Domestic Breeds & Types Codexery

Appaloosa

American horse breed known for its leopard complex spotted coat.

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The breed is strongly associated with the Nez Perce people and was named the official state horse of Idaho in 1975.[1] The leopard complex-spotted coat pattern is the most famous feature of the Appaloosa breed, and it is the one most desired.[2] Mottled skin, hooves with vertical stripes, and an eye whose white sclera is visible when looking straight ahead are the three other defining traits of the breed.[2]

Quick Facts

Country
United States

Facts from the source article.

Biology and range

The coat color of an Appaloosa is a combination of a base color with an overlaid spotting pattern.[3] Bay, black, chestnut, palomino, buckskin, cremello or perlino, roan, gray, dun, and grulla are the base coat colors that the Appaloosa Horse Club officially lists.[3] An animal possessing the core Appaloosa characteristics—coat pattern, mottled skin, striped hooves, and a visible white sclera—must have at least one copy of the dominant LP allele.[4] Every horse possessing a single LP copy will display leopard characteristics, and researchers believe LP works together with as-yet-unidentified PATN genes to create the various coat patterns.[4]

Compared to all other breeds combined, Appaloosas face a risk of developing Equine Recurrent Uveitis (ERU) that is eight times higher.[5] It is estimated that as many as one in four horses suffering from ERU are Appaloosas.[5] Homozygous LP/LP Appaloosas have an increased susceptibility to congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB).[6] CSNB is a non-progressive, inherited condition present at birth that deprives affected animals of night vision while leaving their daytime eyesight unaffected.[6][7]

The ApHC prohibits the use of pony or draft breeding, and the breed's weight typically falls between 950 and 1250 pounds.[8]

What the specialist sources record

The Appaloosa Museum account states the breed is chiefly a stock horse used in various western riding disciplines but also does well in many English riding disciplines.[1] The same source notes that the Appaloosa is famous for its striped hooves, mottled skin, white sclera, and distinctive coat where a base color is overlaid by striking patterns.[1] According to the Appaloosa Museum, the breed was developed by the Nez Perce people of the Pacific Northwest.[1] The Appaloosa Museum reports that Spanish conquistadors brought spotted Iberian horses carrying the leopard-complex gene to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries.[1]

A 2016 guide on Appaloosa coat genetics states that the Appaloosa Horse Club recognizes 13 base coat colors.[9] The same guide explains that all horses homozygous for LP are affected by Congenital Stationary Night Blindness, which is present from birth.[9] The Appaloosa Museum records that in 1989 an Appaloosa set an all-breed record for 4.5 furlongs that still holds today.[1]

References

  1. "History of the Appaloosa", The Appaloosa Museum. facts only, no text reused. appaloosamuseum.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Appaloosa" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "2012 Appaloosa Horse Club Handbook", Appaloosa Horse Club (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Appaloosa" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Guide to Identifying an Appaloosa", Appaloosa Horse Club; Archer, Sheila, "The Appaloosa Project: Studies Currently Underway", The Appaloosa Project; "Guide to Identifying an Appaloosa", Appaloosa Horse Club (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Appaloosa" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Archer, Sheila, "The Appaloosa Project: Studies Currently Underway", The Appaloosa Project; Bellone, R., "Association analysis of candidate SNPs in TRPM1 with leopard complex spotting (LP) and congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB) in horses", Animal Genetics, December 2010, p. 207; Terry, R. B., "Assignment of the appaloosa coat colour gene (LP) to equine chromosome 1", Animal Genetics, 2004, p. 134–137; Archer, Sheila, "The Appaloosa Project: Studies Currently Underway", The Appaloosa Project; "Applications of Genome Study – Coat en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Appaloosa" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sandmeyer, Lynne, "Equine Recurrent Uveitis (ERU)", The Appaloosa Project, July 28, 2008; Loving, Nancy, "Uveitis: Medical and Surgical Treatment", The Horse, April 19, 2008; "Abstracts: 36th Annual Meeting of the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists, Nashville, TN, USA, October 12–15, 2005", Veterinary Ophthalmology, November 2005, p. 437–450 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Appaloosa" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Archer, Sheila, "Night Blindness in the Appaloosa (CSNB)", The Appaloosa Project; "Electroretinography of congenital night blindness in an Appaloosa filly", Journal of Equine Medicine and Surgery, 1977, p. 226–229; Archer, Sheila, "Night Blindness in the Appaloosa (CSNB)", The Appaloosa Project; Sandmeyer, Lynne S., "Clinical and electroretinographic characteristics of congenital stationary night blindness in the Appaloosa and the association with the leopard complex", Journal of the American College of Veterina (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Appaloosa" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Researchers Pinpoint Link Between Appaloosa Coloring and Night Blindness", The Horse, November 21, 2007; Bellone, R., "Association analysis of candidate SNPs in TRPM1 with leopard complex spotting (LP) and congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB) in horses", Animal Genetics, December 2010, p. 207; Oke, Stacey, "Shedding Light on Night Blindness in Appaloosas", The Horse, August 31, 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Appaloosa" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Characteristics of the Appaloosa", American Appaloosa Association Worldwide; "2012 Appaloosa Horse Club Handbook", Appaloosa Horse Club (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "A Guide To Understanding Appaloosa Horse Coat Genetics", ihearthorses.com, 5 June 2016. facts only, no text reused. ihearthorses.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Appaloosa (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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