What's the chance of getting spots by crossing my perch mares with an Appaloosa stud ??? I like the color but I understand the App breed is known for blindness.

I've owned several Appaloosas, most registered, some not, but all from different bloodlines and I've never had a problem with blindness. NOW, if you want color and a great work "ethic", you need one of these!!:-) We bred our leopard App mare and a black mammoth jack and got this...King Solomon, the namesake of our farm, BTW! He's 3 weeks old in this picture, but is now 12 years, 1100 lbs. and 16 hds. He's sweet, smart and willing to boot!!

Your chances are fair if the stud throws color, but haven't you heard that Apps are " Indians revenge on the white man". As far as the blindness thing, the chances are only slightly higher with Apps, but still not real common.

See if this foal color calculator helps:

http://www.animalgenetics.us/CCalculator1.asp

With the right stud it would be quite likely to get spots on a percheron. Use a real appy not one that has been bred to QH and TB to take the appy out of them. My question is why. You don't work the spots. KM

KM, I just like the spotted rumps. No, you can't work the spots, nomore than you can work the color black or the color sorrel. I was asking about the color chances.

A couple of years ago there was a team of percheron appy crosses that sold at the Small Farm Journal sale. They were white with small red spots all over them. I thought they were a very interesting and unique team. The only downside I could see was that if you lost one it would be darn near impossible to match the other. As for the indians revenge, I had a friend who once said that if appys were so bad, how did women and children riding appys outrun trained soldiers in the US calvary.

I have owned several Appaloosas and have never had one with blindness. They have all been good horses. I would love an App mule!

The indian dident carry 40 lbs junk with him, did you see what every soldier carried? Rember white man rode a horse untill played out, left the horse & walked Mexican came along rode the horse some more left him played out & walked, Indian came along rode the horse some more when the horse died the Indian eat the horse and walked run could have beat both of the others in a race still caring all he had to start with.

I read that the reason the Nez Pearce bred the appy was that it was the only breed of horse that worked the rider into a frenzy just getting to the battle. The warriors were always ready to fight upon arrival wanting to take out their frustrations on someone.

Appy spots, who knows. We have 2 currently but have had up to 8 at a time, careful breeding. Mare and stud both had full blankets, both foal are sorrels when born. Now one is fully roan and the other has just a few small spots.

I do have to say we have had 2 appys go blind, one had an eye put some how? Never affected its ability on the trail. You would never know it riding.

The other is our current roan mare. She has been loosing her sight for a while, and we think she can still see light and dark shapes but she cant see much. We have to show here the boundries of the pasture(walk her up to the fence and make a click shock like sound) and she remembers the borders. She is trained to drive/pull all implements and it doesn't affect her what so ever. You do have to be careful when leading her because she is so trusting if you don't actually stop her she will keep walking until she hits something.

They sure are sure footed in the mountains. Many places my wife and I have rode we wouldn't walk ourselves.

Toooo cute, Sharon!!! Where's the adult pic?

wannabefarmer...one pic was taken about 5 years ago (he was about 6 at the time) at the Great Mule and Donkey Celebration, in Shelbyville, TN. He wins EVERY color class he enters...placed high in some gaited classes AND timed events, too...of course, we know he's multi-talented!:-) Notice the heart on his left hip - it's perfect, almost as if it's painted on! The other one is in our pasture...I can't seem to get him to pose as often as I'd like! he he...I won't go into it now, but there's a story behind Solomon and me, from 45 years ago! Thanks
for liking him!

Wink, still interested in finding out what patterns are best to cross on your Percheron mare's for a chance at "color"?? I've discussed this a number of times with the color genetics nerds on other forums as I've considered the cross myself.

Now if someone brilliant would get a nice spotted Noriker stallion over here it would solve all our problems. :)

If you have or haven't found your answer let me know and I'll get back with you to help you out.

I have had 6 appy's in 25 years had one 24 years old went blind in one eye at 18 the other eye went blind at 20 lived 4 years totaly blind lived in a section pasture another horse would go to him when he nickered and took him to water ever day most of the time they stayed together. He was a realy good horse was ready to put him down one fall, went out and he was dead looked like he just layed down and died.