The Appaloosa horse
Appaloosas generally show a mottled (or 'spotty') coat, pale sclera (the bit of the eye next to the cornea) and vertically striped hooves.
The history of this attractive horse is not completely recognized. There is proof that spotted horses were living in very many geographical regions in Asia and europe, and there are cave paintings which are as old as to 18000BC showing mottled horses that might be related to the modern appaloosa. It is possible that the spotted pattern was first a type of camouflage, much as the zebra's stripes.
The present-day Appaloosa descends from horses shipped to America by settlers. These were passed to the Nez perce tribe, who expertly engineered them into the remarkable horses that we know and love nowadays.
This wonderful horse was initially called the "Palouse horse", but over time the name has changed into the contemporary form, "Appaloosa".
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