Appaloosa flecking increasing?

[ester]

It was fungal scarring (hence petri dish version). Did grow back chestnut apparently in time.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

I remember being shown a 2yr old colt that was peacock spotted. He was black nr leopard so dark forehand and legs and with enormous triangular halo spots. She intended keeping him as a stallion but couldn't keep him in a field, would jump anything so she sold him. I think he was called High Society and was by a TB. I have never seen anything since that comes close for colour. This was back in the early 70's.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I'm not keen. I worry a lot about the robustness of horses bred for such extremes of colour. What weaknesses did they compromise on along the way to get the colour genes?
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They've got a mixture of TB, Hackney and Morgan blood (amongst other things) and I think you can really see the Hackney in a lot of saddlebreds. They are normally 'solid' colours such as bay and chestnut but you do get tobianos too I think. So nothing fancy colourwise. They do have issues but a lot can be laid firmly at the feet of the people who train them in a very specific way and at a young age too. I've met a few (not many in the UK but they looked much more normal having been trained like an average UK horse) as they are sometimes crossed with Arabs to get a 'National Show Horse' which can be very nice.

 

[Cortez]

I've trained a few Saddlebreds, well retrained, obviously - I won't have anything to do with the absolute travesty of how they are treated in the US saddleseat industry. They are lovely horses; kind, willing and athletic - they have to be to submit to the appalling things that are done to them. Some have done quite well at US national level dressage.