The Appaloosa
Appaloosas customarily show a mottled coat, colorless sclera (the part of the eye next to the cornea) and vertically striped hooves.
The background of this unusual horse is only partly recognized. There is some evidence that mottled horses were being bred in very many nations in Asia and europe, and historians have found cave drawings dating back to 18000BC showing spotted horses that may be related to the appaloosa we know today. It is possible that the mottled coat was by origin a type of camouflage, much as the striped pattern on a zebra.
The modern-day Appaloosa is descended from horses shipped to Mexico and the u.s. by early settlers. These were somehow acquired by the Nez perce tribe, who proficiently bred them into the tremendous horses that we admire right now.
Appaloosas were in the first instance known as the "Palouse horse", even though over time the name transformed into the contemporary interpretation, "Appaloosa".
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