Leopard

Appearance

Foals		Foals are usually born with their leopard pattern, although some may develop it over time. Foals can already show mottled skin, striped hooves and white sclera. They may lack foal camo and show goggles similar to grey horses.

Foals

Foals are usually born with their

leopard pattern, although some may

develop it over time. Foals can already

show mottled skin, striped hooves and

white sclera. They may lack foal camo

and show goggles similar to grey horses.

Leopard horses have a (nearly) fully white coat filled with colored spots. The spots usually have a distinct orientation that makes it look like they flow out from the flank, towards the rest of the body. The spots sometimes have a "halo" around them; these are often called "peacock" spots. Horses have mottled skin, striped hooves and white sclera.		Adults

Leopard horses have a (nearly) fully white

coat filled with colored spots. The spots

usually have a distinct orientation that

makes it look like they flow out from the

flank, towards the rest of the body. The

spots sometimes have a "halo" around

them; these are often called "peacock"

spots. Horses have mottled skin,

striped hooves and white sclera.

Adults

Mimics

It can sometimes be difficult to draw a line between large spotted blankets and leopard patterns, especially if the horse has a blanket while young but "varnishes out" with age. Very big spotted blankets are sometimes called "near-leopard".

The presence of grey may sometimes cause the spots to have a more elongated shape!

Genetics

Leopard is the result of one copy of the LP-allele, with two copies of PATN1 or other modifying alleles. LP is a dominant allele of the LP gene.

Some horses only test positive for LP, without any or only one copy of PATN1, yet they have a leopard pattern. There are likely (many) other alleles that affect how spotted patterns are expressed we haven't identified yet!

Leopard:
LP/lp
LP/lp + PATN1/PATN1

Back to Spotted Coat Patterns

Articles

Bellone RR, Holl H, Setaluri V, Devi S, Maddodi N, Archer S, Sandmeyer L, Ludwig A, Foerster D, Pruvost M, Reissmann M, Bortfeldt R, Adelson DL, Lim SL, Nelson J, Haase B, Engensteiner M, Leeb T, Forsyth G, Mienaltowski MJ, Mahadevan P, Hofreiter M, Paijmans JL, Gonzalez-Fortes G, Grahn B, Brooks SA; Evidence for a retroviral insertion in TRPM1 as the cause of congenital stationary night blindness and leopard complex spotting in the horse; PLoS One (2013); Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078280
McFadden A, Vierra M, Martin K, Brooks SA, Everts RE, Lafayette C; Spotting the Pattern: A Review on White Coat Color in the Domestic Horse ; Animals (2024); Doi: 10.3390/ani14030451
Terry RB, Archer S, Brooks S, Bernoco D, Bailey E; Assignment of the appaloosa coat colour gene (LP) to equine chromosome 1; Animal Genetics (2004); Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.2004.01113.x