Is it a Paint or a Pinto?
I own a Paint/Pinto horse. This means he is double registered in two separate horse registries here in the USA. In order to be registered, a horse must have a certain type of pedigree going back a certain number of generations. In my horse’s case, he is an American Paint whose biological mother (or dam) was a grey Quarter Horse and his father (or sire) was a bay overo Paint. This gave him the grey color gene with the overo Paint markings.
Since I have owned a Paint, I have continuously experienced a lapse in information on the color aspect of Paint vs. Pinto. Many people will see a horse with spots in its coat and automatically dub it a Paint. Very few people today use the term Pinto (maybe they associate it too much with the car of the same name, I don’t know). In a nutshell, Paint is a breed, Pinto is a color. Unless the horse has the proper pedigree, one cannot be polically correct in calling this horse a Paint. A horse with a predominantly white coat splashed with darker spots or a dark coat splashed with some white is not necessarily a Paint, but can be called a Pinto (though unless registered with the PtHA (Pinto Horse Association of America) they are not “technically” a Pinto.
Just about any breed can have Pinto markings. Spotted horses are becoming more and more popular and a growing number of breeders of various types of horses are beginning to breed spots into their lines (Paint/Arab crosses are growing in numbers). I have seen Pinto Warmbloods, Arabs, Drafts and many others. Ironically, Thoroughbreds play a small part in the Paint line-up yet I have yet to see a spotted Thoroughbred.
But, no matter how many spots a horse might have, they are not necessarily Paints. A spotted Quarter Horse is a Paint, yet a Paint can also be solid color. A solid Paint is called a “breeding stock Paint” and usually is not allowed in regular Paint sanctioned shows, although this is changing.
My horse, Kobeejo, is registered in both the APHA (American Paint Horse Association) and the PtHA. Looking at him, many people don’t realize he’s a Paint because of his light coat. He is a flea-bitten grey (yes, that’s the official name for the color) and white. His skin under the grey areas of his coat is black and the skin beneath his white spots is pink. When he is wet, his markings are very clear. I would be a rich person if I had a dollar each time someone was shocked at his markings when they see him for the first time coming out of the wash stall. The overo part of his coloration simply means he has mostly dark color with white areas that are basically limited to his sides and neck and face. It’s ironic to call this white looking horse a “dark” color but if you could see his baby pictures, you’d be surprised. He was black and white.
So, the next time you see a horse with spotted markings, don’t automatically call it a Paint. Ask the owner or someone who knows the horse’s ancestry.
