"Rare Horse Colors and Unusual Patterns" Topic

Of possible interest as painting guide…?

See here
link

Amicalement
Armand

From the Ponybox website.

I always appreciate horse painting guides because when it comes to painting them I truly lack imagination. The thing that I have to remember is these are unusual so they all shouldn't be running around in a single unit of cavalry.

Happy for that my friend! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Haven't tried anything like that one yet, but I find horse stock photos and find one I want try and make it as close as I can. None of my last few hundred are the same.

One thing to remember, if you are doing historical gaming, some of the different horse colors were not in existence before the discovery of the Americas. Such as paints, pintos, appaloosas, creams and others. Some were unique American Indian breeds. Other really unique colors are only possible in certain breeds. Also remember, in latter armies. 1700s forward, they liked to keep colors together, you normally would not mix colors, such as grays and browns in the same squadron.

Most of the paints etc show up in ancient and medieval art and literature before contact – e.g. in Ancient Egypt, India, China, Thrace…
Leopard spotted horses (essentially the same as Appaloosas) are shown in e.g. cave art, Chinese art and there are still examples of native leopard spot horses in Central Asia and at least one Turkic tribe may have been named after a preference for paint horses (though the meaning for various 'colour' tribe names is debated and may be nothing to do with horses).

A big difference was that Native Americans seem to have preferred these patterns whereas in Europe and Asia they were periodically fashionable. There became all sorts of theories about colour and strength for instance.

The Triumphzug of Maximilian is a great source for horse colours. Any artwork has to be treated with a pinch of salt, but the colours shown are all realistic compared to modern pictures. Paint horses are rare – at a quick glance I think I spotted three or four – but they are there.

I agree about the later preference for keeping colours together. Even when finding replacements on campaign, iirc there are accounts of a heavy cavalry regt commandeering dark horses a lighter regt had acquired.

True about the Egyptians, Indians, and Chinese, my reference point primarily to the horses and breeds used by the Europeans for war horses.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand