Today’s Know Your Breed: Appaloosa Broodmares
Jun 15 2007
Today, let’s look at two registered Appaloosa broodmares. The Appaloosa is a breed which had made a lot of progress in recent years. Infusion of Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred bloodlines has resulted in a more elegant horse who lacks the hammerhead, pig eye, stick for a tail look of traditional Appaloosas. Except, of course, that some folks insist upon still breeding the fugliest ApHC stock they can find. I am not sure if this is a deliberate attempt to preserve everything that used to be wrong about the breed, or if the owner of the first mare is simply blind.
From her square head with an eye that I can’t even see in this picture, to her thick undefined neck, to her upright shoulder, to her unbelievably short croup and her high set ‘stick tail’, this mare illustrates everything I remember about the Appaloosas I grew up with in the 1980s. However, her ad brags that she has produced “3 bay blanket hiped foals , 1 buckskin with white spots on hips and one black so far.”
Yay color! Perhaps the “blanket hipes” will provide a distraction from the complete and total lack of a hip. Of course, she is selling as a 3-in-1 package. Put a little fugly in your barn for the low low price of just $1,000!
Although this would not be my choice of a picture to show this mare off to her best advantage, it is immediately obvious that she is a much better example of her breed than mare #1. Look at the overall balance. She has a nice chest, a compact look to her and the sort of hip you should see on a stock breed horse. Her tail is set on properly and you will note it drags the ground. She has a cute, attractive head and little foxy ears, although I do wish it wasn’t wearing a nylon halter in the turn-out. Her feet cannot be seen but you can see she has big bones appropriate to her size and my guess is the feet are nice also. Unsurprisingly, she has successfully produced several point earners in ApHC competition. This is a breeding quality mare. Yes, you will have to pay four times the price of the first mare to get her, but if you don’t have that kind of money to spend on your breeding stock, I highly recommend breeding something more budget-appropriate, such as guppies.
5 comments to “Today’s Know Your Breed: Appaloosa Broodmares”
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They are both crappy appys. I seem to remember the breed having spots or something?
Quarterloosas suck.
Not all pureblooded Appies have spots.
You are right, not all appies have spots… BUT, I must agree with K on this one.
For breeding purposes, the second mare is also a horrible example of an appie broodmare.
She may have really nice conformation and even produced some earning babies. She has a HUGE flaw for an appy though. She carries the sabino gene. (Which creates overo type pinto markings).
K is right in that the second appy is a poor example of the breed. Unfortunately, many of the appy breeders have infused their horses with so much QH blood to bring more hair and better bodies into the appy breed, that they have also brough along some of the other characteristics.
Appies are NOT supposed to have pinto markings no matter what. Appies have spots and at least mottled skin and striped hooves. Of which, this mare has none.
How do you KNOW that this mare is a sabino? Her rear socks are conservative without the “points” typical of sabino, her face marking is medium and I don’t see the typical (of sabino) white lower lip– so she MAY have sabino, or she may just have white face and leg markings. One is not necessarily synonymous with the other.
Regardless, Appaloosas have had white face and leg markings, as well as some registered examples exhibiting traits of sabino or splash, since the beginnings of the registry. It wasn’t all brought in from other breeds– some of it was there with the first Appaloosas registered. There are rules against body white that is not Appaloosa pattern white, but ApHC Appaloosas have always been allowed to have socks and face white– some high whites and bald faces existed even on that original Foundation stock. Some people like the “chrome” and some people don’t– luckily there are good examples of Appaloosas in about every variety for those interested in having it or not.
On the solid issue– the ApHC has allowed use of solid animals in Appaloosa breeding programs since the begining in 1938– the ApHC began recording the pedigrees of solids used for breeding in 1963, started registering them in the ’70s, and solids who qualify and are parentage-verified have been allowed to show since 1982– I was at the 2007 Nationals a few weeks ago and saw both color and solid winning– They were all registere Appaloosas — its all about the horse and a good one is a good one. Most people by now realize that there is a wide variety of choice in the Appaloosa.
She said the second mare is a lot better quality than the first. Also, those of you that breed “foundation Appys” need to look back at what the Appaloosa WAS before they were bred to QHs and TBs. What a huge difference! There is no comparison with Toby and Wapiti. And you wonder why you have to “revive” the almost extinct foundation Appaloosa. Ever wonder why they were almost extinct? No one wanted them!