365
Days in Horse Country – The Beloved
Paint
It’s hard to believe that once upon a time, the pinto-marked
Quarter Horse was considered an outcast, unloved and unwanted in the horse
industry. That all changed in the 1960s
however, when a group of horsemen decided to give official recognition to this
colourful version of the Quarter Horse.
They started a new breed called the Paint Horse.
Today, the Paint is the second most popular breed in North America, after the Quarter Horse. Paints are seen in a variety of disciplines, including cattle classes, Western pleasure, trail, dressage, hunters, and driving. Their conformation is very much like their Quarter Horse cousins, only splashed with colour.
Paint horses come in two general patterns: tobiano and overo. Tobianos have both white and a dark colour on their bodies. This dark colour can be black, bay, chestnut, buckskin, or palomino, and it usually covers one or both flanks. All four legs are usually white, at least below the hocks and knees. The patches in this patter tend to be oval or round , and go down over the neck and chest. The face markings are the same as on a solid-coloured horse.
Overos have a white and dark colour on their bodies. The white does not cross the back of the horse between the withers and its tail. The white also tends to look scattered or splashed.
Michael