Leopard Appaloosa

Probably, Leopard Appaloosa is the first phrase that comes to mind when it comes to discussing the Appaloosa Horse. However, there are several coat colors accepted by the Appaloosa breed club, and Leopard is just one of them. It is not only the coat color that makes the Appaloosa breed so valuable among horse breeders and fanciers. Appaloosa horses are famous for their superb intelligence, sweet and easy-going temperament and striking trainability. They are bred for various conformation activities, but over their rich history, they also proved to be hardy working horses. Ancestors of Leopard Appaloosa horses, as well as those featuring other color patterns, are believed to have arrived in America with the Spanish Conquistadors.

However, historians are not unanimous about how Appaloosa horses fell into the hands of the Nez Perce people, who inhabited the northwest of America and bred the horse with a great skill and devotion. Pictograms of spotted horses have been found in some European and Oriental cultures. Although their arrival in the New World is traditionally attributed to the Spanish Conquistadors, some scientists believe that Nez Perce people might have migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait, shortly after the last glacial period and brought the horse along. If that is true, the Leopard Appaloosa horse has a much longer history than it is generally believed. Nez Perce people lived in the area now covered by Idaho, West Oregon and Southeast Washington. The breed gets its name from the Palouse river that flows through the region.

The Appaloosa horse of today enjoys great popularity in various parts of the world, mostly due to its attractive coat color. The breed was brought back to life in the 1930s, after about 60 years of oblivion that occurred after the Nez Perce people were forced off their land and much of the stock dissipated. The Appaloosa horse club was founded in 1938. It took a lot of selective breeding and infusion of the genes of the Arabian, Thoroughbred and the American Quarter horse to rehabilitate and improve the Appaloosa horse.

There are five officially accepted coat color patterns for the Appaloosa breed. Snowflake is a common pattern, characterized by white spots or speckles over dark background color. Marble is white background with dark speckles all over the body. Frost is vice versa – dark background with light speckles. Blanket – white hips and loins, sometimes reaching the base of the neck, with or without dark spots over the white. Leopard Appaloosa horses have dark spots over white background.