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This website is owned and created by Nancy Kerson, a private citizen. Information about BLM adoptions is offered as a service, to help mustangs find homes and to promote public appreciation of wild horses and burros.
Please direct adoption questions to the BLM, not to me. And we sure as heck are not a Mustang car dealership! | This website:
Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
All Rights Reserved.
I am happy to share, but please give me a credit when you "borrow" things off my website! Thanks! Just say, "author, Nancy Kerson www.mustangs4us.com " |
VIDEOS OF INTEREST TO MUSTANG & BURRO ADOPTERS:
Kitty Lauman:
From Wild to Willing: Using the Bamboo Pole to Gentle Mustangs
More from Lauman Training available now!DVD or VHS
(2-DVD or 2-VHS set) almost 3 hours of instruction! $49.95 plus $5 shipping/handling = $54.95 total 
Lesley Neuman:
The First Touch
Gentling Your Mustang
$45.00
Lesley works with 3 wild horses at a BLM adoption, and very clearly explains what is happening, what she is doing, & what she sees in each horse as it progresses. Study this video and you can learn "pressure and release" gentling techniques to gentle your own new mustang! 
Help for Burro adopters!
Crystal Ward
Donkey Training
All the basics of gentling, handling, and training. A MUST for new burro adopters! Good for domestic donkeys, too! Can't do Paypal?
No Problem!
Just Call TOLL FREE
1-877-345-6748
(1-877-FILMS4U)
____________________
Can't do Paypal?
No Problem!
Just Call TOLL FREE
1-877-345-6748
(1-877-FILMS4U)
 
If you don't want to buy online, Call TOLL FREE
1-877-345-6748
(1-877-FILMS4U)
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| | PINTO/PAINT
refers to horses with white patches or spots
Paint is a Breed Registry.
Pinto describes the coloration and is the correct term for Mustangs
(although many people prefer the term "paint" - and "Pinto" can also refer to a registered Pinto, which is essentially a spotted Arabian)
| HOW IT WORKS: Pinto genes block the base color from expressing itself, leaving the hair white. Imagine a batik, in which certain areas of the cloth have a wax covering that prevents it from taking on color when dipped into a vat of dye. In the same way the pinto gene blocks a horse's normal base color from showing in certain areas, creating a spotted or mottled pattern. |
Paint/Pinto patterns were among the original Spanish horses brought to America.Nowadays, when we see a pinto-patterned mustang, most people assume that it is some recent quarter-horse breeder's reject or escapee. Not necessarily so. Click HERE for Dr. Philip Sponenberg's article about the Spanish Colonial Horses in America. The Paint/Pinto patterns were very popular among Native American horsemen.
(Pendleton Blanket)
This makes the "Indian Ponies" attractive to modern romanticists, and today the loudly patterned horses are much in demand. But for many years, racism against the Indians trickled down into the horse world in the form of a prejudice against paints/pintos that still exists today, although the American Paint Horse Association and others have done a lot of good work to overcome this. Why Most Mustangs Are Not Pintos:
This picture composite of Root Beer & Sparky may illustrate why Paints/Pintos are rare among wild horses, even though they are common among domestics. (Sparky likes to hide behind bushes and pretend we can't see him - a mountain lion would not be fooled!) WHITE SPOTTING PATTERNS: Appaloosa Complex | Tobiano | The Overo Group | Other Pintos |
There are TWO major types of Paint/Pinto: Overo and Tobiano.
Sapphire, a Frame Overo Mustang re-possessed by the BLM for severe abuse is shown here being rehabilitated by Ginny Freeman of Orland, CA. She was then adopted by Jan Tofting of Guerneville.
The "Overo" category includes at least three distinct color genes: Frame Overo, Sabino, & Splash, and the term is used to describe any pattern that is not clearly Tobiano Each of these patterns has its own gene. However, any individual horse may carry and exhibit traits from more than one of these genes. The patterns created by these genes can look much alike. For these reasons, they are often lumped together under the heading of "Overo." With OVero, the white is usually confined to the sides and underside of the horse. White does not cross the topline, except above the withers. (Exceptions: Medicine Hat Tovero or Maximum White Sabinos or Toveros) - White extends over the topline on the back and/or rump
- Tail is tipped in the base color (black or red)
- White patches are large, soft, rounded blobs
Wild-looking Pinto from BLM adoption at Roseville, CA
There are also variations and less common sub-types, including TOVERO and MEDICINE HAT. Most of these sub-types are extreme expressions of overo, or a mixture of tobiano and overo. MAXIMUM SABINO & TOVEROA PURE WHITE horse, with normal (not purely pink) skin coloring can be a MAXIMUM TOVERO. Such a horse may have no dark areas, or only a few very tiny ones, that may go undetected, because the white mask is so extensive. 
This apparently pure white mustang at a BLM adoption in Madera, CA, was labeled "pinto" - an example of a maximum tovero?
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Tovero, Medicine Hat, Pintaloosa & Maximum White Pintos
The endless variations of spots and splashes that occur in horses - and mustangs in particular - are a source of endless delight and discovery. They include the Pintos, the Appaloosa Complex, Splashed Whites, and Sabinos. All patterns of white are block the horse's normal color, just as white paint can cover up a brown or black base, or a stencil or wax covering can prevent paint from sticking to a cloth or paper. INDEPENDENCE:
Genes that control the colored parts of the horse and the genes that create the white patterns are not related and act independently of each other. A horse can have a red or black base. This base can be modified by ay of the other color genes, such as Roan or Champagne or Creme. This can also have an overlay of Tobiano or Overo or Sabino or whatever. |  | EXAMPLE: This colt is a black-based horse with dun dilution and possibly Creme and/or Agouti as well. The resulting color is partially blocked by Tobiano, which creates the white patterns and high white leg stockings. 
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Appaloosa Complex | Tobiano | The Overo Group | Other Pintos The Base Colors: Red Black Major Headings: Agouti/Bay | Grey | Pangare | White Spotting Patterns | Rabicano | Roan | Sooty | Miscellaneous Color Issues The Single Dominant Genes: Agouti | Appaloosa | Brindle | Dun | Grey | Pangare | Pintos | Rabicano | Roans & Roaning | Silver | Sooty | The Pinto Patterns: Tobiano | The Overo Complex: Frame | Sabino | Splash | Tovero The Incomplete Dominant Genes: Champagne | Creme The Recessive Genes: Red | Flaxen Colors with multiple genetic bases: Blue | Brown | White | Roan-like Effects Miscellaneous Color Issues: Lethal White | Palomino or Flaxen Chestnut? | How to tell the Overo Patterns Apart |
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