europe and Asia coveted spotted mounts. Wars were fought with them and over them. They were often presented as gifts of status to the highest rulers, were worshiped in Asia, and were prized mounts of Spanish explorers, Native Americans, and western settlers. Their colorful appearance and unique qualities earned them special recognition. Legends abound about the power, tragedy, and courage of spotted horses, from Persia’s Rustam and his spotted mount Rukush to the “blood-sweating” horses (spotted horses) of China and the ghostwind stallion story told by Native American elders.
Though their ancestry can be traced back to earliest recorded time, it is in the melting pot that is America where these spotted horses have established themselves as a true breed. The Nez Perce Indians of the inland northwest deserve much of the credit for the Appaloosa horses of today. With their help, the true beginnings of the Appaloosa as a distinct breed began. The Nez Perce were the only Native Americans known to breed their horses selectively. They were renowned horsemen, and were documented to have had several thousand head of fleet, well-formed horses, with over half estimated to be Appaloosa spotted. Their herds were developed using their own superior breeding methods and the results were compared by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to the finest Colonial horses in Virginia.
Up until the association with the Nez Perce, the spotted horses went by various names. Although the Nez Perce never called their horses “Appaloosas,” the name indicates the Palouse region in eastern Washington and northern Idaho where the horses were known to be plentiful. White settlers first described the colorful mounts as “a Palouse horse,” which was soon slurred to “A Palousey.” The term “Appaloosa” is thought to have been a product of this phrase.
The Nez Perce desired only the strongest, fastest, and most surefooted of mounts and used only the best horses to build their herds. Within their numbers arose a population of horses so distinctive, they inspired early American explorer Meriwether Lewis to describe them in his journal entry, dated February 15, 1806: “Their horses appear to be of an excellent race; they are lofty, elegant formed, active and durable. Some of those horses are pided [sic] with large spots of white irregularly scattered and intermixed with black, brown, bey [sic] or some other dark color . . .”
However, the influx of white settlers to the northwest changed the Nez Perces’ destiny and nearly destroyed the legacy of their horse-breeding efforts. When they rebelled against the treaties being imposed upon them, the Nez Perce War of 1877 ensued and they were driven from their homeland by the U.S. Army. The Appaloosa helped them elude the U.S. Cavalry for several months as they traversed more than 1,300 miles of rugged mountain terrain. When Chief Joseph finally surrendered in Montana, the Nez Perce were forced to relinquish their horses. The army quickly disbanded the Indians and their fine horses were dispersed far and wide to soldiers, farmers, army Indian scouts, and even circuses. In their jealous embarrassment over being outsmarted and eluded for so long, the army also ordered many of the Nez Perce horses to be destroyed.
Soon the characteristics so prized by the Indians were being lost or severely diluted due to indiscriminate breeding, and the Appaloosa breed nearly disappeared. Some that escaped the army or were left behind in the Nez Perce homelands joined the herds of wild horses that roamed the plains. There were also non-treaty Nez Perce people from related tribes who quietly kept on breeding their treasured horses in small communities throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Horse breeders started gathering what they could of the fast-disappearing spotted horses. They began the arduous task of preserving and recreating the animal that had taken the Nez Perce hundreds of years to refine, yet took the army only a few decades to almost wipe out by scattering them to the corners of the country. Breeders used the remnant Appaloosa stock that was bred to each other, and sometimes brought in Arabian blood where necessary and possible to refine and return the Appaloosa to its former glory.
Appaloosa Horse Club
It was Claude Thompson, a wheat farmer from Moro, Oregon, who realized the importance of preserving the spotted-horse breed. He established the Appaloosa Horse Club in 1938 to promote and restore the Appaloosa’s position in the horse world. In so doing, the colorful breed began its return from the brink of obscurity. Appaloosa was the name officially adopted when the Appaloosa Horse Club (ApHC) was founded.
Those early years were a period of slow growth for the fledgling registry, as the country was immersed in World War II. After the war ended, however, the registry’s growth ascended quickly. In 1947, Thompson appointed 23-year-old George Hatley as executive secretary. Hatley took the shoebox containing the ApHC’s records to Moscow, Idaho; there were two hundred registered horses and one hundred ApHC members. The registry quickly outgrew its shoebox.
Today, the ApHC is a major internationally recognized official breed registry. Well over a half million Appaloosas have been entered into the rolls. It sponsors annual National and World Shows and more than one hundred regional clubs. With 16 percent of registrations stemming from the international market, ApHC recognizes sixteen international affiliates.
The Active Appaloosa
The Appaloosa’s color, versatility, willing temperament, and athletic ability make it a popular choice for a number of activities. ApHC classes include roping, jumping, gymkhana events, halter, saddle seat pleasure, and heritage. Many riders have found that Appaloosas have the toughness, resilience, heart, and stamina to travel 25, 50, and even 100 miles in a single day, making them an excellent choice for endurance and competitive riding.
Appaloosas can also race. Fierce competition within the Appaloosa racing industry have produced some of the fastest horses in the world. The breed is recognized as the “middle-distance runner,” competing at distances from 220 yards to 8 furlongs. Appaloosa athletes continue to set and break all-breed speed records. Annually more than 450 Appaloosa races pay in excess of $2 million in prize money.
Owners have the luxury of breeding for specific conformation and performance traits—whether selecting for an agile western stock horse or a grand dressage horse. Additionally, the Appaloosa’s trustworthy disposition and willingness to please makes it ideal for all ages.
Registration
Breeders may mate Appaloosa to Appaloosa, or may crossbreed with registered American Quarter Horses, Thoroughbreds, or Arabians. Stallions are registered with either the ApHC or an approved breed registry that participates in the ApHC breeding program. They must also be DNA typed.
There are four identifiable characteristics for registration in ApHC, which are:
• Mottled skin
• White eye sclera
• Striped hooves
A beautiful varnish red roan Appaloosa. Zuzule/Shutterstock
• Coat pattern
Irregularly pigmented or “mottled” skin is most apparent around the horse’s muzzle, eyes, and genitals. Also, many Appaloosas have a distinctly human-looking eye due to the white sclera surrounding the iris (the dark-colored center portion of the eye). Many Appaloosas have vertical stripes on their hooves in the absence of white leg markings. The most widely recognizable characteristic of the breed is the coat pattern.
Mottled or parti-colored skin: The mottled skin characteristic is unique to the Appaloosa horse and is therefore a basic and decisive indicator of the breed. Mottled skin is different from commonly found pink (flesh-colored or non-pigmented) skin because it normally contains dark areas of pigmented skin within the area. The result is a speckled or blotchy pattern of pigmented and non-pigmented skin.
Appaloosas are perfect trail horses. This lovely mare is a roan with spots. Jody and Jori Rafel/Double J Ranch
If a horse has mottled skin, it may be found in several places in addition to the muzzle and eye areas. Many other breeds have specks of non-pigmented skin that should not be confused with the Appaloosa’s mottled skin.
White sclera: The sclera is the area of the eye that encircles the cornea, which is the colored, or pigmented, portion. The white of the human eye is an example. Although all horses have sclera and can show white around the eye if it is rolled back, up, down, or if the eyelid is lifted, the Appaloosa’s white sclera is usually more readily visible than other breeds. This is a distinctive Appaloosa characteristic, provided it is not in combination with a large, white, face marking, such as a bald face.
Striped hooves: Many Appaloosas will have bold, clearly defined, vertical hoof stripes that can be either light or dark striped. But just having striped hooves does not necessarily distinguish Appaloosas from non-Appaloosas. Further identification of other Appaloosa characteristics is necessary in these situations.
Coat patterns: A remarkable aspect of the Appaloosa is the myriad color and pattern combinations they can exhibit. Appaloosa patterns are highly variable, and there are many that may not fit into specific categories easily. Some common terms used to describe coat patterns are:
• Blanket: Solid white commonly over, but not limited to, the hip, with a contrasting base color.
• Spots: White or dark spots over part or all of the body
• Blanket with spots: White blanket that has dark spots within the white
• Roan: Lighter color on parts of the head and over the back, loin, and hips (darker areas may appear along the face frontal bones, above the eye and legs, stifle, point of the hip, and behind the elbow)
• Roan blanket: Roan-colored body with a blanket over, but not limited to, the hip area
Beyond their beautiful color, Appaloosas are great working ranch horses. Jody and Jori Rafel/Double J Ranch
• Roan blanket with spots: Roan blanket that has white and/or dark spots within the roan area
• Solid colored horses have a base color with no contrasting color in the form of an Appaloosa coat pattern
Appaloosa patterns should not be confused with overo and tobiano markings of Pintos or Paints, which tend to be larger and of different shape and placement than those of the Appaloosa. Appaloosa spots and spotting patterns can change over the course of the horse’s lifetime, but Paint and Pinto spots remain the same.
In order to receive regular registration, a horse must have a recognizable coat pattern or mottled skin and one other characteristic. Horses that receive regular registration are issued numbers (no letters precede the number, but the # symbol does).
Not every Appaloosa is blessed with the easily identifiable characteristics of mottled skin, white eye sclera, striped hooves, and coat pattern. Recognizing this quirk of nature, the ApHC also accepts these non-characteristic horses for registration. They are classified as non-characteristic and their registration numbers are preceded by the letter “N.” Non-characteristic Appaloosas can be used for breeding purposes. In order to be shown at ApHC-approved events, however, they must undergo parentage verification and inspection.
Base Coat Colors
The Appaloosa Horse Club recognizes the following thirteen base colors: bay, dark bay or brown, black, buckskin, chestnut, dun, gray, grullo, palomino, red roan, bay roan, blue roan, and white (snow white with pink or light-colored hide; some horses have a white body with dark spots over part or all of their bodies, sometimes referred to as “leopard”). “Varnish marks” are roan markings where the darker color appears in other areas on the body, such as behind the elbows, across the flanks, and other areas.
It’s not always easy to predict the color a grown horse will be from the shade it has as a foal. With the exception of gray horses, most foals are born with lighter-colored coats than they will have after they shed later in life.
Disqualifications
No horse shall be registered that has:
• Artificial characteristics or coat patterns
• Draft, pony, albino, Pinto, or Paint breeding
• Continuous leg marking(s) that exceed a line around the throatlatch and behind the ears, and/or
• White marking(s) on the body that are continuous, uninterrupted, longer than six inches, and are separate from an Appaloosa coat pattern, if a pattern is present, and which marking(s) do not blend into the base color
• One parent that is registered with non-breeding stock papers with an approved breed association
• Is less than 14 hands after they are five years old or older.
International Colored Appaloosa Association
Breeders in this association are referred to as “foundation breeders” and the horses referred to as “foundation type” or “blood-breed Appaloosas.”
Appaloosa research released in 1994 estimated there were less than 3,000 living registered Appaloosas whose parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were all registered as Appaloosa rather than another breed. Therefore the International Colored Appaloosa Association (ICAA) was founded in 1991 by several concerned, longtime Appaloosa breeders and owners for the purpose of saving and restoring the Appaloosa as a breed. The ICAA’s intent was to preserve the blood-breed (pure) Appaloosa and its heritage, as well as to promote this versatile and athletic horse throughout the world. Its founding board of trustees is concerned, that today’s Appaloosa breed teeters on the brink of extinction. Therefore, it has sought to “return the Appaloosa breed registry” to the “purity of the breed.”
The ICAA is the first Appaloosa blood-breed registry with its books closed to other breeds, and its registry has classifications based only on pedigrees. The purpose is to preserve the pure equine breed of Appaloosa from undesirable introductions or influences of other breeds. It doesn’t accept crossbred horses for registration except geldings showing the Appaloosa coat pattern. The goal is to save all the original Appaloosa’s breed traits and to restore it to the admiration and respect it deserves. The ICAA promotes the return of the breed to its original conformation, which would otherwise experience certain extinction. The concept is that there is no such thing as “too much Appaloosa” in a pedigree.
Characteristics
The ideal Appaloosa is most easily described by stating what it obviously is not. It is not a Quarter Horse–, Thoroughbred-, Arabian-, or Morgan-looking horse. Proper breeding practices show that the concept of the big-footed, draft-type “pure Appaloosa” is also inaccurate and not what the original Appaloosa looked like.
A trait to look for in an ICAA-registered Appaloosa is a neck set a bit higher than others due to the breed’s use in chasing buff alo, which required seeing higher and moving faster. (A horse sees farther with the head held higher rather than lower, which is its area of close vision.) Also a strong back and deep heart girth, plus good bone on the legs are desirable.
Appaloosas have a variety of head types. Decent-sized ears (for good hearing) and a throatlatch that allows easier breathing are some of the attributes the breed is expected to have. Small feet, small ears, and thin necks are not ideal characteristics for this horse. Appaloosas are renowned for their intelligence and use as a versatile ranch horse.
Currently, it is impossible to be more definitive as to what the conformation of a blood-breed Appaloosa should look like. There are no Appaloosas with eight generations of purebred foundation stock to use as a guide.
A beautiful black Appaloosa with blanket and spots. Zuzule/Shutterstock
Soundness and the physical and mental abilities to perform the skills asked of it are at the top of the list in importance. This is achieved by concentrating the Appaloosa gene pool toward a purebred standard. With each additional generation, the ICAA Appaloosa has a higher concentration of Appaloosa genetics behind it, resulting in a more characteristic Appaloosa. The true Appaloosa is athletic, versatile, and has a family-orientated disposition. It is a distinct breed of horse reminiscent in construction, attitude, and ability of the highly regarded Appaloosa war and buffalo horse of the Pacific Northwest, the world’s best rough-country stock horse.
Credit: Appaloosa Horse Club and International Colored Appaloosa Association