Pinto horse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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- This page refers to a coat color of horses. For other meanings of Pinto, see the disambiguation page.
Pinto is a horse coat color that consists of large patches of white and another color. In Britain and Ireland, the terms "Coloured," piebald and skewbald are often used to describe horses of this color pattern. The Pinto color pattern existed in prehistoric times, and has been specifically bred by various cultures throughout history. Pinto coloring is popular today in the English-speaking world, especially the United States, where the pattern is considered a color breed and registries have formed to encourage the breeding of pinto horses.
A Pinto may be any breed, but must be the proper color. There are several different registries with varying requirements. The most generous allow registration of a horse of any breed or combination of breeds with as little as three square inches of white above the knees or hocks, other than facial markings. Some registries also require horses to meet a certain breed or type standard. A few registries will allow registration of a solid-colored foal if the parents were both colored and accepted by the registry.
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[edit] Color patterns of Pinto Horses
There are a number of words used to describe the typical spotting patterns of pinto horses. Some of these terms include:
- Piebald: a black and white spotting pattern (term more commonly used in the UK than the USA)
- Skewbald: a brown and white spotting pattern (term more commonly used in the UK than the USA).
- Oddbald: a horse with three colors (usually bay and white), a term virtually obsolete today, but occasionally used in the UK.
- Tobiano: The most common type of pinto. A spotting pattern characterized by rounded markings with white legs and white across the back between the withers and the dock of the tail, usually arranged in a roughly vertical pattern and more white than dark, with the head usually dark and with markings like that of a normal horse. i.e. star, snip, strip, or blaze.
- Overo: Spotting pattern characterized by sharp, irregular markings with a horizontal orientation, usually more white than dark, though the face is usually white, sometimes with blue eyes. The white rarely crosses the back, and the lower legs are normally dark.
- Sabino: Often confused with roan, a slight spotting pattern characterized by high white on legs, belly spots, white markings on the face extending past the eyes and/or patches of roaning patterns standing alone or on the edges of white markings. In some registries, sabinos are registered as having the tobiano pattern
- Tovero: spotting pattern that is a mix of tobiano and overo coloration, such as blue eyes on a dark head.
- "Chrome": An informal term of approval used to describe a particularly flashy-colored horse.
[edit] Paint or Pinto?
A Pinto differs from a paint solely by breeding. A Pinto may be of any breed or combination of breeds, though some Pinto registries may have additional restrictions (some do not register draft horses or mules, for example). For a horse to be registered as an American Paint Horse however, it must have registered American Quarter Horse, American Paint Horse, or Thoroughbred bloodlines. Therefore, most Paint horses may be registed as Pintos, but not all Pintos are qualified to be registered as Paints.
[edit] Origins
Though rare in the wild, humans have always had an eye for animals of unusual colors and a desire to deliberately breed for them. Images from pottery and other art of ancient antiquity show horses with flashy spotted patterns. Images of spotted horses appear in the art of Ancient Egypt, and archaeologists have found evidence of horses with spotted coat patterns on the Russian steppes prior to the rise of the Roman Empire. Later, spotted horses were among those brought to the Americas by the Conquistadors.
By the 17th century in Europe, spotted horses were quite fashionable, though when the fad ended, large numbers of newly-unsellable horses were shipped to the Americas, some for sale, and others simply turned loose to run wild. The color became popular, particularly among Native Americans, and was specifically bred for in the United States, which now has the greatest number of Pinto horses in the world.
[edit] Pintos Today
The stock horse type of Pinto has become so popular that a certain sub-type, those with pedigrees tracing to Quarter Horses or Thoroughbreds, has been named the American Paint Horse and has its own separate registry. Many American Saddlebreds and the Arabian /Saddlebred cross known as the National Show Horse have pinto coloring and are specifically bred for color. Breeding for pinto color in Warmblood sport horses has also become popular in recent years. Thus, pinto horses are popular among western, saddle seat and hunt seat disciplines.
[edit] References
Bowling, Ann T. "Coat Color Genetics: Positive Horse Identification" from Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis. Web site accessed February 9, 2007
