Disclaimer - The information regarding to pintos and other horse breeds are the works of the website creator and as such are covered by Australias copyright laws, no part may be reproduced without the written permission of the author Josephine Thornton. This information is intended as an informative guide only and reflects the veiws of the author, it should not be taken as the complete guide but verified with the relevant society.
WHAT IS A PINTO..
The old timers would call a pinto a piebald (black pinto) and skewbald (any other colour pinto), what pinto means is a two coloured horse, white and any other colour. The ideal pinto colouring is 50% of each however there are certainly many horses out there with more or less, for example a medicine hat pinto is often completely white except for its ears which are coloured and give the appearence the horse is wearing a "hat" or "bonnet" and on the opposite end of the scale a foundation pinto being a horse which is bred from pinto parent/s but missed out on enough white for full register.
BREED & HEIGHT.
Pintos are a colour register not a breed however depending on the association some breeds are excluded from being registered or having progeny registered, these include standard bred, heavy horse, appaloosa/palouse or any other gaited breed. Having met the colour requirement for pinto registration or having proven pinto parentage any other horse be it mini, shetland, welsh, arab or tb can be registered.
COLOUR REQUIREMENTS - HARDSHIP REGISTRATION..
So you have this horse in the paddock that looks like it might be a pinto and you want to register it but dont know anything else about it?
Well if it meets a few requirements such as colour it can be with one or both of the pinto associations applicable to your state, a rough guide to colour requirement is that a horse to mature over 14 hh must have clearly visible on it from a distance a area of white equal to an A4 page of white excluding face markings and white below the knee. AS the size of the horse decreases so does this minimum requirement. These horses can be registered as "stationbred" or "unknown breeding" and can then be shown or bred.
**NOTE** ALTHOUGH NOT INVOLVED IN THE RUNNING OF ANY PINTO ASSOCIATION I AM MORE THAN HAPPY TO HELP ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO REGISTER THEIR HORSE! JUST EMAIL OR CALL ME.
BUT ISN'T PINTO JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR PAINT?
No!
Paint is a breed register which is comprised of horses bred from tb, quarterhorse or paint stock, no other breeds are accepted. Within this breed register are two seperate registers, one for horses that meet colour requirement and one for the horses who although bred from reg paint/qh/tb stock do not meet the colour requirement.
Pinto is a colour register which encompasses most breeds or horses and registers them on colour alone.
As pinto accepts most breeds into the register it is therefore possible to register a horse both pinto and paint.
PATTERN..
Pintos can be found in several different patterns including, tobiano, sabino, overo & splash white and combinations of any two.
Tobiano - The original and most favoured pattern in pintos, the true idian horse! Pictured more commonly as a white horse with patches of colour on it, predominantly concentrated on the head, chest, flank and butt/tail. The white can cross the back bone and a variation on the tobiano pattern can be a dark horse with white facial and leg markings and a few white markings crossing the neck, shoulder or butt. Tobiano is the only pattern to exist in a homogyous form, meaning a homogyous tobiano will produce only tobianos regardless of what it is put to. Tobiano is the only pattern which can be "homogyous" which means some horses of Tobiano pattern will only produce progeny of the same pattern regardless of what they are put to.
Sabino - "SABINO" WHICH BASICALLY MEANS THE POTENTIAL TO THROW COLOUR. NORMALLY MARKED BY A BLAZE OR WHITE ON THE FACE WHICH EXTENDS ONTO THE BOTTOM LIP, SOCKS AND/OR WHITE ON THE BODY (BUT CAN BE AS EXTENSIVE AS A NEARLY ALL WHITE HORSE). Sabinos can be found in any breed or colour and are also refered to in QH's as "crop outs" because originally the amount of white they carried was a deemed undesirable in the breed and horse displaying such were unable to be registered and were farmed or cropped out of the herd, hence the name. In recent years I believe this ruling has seen some changes which may now allow them to remain registered QH's and dually Paint.
Overo - Horses of overo pattern are often described as "loud" for the pattern does really stand out in a crowd. It is considered to be a dark horse with white markings, these often originate from the flank or belly area and spread out, imagine a white page with a dark border, this is similar to veiwing a overo. The overo pattern does not allow white to cross the horse neck or backbone. Homygsous overos are not viable, it is thought that the Overo Lethal White Syndrome foals which are born almost pure white and die within hours or days with a certainty due to malformed internals are indeed the homogzous form.
Splash White - A splash white horse looks like a horse of solid colour which has had the bottom half dipped in white paint which "splashed up upon it", they usually have a two tone tail and the white does not cross the back. Splash White is a rare pattern and was often confused as overo, however research and education has made people realise it is indeed a seperate one. Splash Whites are "clinically deaf". Splash Whites are thought to be non viable in the homogyous form, ie foal is aborted or absorbed.
Foundation Pinto/Solid - A foundation pinto or solid is a horse which is bred from pinto parent/s but missed out on enough white for full register.
To further confuse you these patterns can co-exist with each other, so you then can have;
Tovero - This is a horse that displays both the Tobiano and Overo pattern, however more Overo.
Tobero - This is a horse which displays both the Tobiano and Overo pattern, more of the Tobiano.
Tobiano/Sabino - Horse showing both sabino and tobiano characteristics.
Sabino/Splash White - Horse showing both sabino and splash white characteristics.
And so on. This is in no way a complete list!
