The Appaloosa
Appaloosas frequently display a mottled (or 'spotty') coat, pale sclera (the bit of the eye close to the cornea) and vertically striped hooves.
The breed history of this attractive horse is not fully understood. There is some proof that mottled horses were found in many nation-states in 'the old world', and we know of cave paintings which have been dated back to 18000BC clearly showing spotted horses that might be forefathers of the horse we know today. It seems likely that the mottled skin was first a form of camouflage, similar to the stripes on a zebra.
The modern-day Appaloosa descends from horses carried to The u.s. by colonists. These were somehow acquired by the Nez perce people, who proficiently bred them into the marvelous horses that we admire right now.
This wonderful horse was originally referred to as the "Palouse horse", although slowly the name transformed into the present-day variant, "Appaloosa".
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