Appaloosa

Horses reached the Northwest around 1700, by the Appaloosa Horse Club's account, and the Nez Perce built large herds of them.

The herds were largely destroyed after the Nez Perce War of 1877. A 1937 article in Western Horseman started the rebuild, the Appaloosa Horse Club formed in 1938, and the club settled in Moscow, Idaho in 1947. Idaho made the Appaloosa its state horse in 1975.

The rebuild worked. By 1978 the club was the third-largest light-horse registry, and by 2007 more than 670,000 Appaloosas had been registered.

The coat comes from the leopard complex, an incomplete dominant mutation in the TRPM1 gene, and appears in several patterns over most base colors, alongside the breed's other marks: mottled skin, striped hooves and a white sclera around the eye.

They stand 14 to 16 hands and weigh 950 to 1,250 pounds.

The Appaloosa Horse Club describes easy-going dispositions and reliability as family horses. Oklahoma State University's breed reference adds gentle and eager to please, and says their level heads and even temperaments often get them chosen as children's mounts.

Handling can change after dark. A horse with two copies of the leopard complex gene is night blind, and UC Davis's Center for Equine Health says such horses may be anxious or confused in low light, bump into things, and resist dark stalls and trailers. Know which you have before you load one at dusk.

They are versatile, hardy and used across western and trail disciplines.

The registry describes a stock horse, and western riding is where the breed concentrates.

Eye care, for life. University of Minnesota Extension says Appaloosas are four times more likely to go blind from equine recurrent uveitis, that leopard-patterned horses are at more risk than those with blankets or dark, near-solid patterns, and that ERU has no cure.

A night routine for a night-blind horse. UC Davis's Center for Equine Health recommends a safe, familiar place at night with the stall lights left on; for a horse out full time, electric fencing that clicks helps it find its way, and a sighted pasture mate helps at night. Give it daylight hours to learn any new surroundings.

A feeding plan if the horse carries PSSM1, which UC Davis says is more common in Quarter Horse-related breeds such as Appaloosas: daily exercise and a diet low in sugar and starch.

The trade is tied to the same gene that makes them spotted. Horses homozygous for leopard complex are affected by congenital stationary night blindness, present from birth, and the complex is also associated with a higher rate of equine recurrent uveitis, a leading cause of blindness in horses.

The uveitis number is worth knowing: Appaloosas carry roughly eight times the risk of other breeds, and up to a quarter of all cases are Appaloosas. Ask about the horse's eye history, have the eyes examined at vetting, and if you are breeding, know whether the horse is homozygous for leopard complex; night blindness comes with two copies.

Registration runs through the Appaloosa Horse Club.

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