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| Hi. Our family raises beef cows and a variety of horses. I have been raised on a ranch all of my life. My dad and his brother ranch together. I wanted something unique that no one else had. Growing up, my sister and I had a POA mare named Star. She was a wonderful horse and had the appaloosa color. Star was almost black with a white blanket on her rump. She was a smaller horse and I was beginning to outgrow her. I was looking for a larger horse. Some friends of ours knew I was looking for a horse, they helped me find a registered appaloosa mare. I thought she was so beautiful that I decided I would start raising appaloosas. I bought an appaloosa stallion and started my own herd. I purchased several other registered mares and our ranch also had some nice grade mares that I bread to my stallion. I like appaloosas because they are gentle, quiet, and easy to work with. I wanted to learn more about the breed that I was raising, so I looked it up on the internet. I found that nearly all the appaloosas were killed when the Calvary forced the Nez Perce Indians onto the reservation. Most of their horses were killed because they thought the horses had some spiritual bond with the Indians. White settlers captured some of the remaining horses and crossed them with their draft horses in hopes of making their draft horses stronger. That is why appaloosas are stereotyped for having unattractive heads. When I learned of non-characteristic appaloosas, I was a bit upset. Those horses had lost most of their colored coat patterns and looked like quarter horses. I figured that the Native Americans worked for years to build the breed so that the spotted coat patterns would be preserved and passed onto the offspring. What makes appaloosas really unique is that they have eyes almost like humans. They have white sclera like we do. They also have light or dark vertical stripes in their hooves (which some people say makes their hooves stronger), mottled skin (white, pink, and dark spots all over their skin), a visible coat pattern, and often thin mane and tail hair. The thin mane and tail hair helped them go through brush without snagging themselves making them harder to track. I have currently stoped breading my own appaloosas but i still own a few and I still carry the love for them. I have starting my own rideing program, to teach the Boy Scouts of America the horsemanship merrit badge. I am also teaching beginner horsemanship. There are also five appaloosa coat patterns. * Leopard - white with dark egg shaped spots over the loin and hips. * Blanket - white without dark spots over the hips. * Snowflake - spots all over the body with spotting dominate over the hips. * Marble - spots of similar size all over the body. * Frost - white specks with a dark background. |
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| Shaw Appaloosas |