Splashed White

Thrown in with overo until fairly recent times. It is now recognised as a separate gene. It is easily the most unrecognised of the pinto patterns. This can be a fascinating colour with the horses looking like they either dipped their head in a bucket of white paint or stood in a big white dam! Another way of thinking about it is the dark colour poured on from above. Unless it reaches extreme forms though is very rarely identified. It cant be tested for which also makes it harder to identify. Many, many gypsy horses probably have splash but it is very rarely noticeable because of all the Tobiano and sabino characteristics. On its own it has very straight clear edges to the white areas and horses usually have some white on the legs. It probably causes most of the blue eyes in Gypsy horses too. Sabino in conjunction with Splash tends to put black eye liner around an otherwise white face. Although it is thought that two splash genes probably counteracts this effect and you end up with a full white face, blue eyes and no black eyeliner. Splash in conjunction with Tobiano can sometimes decease the amount of white on the chest and make the leg white run up the leg into the chest or flank. The lines will be cleaner and straighter than if it was sabino doing it. Splash and Tobiano can put a black outline around the mouth too if the nose is otherwise white. White on the tip of the tail can be splash, tobiano usually is dark at the end. Blue eyes can appear even when there is very little face white, it is just what splash does sometimes. Just a little snip on the nose can be the splash gene. In all the pictures below many of the horses also have tobiano and sabino but their splash characteristics are still visible. It is harder to recognise though and usually more identified on the head. Basically because of all the tobiano white makes it very hard to pick splash from the backend! But on a horse without tobiano or sabino their effects certainly aren’t limited to the face.  These are also all black bases horses simply, well, because there are more black based Cobs! Splash like every other pattern gene can happen to any colour. As seen below in the palomino spashed white. The bottom of horses on this page include two very well known splashed white Paint horses plus a few others. Just to give you an idea of what splashed white will do without tobiano or sabino around. This page is a bit more extensive that some of the others but not that many people know much about Splashed White and with it so prevalent in the Gypsy Horses it is worth reading and seeing more examples. Note: Deafness is somethimes associated with splashed white. Not as common as people think, it is believed to be when the inner ear is effected by lack of pigment. Like all white markings, sometimes the lack of pigment will be in the area that causes deafness and sometimes it won't! Usually more likely to associated with more extreme expressions of splashed white though. This Gypsy Cob has a more maximum expression of Splash. Showing very typical spash effects without much influence from other patterns.  Commanche has a medium expression of splash.  Geronimo shows a more minimal expression of splash with his white nose. A very typical effect of splash, showing the head in paint bucket effect with fairly straight edges. Splash here has had very little noticable effect on the rest of her though Photo from Coates Gypsy Horses A very splashed white filly. She dipped her whole head and neck in the paint bucket!! She has the black eyeliner around her eyes too! Photo from Coates Gypsy Horses Both this mare and foal have a more minimum expression of splash. Both their noses look like they were in a small bucket of white paint. All their legs have lots of white too. The rest of their white markings are mostly due to Tobiano and sabino. Photo from Rawlings Gypsy Cobs    Very loud markings with no Tobiano. This stallion almost looks like an overo, however it is just the interaction of splash and sabino. He still shows the white line above his eyes from splash and the patch over his eye is from sabino which tends to keep colour around the eye Photo from Black Forest Shires & Gypsy Horses  Although harder to see when tobiano is present, this lovely stallion has a typical splashed nose. Also splash has reduced his tobiano chest white, I think he also has at least one blue eye Photo from Black Forest Shires & Gypsy Horses  The stallion above is a very well known Splashed White horse called Gamblin Man. He is just here to show what an fairly extensive splash looks like without all the other colour genes. These two pics are of a mare called Barlink Ultralite. Another very well known splashed white. The typical effects of splash can be seen in both these horses. A splashed white paint horse A medium expression splash on a mini pony Another typical splashed white paint A splashed white pony