Posts Tagged ‘Pinto Horses’

There are as many horse facts as there are breeds of horses and fanciers to raise them. The smallest of horses is called the Fallabella Miniature Horse, and it can be housebroken and kept as an inside pet. Outside of this breed though, a horse is a horse, not an animal like a big dog.

All horses on the Earth today can trace their ancestry to the Arabian horse. These majestic horses used to live with their owners in tents in the desert, and they are still a breed that is hardy and forms close attachments to its people. The Arabian is a hot-blooded horse, though, and when American farmers needed horses to pull plows and not just carts, they needed something bigger.

They learned from what their European cousins had already done, and bred the Arabs with larger horses called cold-bloods or drafters. This not only developed into a bigger horse, facts confirm, but it also calmed the temperament somewhat, since Arabs can be high-strung.

For racing, the best horse, facts state, is the Thoroughbred. This is arguably the fastest horse, unless you’re racing a quarter of a mile. The winners in short races like this are usually American Quarter Horses, whose very name comes from the race it was bred to win. Quarter Horses also make great cattle horses, with a cow sense that can tell them what a calf will do, before it does it.

For those who enjoy the beauty of different and unusual colors of horses, there are breeds who carry genes that insure colorful patterns in their young. The American Paint horse and the Pinto Horse both have colorful coat patterns of black, brown, or other colors and white. The Paint horse must have both parents registered as Paints, Quarter Horses or Thoroughbreds. Pinto horses, on the other hand, are any horses with the pinto markings. Their background may be of any breed.

Appaloosas are also colorful. They make have a blanket and spots on their rump, or they may be speckled and spotted all over. There are different patterns of Appaloosas, and they can be very striking. Their patterns include snowflake, blanket, leopard and semi-leopard. In build, both Paints and Appaloosas are built normally like the typical Quarter Horse.

The Morgan Horse, facts say, is another breed that most people agree was founded in this country. He is perfectly suited for hauling carts or small wagons, and he is a hardy breed with sound feet.

The main Draft horses used in the United States are the Clydesdale, the Percheron and the Belgian. Clydesdales are usually bay in color, and are the most well-known draft horse breed, thanks to the Budweiser Clydesdales of St Louis, MO. Percherons can be gray, black or white. They are born black and get lighter as they age. Belgians are usually blond in color, and they are the main work horse for Amish farmers.

The Amish also usually use a special breed for pulling their carts. The Standardbred is generally dark brown, bay or black in color, and they have a choppy trot that it useful for pulling but difficult to ride astride. Amish horses are usually hardy, and you’ll rarely see them blanketed, even in the coldest of weather, since they allow them to grow thick winter coats.

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Author: Jenny Styles
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Broken colored horses are associated in the popular imagination with the old American west. In particular, they are associated with Native Americans, with whom they were a popular choice, as the pattern of broken colors made the horses hard to see, either during a hunt or during war.

Broken colored horses – also known as pintos – continue to be popular today, both in the American west and around the world. However, even though “pinto” is the Spanish word for “paint”, pinto horses are not quite the same thing as paint horses.

To be registered with the American Paint Horse Association (APHA), a horse must not only have the classic broken-colored coat, it must also have either the sire or the dam registered as an American Paint Horse and have Quarter Horse or Thoroughbred blood somewhere in its background, Quarter Horse for preference.

Thus, while all paint horses are pintos, not every pinto is a paint horse – for example, a chestnut-and-white Shetland pony, while it certainly fits the description of a pinto, is not a paint horse. The same is also true, for obvious reasons, for parti-colored donkeys and mules.

Appaloosa horses, while they were also developed by Native American tribes for a similar purpose, are not classified as pintos, even though an Appaloosa can do much of the work that a paint can. The Appaloosa spots and “blanket pattern” are unique to that breed alone. The same applies to other spotted breeds.

Those not familiar with the term “paint horse” or “pinto” may be uncertain as to what the terms actually mean and what all the fuss is about. In general, paint horses are bi-colored horses, having a coat that is a mixture of white patches and patches of another colour. This should not be confused with the color known as roan, where individual white hairs are interspersed with either chestnut (red roan) or black/grey (blue roan).

A horse with black and white patches is often referred to as a “piebald” and a horse with patches of white and another color is known as a “skewbald.” The most common patch colors in skewbalds are brown and chestnut, but patches of palomino (gold) and buckskin are also possible.

Among paint horses, further distinctions are made, tobiano and overo being the main ones. A horse classified has a tobiano is predominantly dark on the belly and neck with the white markings being smaller, while an overo is the reverse. Paint horses are often bred for the beauty of their markings.

Why choose a paint horse? As they have Quarter Horse ancestry, paint horses can take on a number of working roles with ease. They make excellent mounts for stock work, combining beauty with practicality, and perform well on the rodeo circuit in cutting competitions and barrel racing.

Paint horses also make good trail horses or general hacks. They also do well in the show ring, their distinctive coats making them particularly eye-catching. And, of course, many are kept as companion animals by those who admire the beauty and history of the breed.

For more information on horses, try visiting http://www.interestinghorses.com – a website that specializes in providing horse related tips, advice and resources including information on the paint horse.

Author: Samantha Davis
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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