Appaloosa Horse Pictures:
A Versatile Breed with a Beautiful Coat

In these Appaloosa horse pictures you can see some of the defining physical characteristics of the breed. They are mostly known for their often striking spotted coats. Other physical traits include:

• mottled skin
• white sclera around the eye
• vertically striped hooves
• short mane and tail
  

Mottled Skin- Look at the muzzle/nose on the picture of my mare below. See how the skin has uneven spots of pink and black that almost look blotchy? That is what "mottled" means. If you look up close at pictures or at an Appaloosa in person, you will notice this.

White Sclera- The sclera in the white part around the iris or colored part of the eye. You can see the sclera on any horse if they are scared, but in an Appaloosa you can see it under normal conditions. In the picture above you can see it on the inside corner of her eye. 

Vertically Striped Hooves- White and black stripes that run from the top to the bottom of the hoof. This trait is also found in horses other than Appaloosas.

Short Mane and Tail- You can see in some of the pictures above that this type of horse doesn't generally have a very long mane and tail.  This was selectively bred for by the Nez Perce Native Americans. The shorter mane and tail is much less likely to get caught in branches and brush.

The Appaloosa in the above picture must not have gotten the message about short manes and tails!

This type of Appaloosa is what is called a blanket coat pattern.

That is where the area around the hips is white, and often spotted, while the rest of the coat is a darker base color. This one looks almost more like a roaned darker base color which means there are white hairs within the darker base color.

I hope you have enjoyed these pictures!

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