Appaloosa - A Great Equine
Sunday, August 5th, 2007
If horses are kept inside in a barn, they require regular daily exercise for their physical health and mental well-being. Some scholars believe the Spanish Conquistadors brought some vividly-marked horses with them when they first arrived in the early 1500s, others believe that the Russian fur-traders brought them at a later date. The Nez Perce obtained their original horses from the Shoshone people, and from there took advantage of the fact that they lived in notable horse-breeding country, relatively safe from the raids of other tribes, and developed strict breeding selection practices for their horses. The earliest evidence horses with a spotted coat pattern is from the cave paintings dating from the Upper Paleolithic era, circa 18,000 BC found at Lascaux and Peche-Merle in France. The Nez Perce tribe of the American Pacific Northwest developed the breed. The Nez Perce people were a relatively peaceful nation, a high amount of of whom engaged in agriculture as well as horse breeding.
