Spotted blanket

Appearance

Foals		Foals are born with a spotted blanket. The blanket may change or increase in size with age. 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 born with a spotted blanket.

The blanket may change or increase

in size with age. Foals can already show

mottled skin, striped hooves and

white sclera. They may lack foal camo

and show goggles similar to grey horses.

A spotted blanket is a white area on the hips with colored spots inside. The size of the blanket may vary from being very small to covering a large part of the horse. As horses age, they may "varnish out": white hairs mix into the colored area of the coat, making the blanket harder to see or actually making small blankets more apparent. Horses have mottled skin, striped hooves and white sclera.		Adults

A spotted blanket is a white area on

the hips with colored spots inside.

The size of the blanket may vary

from being very small to covering

a large part of the horse. As horses

age, they may "varnish out": white

hairs mix into the colored area of the

coat, making the blanket harder to

see or actually making small blankets

more apparent. 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

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

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

Therefore, in our game, Horse Reality, we use PATN2 as an extra (untestable) modifier that can cause small blankets etc. The existance of PATN2 was once theorised, but was never proven.

Spotted blanket:
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