Pony Girl commented yesterday that she'd never realized there were wild Appaloosas out there, so I thought I'd post a few photos. The Warm Springs herd is known as the "Appy Herd", although you'll find the coat pattern scattered about in other HMAs as well. Jet, my black mare, was from Warm Springs but didn't have the appy coat pattern.The mare in the top photo shows the typical Appaloosa sclera around her eye. Her color is known as a champagne dilute. This was still a bit of her winter coat; I'd love to see her now and see what she looks like today.
In the photo below, you can see a very old style Appaloosa. Poor little thing had a mane that stood straigh up in the air. And her tail? Well....
Yup...scrawny little rat tail!
The mares in these photos were all at the Monroe adoption in 2007. There wasn't a huge amount of color, but it does show the Appaloosa characteristics in a number of them. As I said, though, you can find Appies in a variety of places. The stallion below was gathered from Jackie's Butte in '07. No rat tail for this boy!
With HMAs gathered roughly every 4-5 years (depending on funding, of course, as well as range conditions), the Warm Springs horses may be coming up again before too long. Perhaps by then I can 
7 comments:
Oh cool, thanks Tracey, for filling us in on the spots!! I love that Champagne dilute, and of course, the last Appy, too!! ;) This will only make my future Mustang adoption options much harder now. Do you think the Appy/paint colored Mustangs go faster? Paint Girl said she read that if there are Pintos in a bunch for adoption, they tend to adopt out faster than the solids, so they don't bring as many paints in from the herds, so that it doesn't leave all the solids without homes. Not sure if I explained that well?
What Pony Girl is saying is, what I was told at the last Mustang adoption I went too, is that they typically bring the solid colors, not the pinto's, palominos etc, because everyone tends to want the colorful mustangs, not the "plain" bay or sorrel, (to me they are not plain, but some people think they are). So if they bring in the solids, they adopt more out. Is this true?
I was at that auction in 2007, where you have the pictures of the Appy Mustangs. I don't remember seeing that one there, but my aging memory isn't all that great anymore! I believe I was looking at some nice, bay geldings! I probably saw you there, but remember, that aging memory! LOL!!
What I meant to say, by adopting more out, is that if they have the pintos, than everyone is bidding on the pinto and not the bays/sorrels. So if they leave out the pintos, than they obviously aren't a factor in the bidding, so people have to go for the bays/sorrels. Am I making any sense? It's late, sometimes I start to wonder about myself!!! :)
LOL, ladies...I know exactly what you're saying. It's true, in the past colored horses would adopt faster than the 'plain brown wrappers'. But this last group of horses brought into Arlington was full of color; a pinto, palomino, several grullas, duns and roans. One pinto and two grullas went, plus three solid colored horses. One grulla, the sweet palomino yearling and all the roans and dun factor horses were left behind.
Sometimes, if you're looking for a particular coat color or pattern, it's best to head to the corrals in the fall to see what they've gathered up and have available. But it's also much more difficult to determine what you're adopting. It's a toss up.
As for that appy stallion, he was gathered fall of '07, which was after the Monroe adoption. He was also slated to be turned back, from what I was told, rather than being sent to long term holding. Sometimes some of the better looking stallions get to stay out there to continue producing. This boy, as I recall, was being swapped into a new HMA, allowing for some genetic diversity out there. So perhas when Beatys Butte is gathered next time, we'll see some spotted butts there, too!
Love Appys. Love Mustangs. It's like the best of both worlds! (shh, don't tell Kachina)
Very interesting. I never thought about any of these issues before, but it makes sense. Thanks for the lesson!
Thanks for sharing! Interesting seeing the pics and reading your post - gotta love posts that inform you and cause you to learn!
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