HORSE MARKINGS

:''Note: This article is about markings on any type or color of horse and does not discuss horse coat colors generally. For information on horses who have coat colors that genetically produce distinctive markings, see equine coat color.''
'Markings' on horses are usually distinctive white areas on an otherwise dark base coat color. Most horses have some markings, and they help to identify the horse as a unique individual. Markings are present at birth and do not change over the course of the horse's life. Most markings have pink skin underneath the white hairs, though a few faint markings may occasionally have white hair with no underlying pink skin. Markings may appear to change slightly when a horse grows or sheds its winter coat, however the difference is simply a factor of hair coat length, the underlying design does not change.

On a gray horse, markings visible at birth may become hidden as the horse turns white with age, but markings can still be determined by trimming the horse's hair closely, then wetting down the coat to see where there is pink skin and black skin under the hair.

Contents

Types of Markings

Non-white markings

Other markings

Other identifying features

Coat Colors with distinctive patterns

References

Types of Markings

'Facial markings'
★ Bald Face: a very wide blaze, extending to or past the eyes. Some, though not all baldfaced horses have blue eyes.	A "baldfaced" horse
★ Blaze: a wide white stripe down the middle of the face	A horse with a blaze
★ Star: a white marking between or above the eyes ★ Strip, stripe, or race: a narrow white stripe down the middle of the face. ★ Snip: a white marking on the muzzle, between the nostrils	A horse with a star, interrupted stripe, and snip
'Additional terms used to describe facial markings'
★ Faint: A small, yet permanent marking that usually consists of white hairs without any underlying pink skin. ★ Interrupted: A marking, also usually a strip or blaze, that is broken and not solid for the entire length of the face. ★ Irregular or crooked: A marking, usually a strip or blaze, that does not have a more or less straight path.	This horse has a star and an irregular stripe
'Leg markings'
★ Coronet: white just above the hoof, around coronary band, usually no more than 1 inch (2.5cm) above hoof ★ Pastern: white marking that extends above the top of the hoof, but stops below the fetlock ★ Fetlock or Sock: white marking that extends into the fetlock, occasionally called a "boot." ★ Sock: white marking that extends higher than the fetlock but not as high as the knee or hock. This marking is also sometimes called a "boot." ★ Stocking: white marking that extends at least to the bottom of the knee or hock, sometimes higher	Shorter marking is sometimes called a "fetlock" or a "sock," taller marking is clearly a sock A stocking
'Additional terms used to describe leg markings'
★ Partial: When the marking only extends up one side of the leg to the height indicated. ★ "High White:" White stockings above the knee or hock, sometimes extending onto the flank or belly, sometimes characteristic of the sabino color pattern.	A horse with "high white," including stockings on all four legs

Non-white markings

★ Bend-Or spots: Dark faint spotting, usually seen on horses with a Chestnut or Palomino coat color.

★ Ermine marks: The occurrence of black marks on a white marking, most often seen on leg markings just above the hoof.

Other markings

Horses may have isolated body spots that are not large or numerous enough to qualify them as an Appaloosa, Pinto or Paint. Such markings are usually simply called "body spots," sometimes identified by location, i.e. "belly spot," "flank spot," etc. When this type of isolated spotting occurs, it is usually the action of the sabino gene.
Horses may develop white markings over areas where there was an injury to the animal, either to cover scar tissue from a cut or abrasion, or to reflect harm to the underlying skin or nerves. One common type of scarring that produces patches of white hairs are "saddle marks," which are round or oval marks on either side of the withers, produced by a pinching saddle that had been worn over a long period of time.
''Birdcatcher spots'' are small white spots, usually between 1 mm and 1 inch (25.4 mm) in diameter. It is not yet known what controls their expression, although it is believed that they are not genetic. Birdcatcher spots occur in many breeds. These spots may occur late in a horse's life, or may occur and then disappear.
''Ticking'' or ''Birdcatcher ticks'' are markings that involves white flecks of hair at the flank, and white hairs at the base of the tail, called a "skunk tail". These patterns are permanent and probably genetic. It is thought that this roaning effect might be linked to the rabicano gene. The name comes from a Thoroughbred horse named Birdcatcher, who had white hairs throughout his flank and tail.
A type of deliberate human-created scarring that results in white hair is freeze branding, a relatively painless method of permanently marking a horse for identification purposes. Some forms of hot branding may also scar lightly enough to leave white hairs rather than bare skin, but hot branding is a process that can be painful to the animal.
Additionally, scars left from pin firing or bar firing, in which an injury is blistered with hot iron, can leave dots or lines of white hair in a very distinct pattern. This is usually seen on Thoroughbreds that have raced. This treatment is not commonly practiced, but such markings are still occasionally seen.
Scars from accidents, as well as old injury sites (such as bowed tendons), can also be used to identify a horse.

Other identifying features

Horses can be uniquely identified by more than just markings or brands. A few other physical characteristics sometimes used to distinguish a horse from another are:

★ Whorls, colloquially known as "cowlicks": divergent or convergent patches of hair found anywhere on the body but mostly on the head, neck, chest, belly, or just in front of the stifles.

★ "Glass" eye, "Moon" eye or "Night" eye: A blue eye. Horses with blue eyes are less common than horses with brown eyes, but can see equally well.

★ Chestnuts: A callous-like area on the inside of the horse's leg that has a subtle pattern, but one unique to each horse. It has been proposed that chestnuts could be used as a type of "fingerprint" to identify a horse, but the idea has failed to become widespread in practice, probably in part because the chestnut continually grows and sheds, making precise measurement a challenge.

★ "Prophet's thumbs," or muscle dimples, are small indentations in the muscle, usually found on the horse's neck.

Coat Colors with distinctive patterns

Some horse coat colors are distinguished by unique patterns. However, even for horses with coat colors that are arranged in a manner unique to each individual horse, these patterns are not called "markings." Some coat colors partially distinguished by unique patterning include:

★ Appaloosa or "Leopard": A breed and a horse coat color pattern of small leopard-type spotting.

★ Bay: A horse coat color that features "black points" on a red base coat. All bay horses have a black mane, tail and legs (except where overlain by white markings), caused by the presence of the Agouti gene. Most have black hairs along the edges of their ears and on their muzzles, and occasionally will have a slight darkening of the hairs along their backbone.

★ Brindle: An extremely rare horse coat color, it features faint vertical striping in a shade slightly diluted from the base coat color. (Not to be confused with the zebra, which is an entirely different species.)

★ Dun: A horse coat color that features a slightly darker hair shade from the base coat located in a dorsal stripe along the horse's backbone, horizontal striping on the upper legs and sometimes transverse striping across the shoulders. These markings identify a horse as a dun as opposed to a buckskin or a bay.

★ Pinto A horse coat color that is distinguished by one of several possible broad spotting patterns, as opposed to the smaller spots typical of the Appaloosa. ''See also'' American Paint Horse, Overo, Tobiano, and Sabino.

★ Roan: A horse coat color that features white and dark hairs intermingled together, but the horse usually has head and legs of the base color with very little white. Roans sometimes have dark areas on their coats similar to Bend-Or spots.

References

★ "Horse Markings"

★ "Horse and Pony Head Markings"

★ "Horse and Pony Leg Markings"

★ "Identifying Horse parts and markings," ''Adapted From: Horses For Dummies, 2nd Edition.''