The Appaloosa
Appaloosas normally show a mottled skin, white sclera (the bit of the eye close to the cornea) and striped hooves.
The breed history of this unusual horse is only partly known. There is proof that mottled horses were living in quite a few countries in Europe, and historians have found cave drawings which are as old as to 18000BC clearly showing mottled horses that might be related to the modern appaloosa. It seems likely that the spotted coat was first a type of camouflage, much as the stripes on a zebra.
The contemporary Appaloosa is descended from horses shipped over to America by colonists. These were somehow acquired by the Indigenous people known as the 'nez perce', who skillfully engineered them into the fantastic horses that we know and love these days.
Appaloosas were initially called the "Palouse horse", although gradually the name was changed into the modern form, "Appaloosa".
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