Sadly there are a wide variety of rare breeds in the modern world of today. Many of them simply outliving their usefulness (poor drafts) and often they were rare to begin with.
With those kinds of numbers loosing even a few breeders becomes a big deal. Here to help educate everyone, I wanted to profile some of the more elusive breeds of the world. The second installment of rare equine breeds, this addition is dedicated to Florida Cracker Horses all the way to the Irish Draught.
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Thanks to Deviant Art for their network of fantastic artists and their work. Be sure to check out Even Big Kids Like to Color Horses for more line drawings of horses for everyone to color.
Color in your favorite and send me a picture of it, I’ll post them on the site for everyone to see.
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There are hundreds of horse breeds across the globe, some we see every day and some are far more elusive. In fact, some of them are rare enough to be considered endangered and that’s positively sad.
Take a look at a selection of the rarest horses on the globe, there might even be one or two in here you’ve never seen before. And this is just the start of the alphabet, I’ve got plenty more to come, video, images info & all!
Be sure to check out the rest of the alphabet: F – K | K – O | P – W
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The toxic plants page is steadily growing, and in doing my research I find that many toxic plants are quite beautiful.
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There are four basic horse coat colors: black, chestnut, bay and brown. From these stem the wide variety of color modifications, dilutions and white patterns we see today in domestic and feral horses the world over.
There are several genes which modify base colors, including mealy, sooty and flaxen. The can also affect other modifiers, dilutions and white patterns creating an even wider range of each coat color.
There is a number of dilutions that affect color, including dun, silver, champagne and cream. They have an effect on bases, modified colors, other dilutions and can be double diluted for more extreme expressions.
White patterns can affect any color and produce some of the more spectacular horse coats, like pinto, appaloosa and roan. Some breeds are bred for their spotted patterns, while others discourage and won’t register them.
White markings on the face or legs can occur in all colors and are not (always) related to a white pattern. There are also a variety of different body markings, some from spotting patterns and others simply genetics at work making nice things.
There is a fairly wide variety of flaxen shades, but they fall under four (slightly) different general chestnut categories.
Flaxen animals can be affected by white patterns on any breed that carries them, making some brilliantly beautiful combinations. White patterns can also mask and even mimic some of the flaxen characteristics.
Did you know that oats can be poisionous to horses?
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*Update, as of 12/22/08 it appears Nickerit is history. Check out my list of social networks for horse enthusiasts to find other horse communities online.
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As I’m working on my own redesign I’ve been searching the web to find inspiration. I found Girls Horse Club Blog, and I like the design. So I thought I’d share it.
They feature articles from many facets of the horse world, like International Horse Girls, Finding the Right Barn, You Know You’re a Horse Girl When.
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This is one modifier that is fairly easy to visually identify, they almost always have obvious pale hairs around their muzzle. The other soft spots tend to be affected in varying degrees. Here are some of the characteristics that define a pangaré animal and generally the easiest way to identify them.
While mealy doesn’t affect true blacks, when associated with a black base it is called a ‘carrier’ gene. On chestnut coats, it can present itself as flaxen by creating a blonde mane and tail.
Mealy animals may also be affected by other modifiers and dilutions, some of them can mask visual mealy identifiers.
The white patterns affect most of the other dilutions and modifiers in the horse color world, although they can mask identifying characteristics. Perhaps easier to recognize on roan or rabicano animals, appaloosa and pinto can mask mealy traits almost entirely.
This coloring can be found on chestnut, black, bay and brown coats. Although for obvious reasons, darkening of the coat only has a visible affect on variations of bay, brown and chestnut animals. The cause of this coloring and how it’s passed on genetically is unknown.
The sooty dilution is far more obvious on a lighter coat, so it tends to have the most dramatic effect on those displaying a single dose of the cream dilution gene.
The white patterns can mask or conceal sooty coloring, although when the sooty shines through it gives them a new depth of unique coloration.
Sites like Fugly Horse of the Day earn their traffic by slaughtering (with words) the fuglier aspects of the species (or should I say those that breed & sell them). If we continue to clone horses, this poor website will be rendered obsolete, which is sad because it makes me laugh.
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Black
Chestnut
Bay
Brown
Pangare
Sooty
Flaxen
Dun
Cream
Silver
Champagne
Pearl
Mushroom
Light Black
Grey
Roan
Pinto
Appaloosa
Rabicano
Face
Legs
Body
Rare
Liver Chestnut
Red Chestnut
Standard Chestnut
Sandy Chestnut
Roan
Pinto
Appaloosa
Rabicano
Chestnut Base
Bay Base
Seal Base
Flaxen Modifier
Dun Dilution
Silver Dilution
Champagne Dilution
Roan
Pinto
Appaloosa
Chestnut Base
Bay Base
Brown Base
Cream Dilution on Chestnut
Cream Dilution on Bay
Pinto
Appaloosa