SPOTTED BEAUTY TRIUMPHS! THE MAGNIFICENCE OF APPALOOSAS NOW

ADOBE TOWN APPALOOSAS

Magnificent patterns are what set appaloosa horses apart, at first blush. But once you get to know them, you learn more of their unique qualities. It’s a wonderful thing that they were saved from extinction, twice.

Mottled, or parti-colored patterns scatter across the Appaloosas’ fine coats, highly varied in style and distribution. Furthering their patterned beauty, Appaloosas sport striped hooves. Another interesting color note: Appaloosas eyes are unique in having white sclera.

While artwork depicting horses with Appaloosa-style spotting exists in prehistoric caves in Europe, as well as in ancient Greece and China, the Appaloosa horse breed was introduced to the New World by Spanish explorers. The Native American Nez Perce Indians further refined, selecting for speed, strength, loyalty, and patterned beauty. 

For all their glory, Appaloosas were almost rendered extinct after most of the Nez Perce and their horses were slaughtered in the 1877 war. A small number of Appaloosa escaped. With the help of dedicated breeders, the Appaloosa breed was preserved.

But this dotted breed faced a more recent threat in Adobe Town, Montana. In the fall of 2014, a magnificent large herd of wild Appaloosa, living nearby, was rounded up, divided, and shipped off. 

The strong family bonds cruelly broken, as the leader, a stallion named Bronze Warrior, and his sons got sent to Colorado, the colts and fillies went to Carson City, Nevada, and the mares were held in a pen in another part of Montana.

Photographer Carol J. Walker, was moved. She joined forces with other advocates to rescue the Adobe Town Appaloosa family. Walker documents the story in her new award-winning book, Galloping to Freedom: Saving the Adobe Town Appaloosas. 

It’s impossible to look at Walker’s stunning images of these wild speckled beauties and not be moved.

The book tracks the group’s effort to find the horses, then reunite them and set them free.

Painted Hills Publishing

Read more about Beautiful Patterns this week.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Carol J. Walker. Galloping to Freedom: Saving the Adobe Town Appaloosas.
2. Image: by Carol J. Walker. Red Roan Stallion & Mares & Foals.
3. Image: by Carol J. Walker. The Bay Roan Stallion.
4. Image: by Carol J. Walker. Two Appaloosas.
5. Image: by Carol J. Walker. Tecumseh & Tonkawa, so alike.
6. Image: by Carol J. Walker. Wild horses, Mustangs in White Mountain, WY.
7. Image: by Carol J. Walker. Galloping to Freedom: Saving the Adobe Town Appaloosas.
8. Image: by Carol J. Walker. A Wild Mare In Adobe Town.
9. Image: by Carol J. Walker. Wild horses, Mustangs in White Mountain, WY.
10. Image: by Carol J. Walker. Bronze Warrior and his family.
11. Image: by BN App - Download now!
12. Image: by Carol J. Walker. Mica Runs By.