Solid Paint Breds Essay

If two horses were standing next to each other and were completely identical, except for a tiny white marking on one horse’s side, you would likely make the assumption that they were worth similar amounts of money. However, this is typically not the case in the Paint Horse industry. Due to rules put into place by the American Paint Horse Association, or APHA, only two square inches of white coloring can change the value of a horse dramatically. Solid Paint Breds, or horses that do not have two square inches or more of white on their bodies within specific boundaries, have a much lower demand in the industry than Regular Registry horses, or those who do have the required amounts of white. These markings, according the the APHA Rule Book, must be behind a line that runs from …show more content…
While they may not display the patterns of white needed for Regular Registry, they may still be carrying, but not displaying, the genes that produce these markings. Even if they do not carry the Paint genes, they can still be bred to horses with those genetics in the hopes of producing a foal with those markings. The chances are reduced without both parents having Paint genetics, but these crosses can also pay off in big ways. Hugable Dixon, a Solid Bred mare, is a prime example of the fact that horses lacking color can produce extremely high quality offspring with color when bred to the correct stallion. According to “On Solid Ground”, at the time the article was published, her foals had earned 11,345 points to lead APHA’s Lifetime Leading Dams list for the number of performance points earned. Ima Gallant Jet, Hugable Dixon’s most famous foal, has been among the Leading Sires for several years, continuing his dam’s legacy. Now, some of his offspring are in the top thirty leading sires. Without taking that chance on breeding Hugable Dixon, the entire industry would have missed out on many high quality