I was on my Facebook pages the other day, and I spotted a photo of an Appaloosa marked Quarter Horse stallion's promotion on the right column. What? I had to follow that link! Well, Reminic in Spots is a well balanced stallion, with true, honest, Appaloosa color. How can this be? I've personally noticed a few AQHA horses with some suspicious looking Appaloosa type roaning or "chestnut on chestnut" spots in the past, but nothing quite as striking and beautiful as Reminic. The Rodeo Queen for WSU in 1976 rode a nice chestnut AQHA mare, with solid chestnut spots in a lightly roaned coat. Reminic is much more loudly and distinctively marked. Check him out for yourself: http://www.quarterhorsespot.com/.


As I learned in 1976 from the President of the ApHC, George Hatley, many early breeders would register the foals born without color into the AQHA studbook, while the colored foals were registered in the foundation ApHA studbooks. Sometimes, even solid colored yearlings may color out later - and horses carrying the original Appaloosa gene from this stock horses still exist. The foundation breeders weren't working with many horses to begin with, and most of the early foundation horses have ancestors in common, many returning to spot-carrying, Spanish and Norman stock.

I believe it's a great development for all the breeds involved, and will contribute to our understanding of the early Quarter horse and Appaloosa studbooks. The background of horses chosen from the finest of the Spanish mustang and Eastern horses of the American colonists, became the seed stock for some of the finest horses the world has ever known. Now, this brilliant genetic echo is a reminder of their unique heritage. More