Spotting a saddle horse: It's in the colors

Jason Simmons leads the sabino mare Avenger's Annabel Lee out of her stall. Sabinos rarely have 'common' facial markings such as stars or blazes, and the color separation is more mottled than the distinct spots on a tobiano.
(T-G Photo by Mary Reeves)

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Not in the spotted saddle horse world, it isn't. Although one of the appeals of the breed is the wide variety of markings, even those markings have recognizable patterns, each with its own name.

To be recognized as a spotted horse, the animal must have white on it above the hocks, and not just facial markings. A spotted saddle horse can be almost solid colored with a steak of white running across its shoulder, or can be nearly white, with a blotch of color on its neck or haunch.

"No two are the same," said Debbie Smothers of Pikeville.

Her own horse, Avengers Blonde Justice (better known around the barn as "Missy") is a champagne tobiano, but she didn't realize it for some time after the horse was born. Champagnes, she said, are often mistaken for buckskins or palominos, having the same honey color base coat.

"Champagnes almost always have some mottling, or freckles, around their noses and rumps," she said.

What makes Missy a tobiano is the fact that the color patterns are distinct -- you can see clearly where the gold ends and the white begins. The mare doesn't have a lot of "chrome," or white, with a streak down one shoulder, a spot on her neck and a smaller spot on her hindquarters. The white on her legs, however, does extend far above the hocks on her back legs, reaffirming her status as a spotted horse. She also has a perfect question mark-shaped strip in her head.

"I'm just as glad she doesn't have a lot of white on her," said Debbie, laughing as she bathed and scrubbed those white parts with a special shampoo to make them gleam. "It's easier to clean and this stuff is not cheap!"

Most of the horses they brought with them from Pikeville are tobianos, but they do have some sabinos.

"Sabinos are sort of 'roaned up,'" said Jason Simmons,, also with the group from Pikeville. "On a tobiano, the spots are more defined."

In a sabino, he said, "the color never breaks across the back," meaning the white part of the coloration never, or very rarely, crosses the back of the horse.

The sabino coloration is a variation of overo, according to equiworld.net, and outside of the Tennessee walking horse and spotted saddle horse circles, it is rarer than the ordinary overo, which has the same roaning pattern, more white on the head, and often blue eyes.

The coloring shouldn't make a difference when it comes to judging the spotted saddle horse's gait. In fact the SSHBEA web site states quite clearly: "No preference should be shown in judging as to color combinations. No color combination or pattern should be preferred over any other color combination and/or pattern."

Nonetheless ...

"I think the markings can help," said Debbie. "If you've got two horses that are moving the same, I think the flashier horse might get the judges' attention."

Tobiano

Probably the most common pattern, a Tobiano generally has four white legs, at least below the hocks and knees. The dark color of the pattern usually covers one or both flanks. The splashes of color are smooth and rounded and very distinct.

The white on the face is usually like that of a solid colored horse -- snips, stars, strips and blazes -- and the tail is usually a mix of two colors.

Overo

This pattern is less common than the tobiano. The white areas usually display more ragged edges than do the tobiano spots. It is rare for white to extend onto the back. The head is usually marked extensively with white and the blue eyes are more common. The white patches commonly occur on the sides, neck and/or belly. The white pattern is usually horizontal, as opposed to the tobiano pattern, which is more vertically arranged. Overos often have one or more colored feet. Overos are rarely all white; most of the white foals die because of intestinal malfunctions a few days after birth. (This is called "fatal white").

Sabino

Sabino is a variation of Overo coloring, and probably the one with which most Tennessee walking horse people are familiar. The colors speckle, or "roan," where they meet, and they rarely have a common facial marking. Instead, their heads can be spattered and speckled, or even "bald" -- solid white. Another distinct characteristic of the sabino is that they generally have three or four white legs.

Frame Overo

White spots along the horse's barrel, with a "frame" of darker color around the white. More than 95 percent of all frame overos are solid colored along the back from the withers to the tail, and it is uncommon for the mane to be of mixed color.

Tovero

Not a common pattern, this is a combination of spotting of that of both the tobiano and overo patches. Usually the head has a lot of white, while the body has the more distinct tobiano patches.

Piebald

This term is more common in the United Kingdom (England) and refers to any black and white spotting pattern.

Skewbald

Another term found more often in the UK, it refers to a spotting pattern of white and any color other than black.

Tricolored

This is a term for a horse with three colors.

-- Sources: equiworld.net, Spotted Saddle Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association.