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Country of Origin: North America
Use today: The American Paint Horse is extremely popular in
traditional stock-horse western events as well as a variety of
other riding disciplines.
Color: American Paint Horses sport a combination of white and any
other color of the equine spectrum
Height: 14.2 to 16.2 hands
Profile: In 1519, the explorer Hernando Cortes carried two
horses described as having pinto markings on his voyage. This is
the first known description of such horses in America. By the early
1800s, horses with Paint coloring were well-populated throughout
the West. A favorite among American Indians, the loud-colored Paint
horses were particularly well-liked by the Comanche Indian tribe.
Evidence of this is found in drawings painted on buffalo robes.
Throughout the 1800s and into the late 1900s these painted horses
were called pinto, paint, skewbald and piebald. In the early 1960s,
interest grew in preserving and promoting horses with paint
coloring and stock horse builds. In 1965 the American Paint Horse
Association formed, and today, the American Paint Horse is
extremely popular in traditional stock-horse western events as well
as a variety of other riding disciplines.
Characteristics: American Paint Horses sport a combination of
white and any other color of the equine spectrum: black, bay,
brown, chestnut, dun, grullo, sorrel, palomino, buckskin, gray or
roan. Markings come in any shape or size and can be located
anywhere on the horse’s body. The variety of colors and markings
appear in three specific coat patterns: overo, tobiano and tovero.
American Paint Horses average 14.2 to 16.2 hands.