Appy Color? Please Explain...

[Tab]

There is a pretty good understanding of solids, pinto patterns, dilutes, and coat color modifiers, but I am pretty clueless when it comes to appy color. Please share links and photos for the appy impaired like me. I know leopard and blanket... maybe. I understand few spot generally. It's a big mystery because I've never been big on appy but I can understand why there's a following

 

[Maple Hollow Farm]

Well I will do my best to explain it the way I understand it LOL!

LP is the appaloosa gene that causes the characteristics and colors to be expressed.
If the horse is LP/Lp they have anywhere from just characteristics (mottling, sclera, striped hooves) to leopard

If the horse is LP/LP is your fewspots, snowcaps, and some characteristic only horses too

Now the part that is more confusing is that Appaloosas that are leopards/near leopards/fewspots/near fewspots carry the PATN1 gene which is the actual pattern gene. The PATN1 gene is the leopard pattern gene and supposedly have to have at least one parent carrying this to get a leopard. I however have seen several true leopard foals by parents that I would not think to carry that pattern so Im not convinced all is truly known about how that works yet. You can have an entirely SOLID appy bred horse that does not carry LP but is technically a leopard because it carries PATN1 (PATN1 cannot be expressed without LP). This is why so many appy bred solid horses that didnt inherit the appy gene can still throw louder color when crossed on lp carrying horses.

The other pattern genes are not broken down so much at this point as far as I understand and just are referred to as minor patn genes. Blankets, snowcaps, lace blankets, ect.

Some patterns seem to be suppressed too and apparently black and female can suppress color to make a horse look like it carries less pattern than it really does

I think I will stop at that for now and hopefully someone who knows more will jump in with more info and hopefully make sure I wrote all that right LOL!

 

[HGFarm]

Am at work right now, but will post some pics later when I get home.

Keep in mind, just like with pintos, to be homozygous, both parents have to be Appy.

Also, an Appy can carry more than one pattern. They can have a blanket and spots pattern and also carry and have the varnish roan.

 

[ohmt]

Right on, Melinda

And technically varnish/snowflake are just characteristics of LP (like mottling and sclera) and are not a spotting pattern. If you have a horse that is just varnish or snowflake then it does not have any PATN and will not produce a foal that has spots unless the other parent contributes it (and non happy bred horses can indeed carry minor PATN genes, especially if they have a history of Sabino).

My favorite source is the appaloosa project. They are the furthest on their research (and have been researching it the longest) and for me it just makes sense. I'd check it out

 

[HGFarm]

Even blanket patterns can vary... some big, some small, some with spots, some without

 

[HGFarm]

And various amounts of roaning







Here are some that are roans, but also have spots or a blanket with spots.

 

[HGFarm]

Leopards.....







And near leopards

 

[HGFarm]

Snowcaps







Fewspots

 

[lil hoofbeats]

I have always found Appy coloring to be confusing. I have seen lepards that throw tremendous amounts of color, and Few spots that throw very little. My stallion Trinidad almost always throws color, and he is a leopard so??? who knows why he does.

 

[orin]

my appy has a large blanket but he also has white and black spots on the dark areas on his neck/legs and face. His face is becoming grey around his eyes and nose and he is getting more spotys appearing all the time. he is 9yo. is he a blanket spot or is he actually a near leopard?

 

[HGFarm]

In the big Appy world he would be considered a blanket and spots with 'lightning marks' on his legs. (And I really like him a lot!!)

 

[ohmt]

Orin-he is a blanket, but looks like he could carry PATN1, but you would need to know what his sire and dam looked like and produced to get a better answer. He is neat

Black and being female (and a miniature horse) all restrict PATN to various extents. So there are blankets who if had been born red based in a large breed would be full blown leopards.

Lil Hoofbeats-some few spots only have 1 PATN1 and some actually only have minor PATN genes that then varnished and people mistake for few spot. If a stallion is LP/lap and homozygous for PATN1 or has PATN1 with other smaller PATN genes to pass along as well, and you breed him to mares that have just LP with no PATN whatsoever for the sake of this example, then that stallion's foals would have a high amount of color. My few spot has 1 PATN1 only and I breed him to non LP/PATN mares and his record is: of the 20% colt ratio all have been leopard except 1 who had a blanket, the PATN came from the Sabino mare. Of the fillies: only a couple of leopards, the rest split between blanketed or varnish. We can only assume that about half of the blanketed fillies carried PATN1 but it was being restricted since they were all black based.

In the US we are greatly behind other countries when it comes to appaloosa. Too much emphasis is on LP homozygous instead of PATN1 homozygous. If 2 leopards produce a non LP foal, we sell them because of the lack of color instead of assuming they carry PATN1, able to produce that loud color if bred right.

 

[orin]

Sire is 'falabella Andino' (leopard pintaloosa) and dam is 'ebony of mallards' (I think a varnish appy). If you google them you should find pics. (I can get pics but I do not own them).

HGFarm- thankyou. He is my absolute baby of all of my minis and it is this boy that completely busted his leg a few months ago :-(

 

[ohmt]

Sorry about his injury! Our few spot jumped cattle paneling and broke his right hind femur in 2 places. Was awful! Quite the vet bill and keeping a 2 yr old stallion stall ridden for 6 months is a nightmare.

 

[orin]

i have permission to put up pics of his sire and dam.....

here is falabella andino



here is ebony of mallards: (she was born black)

 

[orin]

this is ebony with ricardo at foot and whilst in foal with ricardo (you can see the colour change from the pics above)

thankyou to laura and ve for letting me use the pics of them both x

 

[Tab]

Orin, I've found I'm not an appy person (tried), but I find there are always exceptions. Ricardo is beautiful! I'm sorry about his leg! Laurie, thank you for the pictures to go along w/ the explanations!!! I enjoy the examples and the explanations.

 

[orin]

Tab- thankyou. I was not an appy fan either but this little man converted me. He is my dream horse. Injury means unshowable now but we are looking forward to some foals from him

I keep meaning to do an update on him so when I get 5 mins I will do x

 

[rabbitsfizz]

He'll have some nice foals for you. Appy does mess with the colours, alright, but I would love to know if that mare has been tested as she looks Chestnut base to me- Black Chestnut as a youngster going lighter as she ages. Alternative is that she could be Black masking Cream.....

 

[orin]

If it makes a difference. Ricardo has a full brother which is black pinto?

Unforunately ebony was lost during foaling last year.