Most Popular Horses Part 1

Today I am posting about the top 10 most popular horses, in two parts. Wow it must have been hard to choose out of all the more than 300 different breeds of horses!

First off and one of my favorites is the Arabian.

 Arabians were bred for endurance. Bred in the desert, they were often used for raids, and stolen in them. They were prized by the Bedouin people, who would often keep them in their tents, to keep them from being stolen. People use them a lot in endurance races. you can learn more about them at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_horse

Another is the American Paint.

There are tons of different pattern types in the American Paint, here are a couple:

• Tobiano: The most common spotting pattern, characterized by rounded markings with white legs and white across the back between the withers and the dock of the tail, usually arranged in a roughly vertical pattern and more white than dark, with the head usually dark and with markings like that of a normal horse. i.e. star, snip, strip, or blaze.
• Overo: A group of spotting patterns characterized by sharp, irregular markings with a horizontal orientation, usually more dark than white, though the face is usually white, sometimes with blue eyes. The white rarely crosses the back, and the lower legs are normally dark. The APHA recognizes three overo patterns. 
• You can find more color types at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Paint_Horse

 There is also the Appaloosa

I love all the different colors and patterns on the Appaloosa, so here are some:

Spots

	General term that refers to a horse that has white or dark spots over all or a portion of its body.
Blanket or snowcap	A solid white area normally over, but not limited to, the hip area with a contrasting base color.
Blanket with spots	A white blanket which has dark spots within the white. The spots are usually the same color as the horse's base color.
Leopard	A white horse with dark spots that flow out over the entire body. Considered an extension of a blanket to cover the whole body.
Few spot leopard	A mostly white horse with a bit of color remaining around the flank, neck and head.
Snowflake	A horse with white spots, flecks, on a dark body. Typically the white spots increase in number and size as the horse ages.
Appaloosa roan, marble   or varnish roan	A distinct version of the leopard complex. Intermixed dark and light hairs with lighter colored area on the forehead, jowls and frontal bones of the face, over the back, loin and hips. Darker areas may appear along the edges of the frontal bones of the face as well and also on the legs, stifle, above the eye, point of the hip and behind the elbow. The dark points over bony areas are called "varnish marks" and distinguish this pattern from a traditional roan.
Mottled	A fewspot leopard that is completely white with only mottled skin showing.
Roan blanket or Frost	Horses with roaning over the croup and hips. The blanket normally occurs over, but is not limited to, the hip area.
Roan blanket with spots	A horse with a roan blanket that has white and/or dark spots within the roan area

You can find more information at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appaloosa

 And the last one I am doing for this post is the Miniature Horse!!!

The Miniature horse is basically a small version of a horse

A Miniature horse is usually shorter than 34-38 at the last hairs of the mane. Though they are a lot less than 14.2 hands*, which is the height ponies are below, they usually have the characteristics of horses, and are considered "horses" by their respective registries. They tend to be very friendly and interact with people they still have their horse characteristics. Learn more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_horse

* hands equal to 4 inches.

NEXT POST will have the Morgan, the Quarter horse, and the Standardbred.