Pinto horse description
A skewbald horse is any animal that has marks of various shapes on its body. Depending on the places of localization of the marks, there are several alternatives. A skewbald horse is an individual in which white markings are located against the background of any shade, sometimes reaching such sizes that it seems that white is its main color. The piebald suit is considered in part a form of albinism. The result of this feature is blue eyes.
Piebald horse
Classification
In the United States, Skewbald horses are officially registered as Pints or Pinto horses, which are divided into 3 types:
- tabiano;
- overweight;
- tovero.
The piebald color of a horse is divided into types, determined by the location of piebald spots on the body. Most often, representatives of the piebald suit have blue irises of the eyes. Both eyes can have irises of different colors, that is, one is blue, and the second is brown or half blue.
Features of types
For Skewbald horses of the first type, a distinctive feature is the presence of a dark shade in color, covering both sides at once or only one. The limbs below the knees are snow-white. Often all dark spots are symmetrical and round. The spots are located along the entire perimeter of the body and descend along the chest, outlining a kind of shield. The tail is in most cases colored in 2 shades.
The genotype can appear with varying degrees of severity, so piebald horses can appear from individuals that are not piebald themselves. Overo suit is subdivided into several types. The first type is a frame overro, which means "frame" in translation. The name is true. If you look closely, the piebald mark is framed in a different color, as if in a frame.
On the main background, white ragged marks with edges are located in random order. Little white spots very rarely pass along the line of the back. The exceptions are cases of massive predominance of white or when shapeless spots pass along the head area. With this color, horses' eyes always have a blue tint. The limbs or at least 3 of them are similar in color to the main color, the tail is monochromatic.
The sabino overo type is characterized by the location of white spots on the limbs, which very often rise almost to the sternum. The characteristic location of the spots is the peritoneum. In the head area, a semblance of a bald spot with a capture of the lower lip is noted. The piebald color appears in the form of white spots with uneven edges or in the form of snow-white pile mixed with the main shade, which together resembles a roan, but in terms of genotype it has nothing to do with it.
For the type of overro splashed white, the arrangement of the white pile from bottom to top is characteristic. In the photo, such an animal looks like it ran over white paint. White pile is also found in the area of the muzzle and ears. Tovero combines the features of the two previous types. When crossing over and tobiano, individuals with a mixed color very often appear.
Tovero features
In the photo, the representatives of the color look just dazzling. They combine all the features of the overro and tobiano. During the registration process, confusion often arises as to which suit the foal should be attributed to. For the most part, the semblance of baldness is a feature of the tovero.
Serrated markings are also considered tovero's distinctive marks. Overs with a predominantly white hair in the mane are in great doubt. Often, the color of the limbs of a piebald horse is a dark tover. Sometimes it is so difficult to determine the piebald color of the tovero that you have to study the entire pedigree and features of the offspring.
The piebald color of the horse makes the species more susceptible to sunlight than others. Many people believe that if a horse has blue eyes, then it is blind. This is a misconception. What color range the iris of the eye will be is in no way connected with the quality of vision. Any of the subtypes of the piebald suit can have a full range of color palettes, which starts from completely snow-white representatives and ends with dark monochromatic horses.
Breeding problems
When breeding skewbald horses, it is simply impossible to calculate which genotype the foal will inherit. For example, when crossing two overs with pronounced external signs, there is a very high chance of stillbirth if both of them carry the genotype responsible for the overo frame suit.
Which selection will provide a positive result? If both parents carry the splashed wye gene, the chances are minimized. When crossing individuals carrying the sabino gene, the chances of getting dead offspring are also minimized. Safe crossing between piebald horses by genotypes:
- sabino - sabino, splashed white, tobiano, tovero;
- splashed uat - sabino, tobiano, tovero;
- tobiano - sabino, splashed white, tovero;
- tovero - sabino, splashed yat, tovero;
Crossbreeding of all genotypes with frame overo results in a high stillbirth rate.
Diseases
Health problems are at the genetic level in piebald horses. As mentioned above, the weakest representatives of the species are carriers of the frame overo gene. The main problem is the pathology of the development of the colon. Foals suffer from severe pain and swelling. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this pathology leads to death.
Such problems can be avoided by carefully monitoring the pedigree and crossings within a species by genotype. The most dangerous connections within the genus are between the two frame overo and the frame overtover. Although some experts believe that the offspring will be healthy if the carrier of the frame gene is crossed with a different genotype, however, when crossing with a frame overro, there is always a risk of getting stillborn foals or offspring with intestinal pathologies.
All equine diseases are classified as infectious and non-infectious. In the first case, this is infection with bacterial infections, this also includes infection with worms. In the second case, the horses begin to ache due to improper care, insufficient balanced feeding. It is very important to carry out annual preventive measures to remove worms. Usually such events are carried out before vaccinations, otherwise the vaccine will be ineffective.
Vaccination is a guarantee of good health for horses. Many diseases cause irreversible pathological processes in horses. Some previous illnesses increase the risk of developing abnormalities in the offspring.
Care and breeding
Pinto is a fairly common color in our territories. In general, the breed has good immunity. You do not need special skills for growing this species. The only nuance in breeding is the collection of information on pedigree and offspring. Monitoring data will help avoid bad breeding practices.
The diet is practically the same as that of other horses. The piebald must be getting enough vitamins and minerals.Representatives of the breed love warmth and comfort, so the premises for their maintenance should be insulated, protected from drafts. Skewbald horses do not tolerate infectious diseases well. Regular exercise and proper dressage are key to good horse health. Optimal physical activity has a positive effect on the development of the cardiovascular system. Foals need special care. It is very important to vaccinate the offspring on time and show the pets regularly to the veterinarian.
To keep your horse as beautiful as in the photo, you need to regularly clean and shoe. Skewbald horses are bathed once a week. Frequent bathing can provoke the appearance of dermatitis, so you should not do this more often than the specified period. After washing with a special shampoo, the fur is rinsed with clean water and wiped dry, then combed out with a brush.
A horseshoe is necessary if the horse is used in heavy work or if it is a participant in the races. The shoe can be carried out only on the front or on the hind limbs, as well as on all four. Which hooves to shoe is determined by which limbs the impact force will fall on.
Conclusion
Skewbald horses have always been associated with the Indians. Ancient American tribes believed that a piebald horse brings good luck. The horse breed is considered to be very ancient. The first mentions of animals are found in ancient Egyptian records.
Many do not quite understand the definition of piebald suit, what it looks like. It is a misconception that white is the basis of color. These are white spots on a main background of any other color. White marks can have different locations and the most interesting shapes. The tails can be two-color and one-color; piebald markings can also be traced on the mane.
There is an opinion that blue-eyed horses are born only in representatives with the Overo genotype. However, blue-eyed foals can be born to all types of mothers. This feature does not affect vision in any way, but the sensitivity to sunlight in blue-eyed people is increased.
The second misconception about the color of Tobiano: it is believed that the Tobian is spotted and specks are scattered throughout the body, while the Overo is the opposite. However, the color of the piebald is different in that the main color can be any, and the piebald spots are exactly white. It's just that sometimes they reach such sizes that it seems as if the white background is the main one. In each genotype, there are individuals of various textured colors, from snow-white to pure black.