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Pinto is a horse coat color that consists of large patches of white and another color. In Britain and Ireland, the terms "Coloured," piebald and skewbald are often used to describe horses of this color pattern. The Pinto color pattern existed in prehistoric times, and has been specifically bred by various cultures throughout history. Pinto coloring is popular today in the English-speaking world, especially the United States, where the pattern is considered a color breed and several competing registries have formed to encourage the breeding of pinto horses.
A Pinto may be any breed, but must be of the proper color. There are several different registries with varying requirements. The Pinto Horse Association of America (PtHA) defines pinto horses recorded in their registry as a true breed and accepts solid-colored offspring of registered pinto parents as breeding stock, but has strict requirements for full registration.[1]The most generous allow registration of a horse of any breed or combination of breeds with as little as three square inches of white above the knees or hocks, other than facial markings. Some registries also require horses to meet a certain breed or type standard. A few registries will allow registration of a solid-colored foal if the parents were both colored and accepted by the registry.
There are a number of words used to describe the typical color and spotting patterns of pinto horses. Some of these terms include:
A Pinto differs from a Paint solely by breeding. Horses with Pinto coloring and verifiable pedigrees tracing to Quarter Horses or Thoroughbreds, have been named the American Paint Horse and are recorded in a separate registry. While a Pinto may be of any breed or combination of breeds, and some Pinto registries may have additional restrictions (some do not register draft horses or mules, for example), for a horse to be registered as an American Paint Horse it must have registered American Quarter Horse, American Paint Horse, or Thoroughbred bloodlines. Therefore, most Paint horses may be registed as Pintos, but not all Pintos are qualified to be registered as Paints.
Though rare in the wild, humans have always had an eye for animals of unusual colors and a desire to deliberately breed for them. Images from pottery and other art of ancient antiquity show horses with flashy spotted patterns. Images of spotted horses appear in the art of Ancient Egypt, and archaeologists have found evidence of horses with spotted coat patterns on the Russian steppes prior to the rise of the Roman Empire. Later, spotted horses were among those brought to the Americas by the Conquistadors.
By the 17th century in Europe, spotted horses were quite fashionable, though when the fad ended, large numbers of newly-unsellable horses were shipped to the Americas, some for sale, and others simply turned loose to run wild. The color became popular, particularly among Native Americans, and was specifically bred for in the United States, which now has the greatest number of Pinto horses in the world.
Pinto horses can be any of the major physical conformation types. A "Hunter Type" pinto displays the body type associated with pinto color crossed on predominantly Thoroughbred or Warmblood breeding. A "Saddle Type" pinto is a gaited horse or pony displaying the carriage, animation, and conformation of the American Saddlebred or Tennessee Walking Horse. A "Pleasure Type" Pinto may be partly of Morgan or Arabian horse breeding, and some Arabian/Saddlebred crosses known as the National Show Horse have pinto coloring as well. The "Stock Type" resembles horses of American Quarter Horse breeding.
Crossbred ponies and even some purebred breeds, such as the Shetland pony and the miniature horse also may have pinto coloring. Some pinto registries do not accept animals with draft horse or mule breeding, though others do. None accept Appaloosa coloring.
Many breed registries do not, or at some time in the past did not, accept horses with spots or "excess" white for registration, believing such animals were likely to be crossbreds. This exclusion of offspring from pedigreed parents led to the formation not only of the American Paint Horse Association, but other Pinto registries as well. Among the breeds that excluded such horses were the Arabian horse and American Quarter Horse registries. However, modern DNA testing has revealed that some breeds do possess genes for spotting patterns, such as the sabino pattern in Arabians, and sabino, overo, and tobiano in Quarter Horses. Therefore, these registries have modified their rules, allowing horses with extra white, if parentage is verified through DNA testing, to be registered. On the other hand, the Jockey Club's Thoroughbred registry still does not recognize pinto as a registerable color, though they do allow some white body spots to be recorded under the category of markings.[2]The Welsh Pony and Cob Society of the UK also does not accept "piebald" or "skewbald" (which also includes oddbald) horses for registration.[3]
There is a link between the frame overo gene and a condition called Lethal White Syndrome. Not all overo horses carry the gene, and some horses that do not appear to be overo do carry the gene. However, if a foal is born homozygous for the gene, it dies shortly after birth. This gene can be detected by DNA testing and breeders can now avoid breeding two carrier horses to one another.
<References/> Bowling, Ann T. "Coat Color Genetics: Positive Horse Identification" from Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis. Web site accessed February 9, 2007