Equestrian Network Magazine

Seein' Spots

By Laura Jesberg

Distinguishing between the colorful patterns on Paint Horses just takes some practice.

Paint Horses are like snowflakes - no two are exactly alike. Their coat is always a combination of white with any of the basic colors common to horses: black, bay, brown, chestnut, dun, grulla, sorrel, palomino, gray and roan.

Their markings fall into distinct groups of coat patterns, and if you are new to the breed, learning to identify the official patterns recognized by the American Paint Horse Association (APHA) should be a first order of business. The following descriptions, as well as a little visual practice, will have you distinguishing patterns like an expert in no time.

Tobiano - When white goes over the back, think "Top-albino?or tobiano. Another clue is to visualize a tobiano as a solid horse that has had paint poured over his back and down his legs.

Overo - When there is never white over the back, think" ever-over,?or overo. Another clue is to visualize an overo as a solid horse that has been turned upside down and had paint poured on his belly and let run toward his back.

Paint versus Pinto

These two terms are used (and sometimes misused) interchangeably when referring to spotted horses.

The word "pinto" means mottled, or pied, so all horses with spotted coats can be correctly described as pintos. The word "Paint" is the shortened form of Paint Horse, which is a breed.

In the United States , there are two major registries for horses with spotted coats - APHA and the Pinto Horse Association of America (PtHA).

Spotted horses with Paint, Quarter Horse or Thoroughbred breeding are eligible for APHA registration. Purebred Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds are also allowed as long as the horses have enough white to meet minimum color requirements. These horses are called "cropouts."

PtHA, on the other hand, allows registration of spotted horses and ponies of many breeds, with the exception of horses with draft blood and horses with Appaloosa bloodlines. Horses with a mixed pattern of Appaloosa and pinto are not eligible for either registry.

A spotted horse with the right bloodlines could be registered with both APHA and PtHA. However, a miniature horse with spots could be registered with PtHA, but not APHA.

The white body markings on every Paint Horse registered with APHA fall into one of four distinct coat patterns. Each pattern has a consistent placement and character of the white portions of the coat.

Tobiano

The tobiano (pronounced: tow be yah' no) pattern is the most common spotted pattern in the United States.

The name tobiano originated in South America in the 1800s, when a Brazilian general named Tobias rescued the city of Buenos Aires. He led a company of soldiers mounted on horses with a distinct spotting pattern.

Like their South American ancestors, modern tobianos appear to be white horses with large colored patches that are somewhat vertical in character and have sharp, definite edges.

They generally have white feet and lower legs, and the white spotting on the body usually crosses the topline somewhere between the ears and tail. As a rule, tobianos have colored heads and dark eyes.

Occasionally, tobiano color extends a short distance into the white patch, creating a shadow or halo around the white portion.

"Ink spots" or "paw prints" - small colored spots that occur in the white patches - are another peculiarity of the tobiano pattern and are strongly associated with the homozygous genotype. Homozygous tobianos have two copies of the dominant tobiano gene, and are beneficial to breeding programs for their increased ability to produce tobiano offspring. Statistically, every foal produced from a homozygous mating should receive one copy of the tobiano gene, thus creating a tobiano.

In a heterozygous tobiano, there is only a single copy of the tobiano gene, reducing the likelihood of a tobiano foal to 50 percent.

Overo

Overo (pronounced: oh vair' oh), like tobiano, has Spanish roots and means "like an egg." In contrast to the tobiano, a horse with an overo pattern is mostly solid-colored with white patches on the body, side of the neck and belly. The white patches rarely cross the topline and tend to have clean edges, although more ragged in appearance than tobiano spots. The head usually contains abundant white and the eyes can be brown, blue or one of each.

There are actually three distinct overo color patterns - frame, sabino and splashed white - that are generally lumped together.

Frame Overos

When loudly exhibited, the frame overo pattern is distinctive and beautiful. In this particular variation, the topline, chest, legs and tail are all colored, creating a frame surrounding the white markings.

Most frame overos have solid color over the backbone from the withers to the tailbone. They generally have dark feet and legs (with the exception of normal leg markings), and heads extensively marked with white.

Sabino

In literal Spanish, sabino (pronounced: sah bee' no) means pale, or speckled. The roany, peppered pattern of a sabino overo spreads from belly and legs upward, looking as if the horse has run through a shallow pool of white paint. Wild facial markings, including baldfaces, apron-faces and bonnets, are also found on sabinos. Baldface describes a horse with wide blazes that cover the nostrils or muzzle, while the white of an apron-faced horse extends down the bottom of the jaw to the throat, generally leaving color over the eyes and ears. A bonneted horse has an entirely white head with colored ears.

In sabinos, simple facial marks such as stars (between the eyes), strips (thin stripe on top of the nasal bones) or snips (white marks above the upper lip) are seldom found.

Splashed White Overos

Splashed white is the least common of the spotting patterns.

A splashed white overo looks as though it has been dipped in white paint. There is a distinct line on the body, below which the horse is white, above it is dark. The head and legs are usually white, but without the roaning seen in the sabino pattern. The eyes are frequently blue.

Toveros

While each of the Paint patterns - tobiano, frame overo, sabino and splashed white - can mark a horse on its own, some horses display combinations of these. A tovero (pronounced: tow vair' oh) is a cross between a tobiano and an overo, where both patterns appear on the horse's body.

In extreme cases, toveros can appear as mostly solid tobianos with overo face markings, or mostly white horses whose only dark pigmentation appears around the ears, eyes or chestnuts.

The typical tovero can be distinguished by one or more of the following coat characteristics:

* Dark pigmentation around the ears, which may expand to cover the forehead and/or eyes.

* One or both eyes blue.

* Dark pigmentation around the mouth, which may extend up the sides of the face and form spots.

* Chest spot(s) in varying sizes that may also extend up the neck.

* Flank spot(s) of various sizes that are often accompanied by smaller spots that extend forward across the barrel and up over the loin.

* Spots, varying in size, at the base of the tail.

One final note in this study of coat color: tobiano, overo and tovero patterns have a range of _expression from nearly all colored to nearly all white. In the case of horses with minimal white spots, it can be difficult to determine the correct pattern.

For more information on coat color and patterns, contact APHA. The association provides a 23-page brochure, Guide to Coat Color Genetics , and new color and coat pattern posters to assist members in understanding Paint markings and their underlying genetics.

To request any of these reference materials, call (817) 834-2742, extension 261 or 271. You may also e-mail kcarter@apha.com. Make sure you include your APHA member identification number with your request.

A complete history of the breed can be found at www.apha.com under "The Breed." Further reading on Paint Coat Patterns and Genetics. Book: Equine Color Genetics by Dr. D. Phillip Sponenberg. Available from amazon.com and www.conquistador.com. Magazine articles: Reference articles on genetics published in the Paint Horse Journal are available on-line at www.painthorsejournal.com/archives.

These include: March 2004's hite Genetics By A Hair by Rebecca Overton January 2002's oan Genetics The White Stuff by Rebecca Overton February 2001's erlino Paints Positively Perlino by Rebecca Overton December 1998's abino Paints A Lighter Shade of Red by Rebecca Overton December 1997's overo Paints The Mystery of Tovero by Frank Holmes.

A special "thank you" to the APHA, Laura Jesberg, and Breanne Hill for providing this article.

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