The Appaloosa horse
Appaloosas commonly have a mottled skin, pale sclera (the bit of the eye close to the cornea) and vertically striped hooves.
The breed background of this popular horse is not completely known. There is evidence that mottled horses were being bred in very many nations in Asia, and archeologists have found cave pictures which have been dated back to 18000BC illustrating spotty horses that could well be be forefathers of the appaloosa we know today. It seems likely that the mottled coat was by origin a form of camouflage, much as the stripes on a zebra.
The contemporary Appaloosa descends from horses brought to America by colonists. These were passed on to the Indigenous people known as the 'nez perce', who skillfully engineered them into the marvelous horses that we love at the present time.
Appaloosas were by origin called the "Palouse horse", although gradually its name has changed into the present-day version, "Appaloosa".
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