WALKING HORSE WEST( Cont.)
Nature has given the horse speed, strength and endurance naturally, but in breeding some kinds of horses, the strength and endurance of the horse developed further. Horses bred for strength, such as draft horses, have deep muscular bodies, large feet, strong legs, and great weight. Horses bred for speed have longer and narrower bodies.
Twenty years ago, the average life span of the horse was about fifteen years, but today, the average life span is around 22 years. Many horses live to be 30 years old. Some mares are still producing foals at this age. The age of a horse is calculated from January 1st, regardless of what time of year it was born. A young horse grows rapidly and will reach about half of its mature weight by the time it is 12 months old, if it is properly cared for. If a colt is well developed, it can be broken to ride at the age of two years. However, serious and extensive training is not started until they reach the age of three. Horses of different sexes and ages have different names. A mare is a female horse. A stallion is a male horse that is used for breeding to sire colts. A colt is a very young stallion, and a filly is a young mare. All male and female horses under the age of one year are generally called foals. A gelding is a male horse that cannot be used in breeding. During the lifetime of a mare, she can produce up to twenty foals. There have been records showing one single mare foaling more times than that.
COLORS OF THE HORSE
Nature, in her very mysterious way, went wild with the paint brush when she decided to give color to her precious horses. The colors are broken down into groups( with various shadings in each group) and are known as follows: Bay, black, brown, palomino, pinto, sorrel, chestnut, gray, white, buckskin, roan and appaloosa. The bay horse is usually a deep brown color( varying as many as six different shades from very light brown to very dark, almost black
‘ known then as seal brown’, offset by black points which are the legs up to the knees, black mane and tail. A palomino is a gold colored animal with a white mane and tail. The pinto, with a different name for each different pattern of color, but just called pinto for identification purposes, is either white with black, brown, gold, etc., spots or patches, or of any of the listed colors with large white spots or patches. A sorrel, with various shadings, is a golden-red color, with usually a flaxen mane and tail. The color known as chestnut is the deepest shades of sorrel, with the mane and tail approximately the same coloring. You may hear a chestnut being refered to as copper, liver, mahogany, etc., depending on the shade of coloring.
A buckskin has black legs, mane and tail, sometimes with a black line following the backbone, but the rest of the body many range from a very pale yellow to a very deep gold color, sometimes with dark hairs running through the yellow. An appaloosa has two main classifications, the leopard and the blanket appaloosa. A leopard appaloosa is white with small spots, like drops from a paintbrush, scattered over the entire body, or most of it. The spots can be brown. The blanket appaloosa is generally dark colored( brown or black, and roan shades) from the head back to the hips at which there is a large white spot covering the rump. In this big patch of white, there will be many tiny spots, again as from a paintbrush, of the same coloring as the rest of the body. The roan can be any one of the solid colors listed above( black, sorrel, bay, chestnut) with solid white hairs running over the entire body; two other roan colors are the common strawberry roan and the blue roan( a smokey-blue color with the white hairs). Strawberry, of course, means a red shade. When registering a roan, it must be stated black, roan, red roan, blue roan, etc.
MARKINGS The markings, the white areas seen on horses, vary as to name and where they are on the horse. On the head you may find a star( a white spot of many different shapes) on the forehead between the eyes; a narrow strip of white is called a strip. A wide strip of white is called a blaze. A section of white on the muzzle is known as a snip. When the head is half white, or totally white, it is then known as a baldface. On the legs, the white is known as the following: just above the hoof, a slim band of white following the hairline is called a coronet; a section of white halfway between the hoof and the pastern is called a half pastern( half sock); white up to the pastern is called pastern( sock); slightly above the pastern it would be called the ankle( sometimes quarter stocking); halfway between the hoof and knee would be a half stocking; white up to the knee itself is a full stocking. A patch of white on the backside( heel) of the coronet, on the outside would be called outside heel, and on the inside( facing the opposite leg) would be inside heel, or if it covers all of heel it may be called full heel or both heels. Many roans, although not classified as pintos, may have large white splotches on their bodies and may resemble a pinto. The white on the hind legs may go completely beyond the hock, up to the flanks. From there, they may be completely white underneath the belly. Some palominos may be marked similarly.
Occasionally you will find what is termed an albino. This is a horse that has a solid white body, pink skin, and eyes ranging from pinkish to a dark red in color. A glass eye( an eye that is a pale blue) can occur in any color of a horse, including white horses. Glass eyes on a white horse should not be confused with the eyes on an albino. There are so many shades and variations in the coloring, that it is almost impossible to describe each and every color of a horse. The above are the basic classifications and will enable the average person to envision the color, or know the color, if someone speaks of a chestnut, palomino, roan, etc.
30 VOICE of The Tennessee Walking Horse