The Appaloosa
Appaloosas normally have a mottled coat, white sclera (the part of the eye close to the cornea) and vertically striped hooves.
The breed background of this distinctive horse is not totally understood. There is proof that mottled horses were found in a good many countries in Europe, and historians have found cave drawings which have been dated back to 18000BC illustrating spotted horses that could well be be the origins of the horse we know today. It is possible that the spotted pattern was originally a form of camouflage, similar to the stripes on a zebra.
The modern-day Appaloosa descends from horses brought to The usa by early settlers. These were passed on to the Indigenous people known as the 'nez perce', who adeptly engineered them into the remarkable horses that we admire these days.
This wonderful horse was by origin known as the "Palouse horse", although slowly the name was changed into the present-day form, "Appaloosa".
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