Anyone know what the pattern on this horse is called?

[Florida chick]

Tobiano

 

[verthandi]

Actually everyone guess could be right. He is a medicine hat paint unless over 30% of his body has the color other than white. Genetically medicine hats can be overo, tobiano or tovero. But tovero produces the classic medicine hat.

This horse has all the qualifying markings for medicine hat. He has the ears, the front chest shield and the flank shield. Many of them have small dark circles of color on their mouths too where only the skin is colored and not the hair. He has more color on the face and neck that most people think of in medicine hat, but the fact that he has all the other qualifying markings is great.

Here's a decent coat marking site. http://www.coloredhorses.com/PP2new.html

 

[Guinea Goonie]

It is a Tobiano paint. According to my wife that has breed paint horses for 35 years, this is what it is if the back is solid white.

Medicine hats do not have a blaze.

 

[verthandi]

I respectfully disagree about the medicine hats not being allowed to have a blaze, but it is a lost point as the Medicine Hat Registry does not exist any more. They had guidelines for color. The medicine hat bonnet was the primary factor, but other markings were used to identify them. And the more factors that were visible the easier the identification was made.

The two colored tail was also one of the identifiers, with the white at the top and the color at the bottom. I can't tell if the OP's horse had this factor or not.

This colt is a medicine hat, and his sire is also. His sire has less color but all factors. The colt has a blaze only on one side, but his total body color is under the 30% allowed. He is a tovero but other paint genetic categories will also produce similar patterns.

Dirt and all.

 

[Heather08]

Here I am to save the day ...

LOL j/k ...I am an obsessed color freek with horses and have raised them for over 25 years....This is a "classic Tobiano, however if she had blue eyes tobiano does not produce this pattern it is Frame and Splash ( 2 "overo" Patterns) that are SUSPECTED to be blue eyeed patterns and a small group that feel that Sabino also causes Blue eyes...There are 3 "Overo" type patterns that roots stem from traditional stock horses (QHs) and why now they can be dual registered since the white rule has been broadened...MOST tobianos have one of the various Overo patterns , such as sabino ect, if they have face white , they are more then TObiano, as tobiano does not create face white so the term Tovero is pretty mis-uesd as often only used when one see's OBIVIOUS overo patterns with mixed tobiano colors, also the term Medicine hat and war bonnet is very open for interperation and jsut a barn yard descript, there is no wrong way to describe it , its just a minimal color on top of the head and not use for registry purposes...... NOW to get preechy, IF this is a mare or breeding animal I would highly suggest if ever bred to have her OLW tested (25$) so you can make informed breeding choices , even Frame and hide in a typical tobiano pattern and you would be sadly dissapointed to have a lethal white foal after waiting 340 days for a bundle of joy!...ALSO for more informed color questions join us on www.equinecolor.com

I imagine a medicine hat registry didnt fly becuse you cant predct how to produce the pattern. Other then maybe a homozygous SPlash/tobiano I guess .

 

[big greg barker]

Quote:
Very well put. saved me a lot of typing. My only other thought was Holstien :-D

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:
Wow, Heather, you are a treasure trove of information on this subject! I am very impressed, even though it made my eyes water to try to read it all. But if ever I need to buy or breed a paint horse, I'll be in touch with you.

Most of what I know about horses is through reading, and I had read some about the medicine hat markings on horses, and the legends associated with it. I wonder if some of their mystique is due to the unpredictability of their occurance. So when you had a foal born with these markings it would seem like a miracle, a random blessing, and so these horses were valued more because of their rarity.

 

[Akane]

I say tovero and from what I can see in the pics bay tovero. There's a lot of white there to be one gene and not enough solid markings to tell what overo gene. Plus the markings are practically identical to the main tovero example pic on apha.com.

There's a paint horse journal just on toveros with some pics http://www.apha.com/breed/pdf/ToveroDec97.pdf