"One white foot, buy him, Two white feet, try him, Three white feet, give him to a friend, Four white feet and a white nose, Take off his hide and feed him to the crows."
Everyone has probably heard some variation of this old rhyme, dealing with the assumption that a bald-face horse was unreliable. The original consensus for this may have come from the Bedoin tribesman himself, who regarded "pied" (pinto-marked) Arabs (there is a pattern in Arabian horse that resembles sabino pinto) as "the brother of the cow". Does this statement have any truth?
The reasons for most of this folklore (although some may be fact) range from tests of durability to supernatural assignment. The Arab and the Spanish Conquistador both believed that the chestnut horse was the fastest and best. The red horse was symbolic of war. The Arabs state "if thou hast a dark chestnut, conduct him into battle, and if the chestnut is sorry, conduct him also into battle." The chestnut horse was said to have been the swiftest, and bravest of all the colors.
The pale-colored horse (translated literally this may read "green" - whether a pale dun, palomino, "piebald" or cremello is not exactly for certain) was held in contempt. Remember the Biblical verse "behold a Pale horse and him that sat him was Death". The Arabs also stated that the bald-faced horse with four white feet was a "carrier of the shroud".
Breeders even today may not favour a horse with extensive white markings. White hooves have been thought to be weaker than dark ones, becoming shelly and cracked easier and less apt to hold a shoe. Today suppliments and hoof care can usually help keep the light (shell-colored) hoof in better shape, but it is extra work. Bald faces often have blue eyes, which have been labeled anywhere from "wall eyes" (meaning a white ring on a staring eye), blind eyes, and china eyes. We know now that most blue eyes see no differently than amber or dark ones, although the pink skin around them may be more prone to sunburn. A few blue-eyed horses, mainly those with a dilution gene (such as cremello or perlino) may have some partial structural impairment and loss of vision in the pale blue eye.
The Native Americans certainly had no qualm in using the Bald-faced pinto. The infamous Medicine Hat pinto, so prized by the "Indians" of the American West, is a mostly-white horse, often with four white feet and an extensively marked white face. It is the particular arrangement of color on the horse which determines the label Medicine Hat. The pintos have color on the ears (bonnet), and chest (shield). These markings were considered magical, and had the ability to protect horse and rider in battle.
Lineback duns were professed best among South Americans and White North Americans in the early west. Dun-marked horses (probably due to the connection with "primitive markings") were believed to be able to go incredible distances on the least forage. This might have been true if these duns were true Spanish horses, extremely compact, tough and hardy.
In today's cultures, black horses have a reputation of being edgy with a tendency to rear. The television era has not helped this assumption any with the wild stallion in nearly every serial western being a wild black, nor has the "Black Stallion" tried to dispel this notion. Chestnuts are said to be hot-tempered and more apt to be pullers. Greys were thought of as docile and dependable, while bays retain the reputation of being self-willed and arrogant.
The idea of temperament being related to coat color may seem absurd, but there is research that suggests that there may be some amount of truth here. This is based on an assumption that along with pigment differences, certain color groups may inherit different muscular and sensory constitutions.
Many chestnuts are thinner haired and may be thinner skinned than other colors. This fine coat would provide little protection to the nerve endings on the body surface, and lead to the horse being more sensitive to touch stimuli. This would explain the "hot-tempered" assumption.
Horses with white rings around~the eye (white sclera) have always been said to have been "wild" or "evil-tempered". This is a painful blow to the Appaloosa horse, who should always show the white ring. The terms "pig-eyed" and stubborn should not be associated with the white sclera either. ALL horses have white sclera surrounding the eyeball, in most breeds it is just not visible ALL of the time. If any horse cranes his head and focuses far to the side, the white sclera will show. Any horse, even the gentlest pony, can also be startled and show the sclera. Non-Appaloosa horse who showed white eyes ALL THE TIME were probably frightened half to death and not actually vicious at all! Any frightened horse will lash out, but in defense, not in attack.
It was long believed that horses are colorblind. More recently it has been shown that they may see some shades of color, mostly in the blue-green spectrum. The number of rods and cones in the eye determines color vision (the same in any animal, from dog to human to horse), and the horse has fewer for color. It is not surprising that the horse would concentrate on green more than other colors, grass being its primary food source.
One old wives tale (not related to color but amusing nevertheless) is that the age of a horse can be told by counting the wrinkles at the corner of the eye. This is of course, untrue, although the basic age of a horse CAN be told by looking at the teeth. There are distinct markings and angles on the teeth that can give an approximate age (usually within a year or two on younger horses, within three or four on older ones).
With these facts uncovered, we see that some of those wives tales are simply that, and others may have some modicum of truth. Another question - why is the zebra striped? Scientific findings feel that the stripes help to break up the outline of individual animals and make it harder for the predator to focus on a single animal. The white points in donkeys and asses are obvious modifications from evolving in a desert environment. The white around the eyes and nose, as well as the white belly, help to deflect instead of absorb heat. Did other colors and markings in the equine develop in the same way? At this time, some of these questions will have to stay unanswered, but it is fun to research and form assumptions!
