The Appaloosa horse
Appaloosas classically display a leopard spotted coat, colorless sclera (the bit of the eye around the cornea) and striped hooves.
The background of this unusual horse is not completely understood. There is evidence that mottled horses were living in quite a few geographical regions in Asia and europe, and historians have found cave drawings dating back to 18000BC illustrating mottled horses that might be related to the appaloosa we know today. It is possible that the mottled skin was in the first instance a type of camouflage, similar to the zebra's stripes.
The contemporary Appaloosa is descended from horses carried to America by conquistadors. These were passed on to the Nez perce tribe, who proficiently engineered them into the amazing horses that we recognize nowadays.
The horse was first referred to as the "Palouse horse", although bit by bit its name was changed into the modern rendering, "Appaloosa".
|
