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Ara-Appaloosa |
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Ara-Appaloosa |
To answer that question, the first question has to be, what is an Appaloosa? When I answer that question, I see a stocky horse with a spotted blanket over its hips, but actually, that is only one vision of an Appaloosa horse.
For centuries, the color we call Appaloosa has been carried in many breeds, and in many breeders' minds that is all it is, a color. It is a color to be avoided at all costs and is a mutation or throwback to primitive origins. But of course the Appaloosa breeders look at this color with pride.
What about a standard for the Appaloosa breed? There are standards for other breeds, but there isn't one for the Appaloosa breed. Each breeder has a personal ideal some very defined and others quite loose. And the Appaloosa standard changes with fads or market strategy. There are breeders that are determined to fit a standard to the Appaloosa breed. It seems like a good idea, but the Appaloosa breed as it is now might fade away. There are pros and cons on this subject.
The Appaloosa is more than a pretty color on a piece of skin. Its color and characteristics are present even when the spots are missing. The Appaloosa has appearance, personality, spirit and endurance and must be bred to make it a true Appaloosa.
The first Appaloosa horses were Nez Perce Indian horses and the Nez Perce put up a great fight against the U.S. Government and endured hardships that the Government horses could not stand. When the U.S. won the war at the end of 1877, the U.S. didn't want the Nez Perce to rise again, so they confiscated their horses and slaughtered them or auctioned them off. Fortunately for us, one man remembered the highly prized horses of the Nez Perce Indians and as an adult he tried to find that original horse.
Claude Thompsom was unsuccessful in finding the original horse at first, since the originals had been outcrossed and outbred so many times and those first horses were a long way from the true Nez Perce Indian horse. Anyway, Claude didn't give up and he leased a leopard stallion named Old Painter and bred some Appaloosa mares to him. He still wasn't satisfied and so he did some research. He determined that the original Appaloosa probably came from northern Africa and that the pure Arabian blood mixed perfectly. The true Appaloosa had Barb or Arabian blood at its base bloodline as in the Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, Morgans, Saddlebreds and Tennessee Walkers.
A generally accepted source of the Palouse horse (or Nez Perce horse) was a direct descent from the Spanish conquistadors. These horses were Cordoban in bloodline which is a bloodline running in the Andalusian and from another Arab bloodline. Also the Arabian does have spotlines, though they are bred out of the Arab today, but sometimes show up in the chestnut, white or gray horse. Often a foal is born with snowflake patterning and though thought of as an impurity in the Arab bloodline, it is in fact an actual sign of the oldest and purest bloodlines. In fact the Crabbet Studs in England have at times passed down white spots and flecks showing marginal Appaloosa coloring.
Well, to get back to the Appaloosa, Claude bought an Arabian stallion named Ferras and he crossed Ferras with his Painter horses and eventually came up with Red Eagle, who is a Foundation Sire for Appaloosas. The Appaloosa Horse Club was founded in 1938 and today the Appaloosa Horse is the third largest breed registry in America.
But the picture as of 1992 showed that the Appaloosa of the past was once more getting bred out. There were so many crosses and outcrosses that the elegant, active and durable horse was once more almost gone. So what was the perfect Appaloosa horse? The Quarter Horse influence, the draft, or maybe just Appaloosa to Appaloosa? And in this process the Ara-Appaloosa has been born.
The Ara-Appaloosa is a classic horse of foundation Appaloosa breeding combined with Arabian spotlines which trace to antiquity. The Ara-Appaloosa is refined, yet durable; intelligent and of good disposition; yet capable of great spirit. It may be tall or small depending on background blood and is usually lighter in weight and more athletic than the average Appaloosa. For those who appreciate elegance combined with utility and endurance the Ara-Appaloosa is unsurpassable.
So, actually the Ara-Appaloosa is not a new breed. If you would like something old, that is new and different in your life, then try an Ara-Appaloosa.
Information: Ara-Appaloosa and Foundation Breeders International, Rt. 8, Box 317, Fairmont, West Virginia 26554. Thanks to John L. Baker for his articles.
Published December 1993 in the NorthWest Breyer Horse Club Newsletter. (ma)
The Appaloosa foundation certified almost 5,000 horses to attain permanent status by production and through inspection as Foundation Appaloosas, and gave these horses a "F" prefix before their number. Many of these horses were refined, excellent examples of well-planned breeding programs and carried a high percentage of Oriental blood along with the Appaloosa blood tracing to the Nez Perce tribe. Many of these foundation horses had distinct characteristics and qualities worth passing on. Also, many were genotypes capable of reproducing their color and other attributes several generations down the line.
These purebred Arabian horses trace to parti-colored purebreds1 of the Arabian desert which had white spots or spotting along with white sclera, some mottled skin and/or striped hooves. These characteristics make the Appaloosa breed unique, and although some experts do not concede that these characteristics on the Arabian horse are a result of Appaloosa genes, it still is generally agreed that genes producing such color features would certainly compliment the Appaloosa. Early Arabian stock was frequently parti-colored, as depicted by Egyptian and Mid-Eastern art of that era. With some of the basis of the breed parti-colored, it's not surprising that occasionally an Arabian is foaled today with flamboyant markings. It's obvious that such markings do not denote lack of purity, but rather the oldest and purest breeding.
The Ara-Appaloosa is a classic horse of Foundation breeding combined with Arabian spotlines which trace to antiquity. The Ara-Appaloosa is refined, yet durable, intelligent and of great disposition, yet capable of great spirit. It may be tall or small depending on background blood and is usually lighter in weight and more athletic than the average Appaloosa. For those who appreciate elegance combined with utility and endurance, the Ara-Appaloosa is unsurpassable. The Arabian spotlines compliment and strengthen the Appaloosa gene as is proven by the phenomenal color producing power of the Ara-Appaloosa foundation stallions whose spotted progeny through four, five and six generations of outcrossing are still performing today. In today's breeding program, the Arabian spotlines and the Ara-Apaloosa are still the most direct route to elegance and stamina; also the most direct route to the spotted blood of the ages.
Claude Thompson, founder of the Appaloosa Horse Club, in 1939 wrote, "The present objective of the Appaloosa breeders is to carefully infuse into the breed pure Arabian blood when available. It mixes perfectly, probably because the Appaloosa horse was originally found in northern Africa and no doubt had much Barb and Arabian blood." He had some of the last of the Nez Perce Appaloosa bloodlines, which were fast disappearing thru careless outbreeding and neglect. He searched for the ideal horse to cross with his horses for the refinement of type he remembered the breed to be. He ended up with the Arabian stallion, Ferras, the neatest, most refined stallion he could possibly buy, and not necessarily the tallest. Ferras' pedigree traces to Crabbet blood and in almost every line to Mesaoud and other spotline Arabians, who trace back to the particolored purebreds of the Arabian desert. Thus the Ara-Appaloosa breed was on its way, helping to bring back the Appaloosa of past years, unique in conformation and identity and resembling no other American Breed.
1 The Crabbet Arabian is referenced here for purpose of noting the color for which it is bred for - spotlines - which are bred out of most purebred Arabian bloodlines.
Published April 1997 in the North West Breyer Horse Club newsletter. (ma)
For more information on Ara-Appaloosas, visit:
Published December 1993, April 1997 in the North West Breyer Horse Club newsletter. (ma)
© 1993-2019 NW Breyer Horse Club
& Refiner of Gold Creations
Equinealities in place since 1997, Section in place 2001, Updated 1/28/2019
