The Crazy Appaloosa

I guess those of you that know me know which way this is going to go.  I can't seem to help myself from stating how I feel about certain topics.  The appaloosa, a breed near and dear to my heart, is no exception.  There definitely seems to be a prejudice against spots in our part of the land.  Oh no, not paint spots, everybody and their brother around here has a paint.  Libby and I joke that even the most backwards, trash filled, never seen a vet or farrier, horse farm has at least one paint.  But the appaloosa type spots are a lot harder to find.  I feel that a big part of that is due to breed stereotypes.

There is so much misinformation out there about so many breeds of horses.  It's beyond frustrating at times to hear the stereotypes for each one.  Arabs are spooky and flighty, saddlebreds are crazy, quarter horses are slow and lazy, ponies are evil and dangerous, morgans are chunky and tiny, and oh yes - appaloosas are jug headed and stubborn.

Of course there are some genetic predispositions. Arabians are bred to be flashy, beautiful and be able to go for days.  They are also incredibly smart and some of the kindest horses I have ever worked with.  I learned to ride on the quietest, calmest horse I have ever met, an arab.  Of course I got another when my girls were little and he was just the same.  A gem and the gentlest soul you would ever meet.  He literally feared nothing.

halter Arabian

the Arabian endurance horse

I have no experience with saddlebreds worthy of commenting, but I can tell you that some of the craziest horses I have known have been quarter horses.  Quite the opposite of the breed stereotype of quiet, calm and lazy.  One in particular was described to me by the guy I had breaking her out as being a few bricks short of a load.  He wasn't wrong.  We had another I called Krazy Kayla. For a reason.  We have had so many born broke sweetheart ponies, literally dozens with maybe one bad seed in the bunch.  I don't have a lot of experience with morgans either, but a friend of mine does and her beautiful show horses are nothing even close to little or chunky.  Which brings us to my personal favorite breed stereotype, the appaloosa.  The appaloosas that I have known or seen around the show pen were neither jug headed nor stubborn.

Just like in every breed, there are the good, the bad and the ugly across the breed.  Despite being known for their beauty, I have seen some dog ugly conformational train wreck Arabians.  There are some that are the fine boned dishy faced halter type.  And then there are those that were more like my Ole and Taron, chunkier and built to go for the long haul.  Any breed that you study will have its different types within the breed.  Take quarter horses for example.  Those bred for halter are expected to have big round hind ends, overall heavy builds and musculature, little heads, etc....  Compare that to your smaller, compact and catty cow horse or the exact opposite - the 17.2 hand, lanky and elegant hunt seat horse.  So yes, I'm sure you can find a jug headed, stubborn appaloosa.

Within the appaloosa breed there are some definite types as well.  I'm still learning, but from perusing sale ads it seems to be there are the sturdier, not quite as elegant, foundation type.  These are not my cup of tea, but I respect that there are others who are in love with their looks, temperament and seek them out.  Like the quarter horse, the appaloosa is a  stock horse and has many of the same types as the quarter horse.  There are the quick and catty cow horse/barrel horse, there are the racing bred, and then you have the pleasure type show horses.  I bet you can guess which type is my personal favorite.

hunt seat 

World caliber western pleasure champion: Chocolatey

foundation appaloosa stallion

halter appaloosa

appaloosa reining

Not only do breeds have a different type based off of what the animal is being bred or used for, breeds have also changed dramatically over the years.  Age old stereotypes are exactly that; old and tired.  The modern quarter horse resembles its predecessors very little.  Compare Joe Moore, one of the top foundation quarter horses - renowned for his good looks and athletic ability at the time to a cutting horse stallion today.  Change is sometimes good!  Very good!

Let me give you a personal example of breed bias.  A couple of years ago I took a young appaloosa we had in training to her second horse show.  This mare had never offered to buck or put up any kind of fuss.  She was a quiet, calm and gentle; as easy to get along with as the day is long.  The week before I had taken her to her first show and thrown a whole bunch of new sights, new classes and new things at her.  She literally never stepped a foot wrong.  But this particular morning I had barely set myself upon her back before she took off violently bucking.  Looking back we all decided that the most likely cause was probably a bee sting, as they were thick around the arena that day.  But that didn't stop a bystander from feeling the need to tell me, as I sat in a sling with my collarbone in two pieces and nearly through the skin/high on pain meds, that my mistake was riding an appaloosa.  Let's not even reflect on how inappropriate it is to make any comment about someone's horse after they are still reeling from a pretty traumatic accident.  Let's concentrate on the fact that the person felt the need to comment on that particular horse's BREED as the cause for a random accident.  No basis in fact.  No understanding of the breed.  Just a display of ignorance (and lack of tact).  For the record, that crazy appaloosa went to her third show and never again offered to buck.

There's an old tired crappy joke that gets passed around and repeated way too often.  It goes like this: "Do you know why the Native Americans all rode appaloosas to battle?  So they'd be good and pissed off when they got there."  Oh hardy har har.  Isn't that hilarious?  Your little joke just proved how ignorant you are.  Because I'm just going to tell you, the only thing I get when I ride either of my two appaloosas is deliriously happy.  Talk about a pair of wicked smart mares.  I have this little issue called work and an active family so I don't get to ride as often as I would like.  I'm blessed to have these two.  I can hop on them after they've had a week, a month, two months off and they both ride off like the day I left them.  While I'm loving Kenya, China is beyond the impossible.  I've started a few horses over the years and none hold a candle to China, my favorite "crazy" appaloosa.  She's the kind that makes you think you really know what you're doing and are good at this horse thing.  She's the type that could mistakenly get you to think that starting horses is easy.  She just makes me look good.  Thank you China!

What I hope you all take away from this blog is that having a breed stereotype or breed bias is truly ridiculous.  So often those biases are based on historical representations of the breed and/or ignorance of the breed.  If you're sole understanding of the breed is based on one equine of that breed you had or your neighbor had or your uncle's brother's little half sister's cousin had, then maybe you don't have the statistical pool to have an educated opinion about that breed.