The Appaloosa horse
Appaloosas customarily display a mottled (or 'spotty') coat, colorless sclera (the bit of the eye next to the cornea) and vertically striped hooves.
The breed background of this well-loved horse is only partly known. There is evidence that spotted horses were being bred in a good number of nation-states in Europe, and archeologists have found cave paintings dating back to 18000BC illustrating spotty horses that could well be be forefathers of the appaloosa we know today. It is possible that the spotted skin was by origin a form of camouflage, similar to the striped pattern on a zebra.
The modern Appaloosa is descended from horses brought to The usa by settlers. These were passed on to the Nez perce people, who expertly engineered them into the tremendous horses that we admire today.
The horse was first called the "Palouse horse", although bit by bit its name transformed into the present-day adaptation, "Appaloosa".
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