literature

Mysterious Manchado

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Royal Manchado1 by CapNRCubey
Royal Manchado, a TB stallion.



At times the colorful thoroughbred can be a bit confusing, but never more so than when Manchado, which translates as stained, comes into the picture. Often times you can find this color under Overos Manchado when doing research. This unique sabino/overo like pattern is currently found in four breeds: Criollo, Arabian, Thoroughbred, and Hackney. And only when the horse has originated in Argentina. It's important to know that the horse above, Royal Manchado was named for the coloration. While being new to the US, Manchado has existed for centuries in Argentina.

Pattern Information


Manchado is incredibly different from other white spotting genes, at first glance it can be mistaken for a combination of pinto and leopard (Appaloosa trait), but neither of these genes have been found in the horses that have been studied thus far. 

The white appears minimally around the top of the neck, giving a partial white mane, the head and legs are typically dark, then there are white crisp-edged areas that also have round or oval colored spots within them.

Ebff7a83696a7f493d7adf926914328c by CapNRCubey
Vasco Rosa - Argentinean Polo Pony

Why Argentina?


To be honest, we really don't know why this gene is occurring in Argentina and not the rest of the world. To date, this extremely rare pinto pattern has never been found outside of the country. Because of that people have a few theories: environmental - "Something in the Water" or Genetic/Geographical "Founder Effect".

Environmentally speaking there have been some theories that a specific but so far unidentifiable fungus is the cause for this coloration. It's thought that at some time during gestation the mares of these horses are in contact with this fungus. However, though it has been shown that fungal infections have caused similar white spotting as seen in the images below:





40503280 by CapNRCubey  Weird Appy 151 by CapNRCubey Simply Striking After1 by CapNRCubey
These are of the same horse, a Saddlebred named Simply Striking, before during and after the fungal infection that permanently changed his coat coloration. 

As you can see in the beginning of the infection the coloration could have been mistaken for Manchado at one point, however as the infection progressed the white spotting became far too 'cloudy' and less defined. A good argument against fungal infections causing the manchado coloration. Another argument against environmental causes is that if it was something from the environment it truly would be popping up more and more frequently. 

With the other theory for why Argentina, you have to look back at the origins of horses at that time. The Founder Effect is a term used in population genetics (the study of the distribution in genes within populations/groups) to describe how when the foundation of a breed originates from a small group of animals those genes from the foundation breeding stock will appear at random later on in the gene pool.

It has been well documented through the ages that the Argentinians preferred loud colored horses in their trading markets. As far back as the late nineteenth century literature describes these colored horses and their being bred specifically in Argentina. Furthermore there are even well documented cases in other countries studbooks of color being bred specifically for Argentina. In the UK there were a group of Hackney breeders who bred Tobianos to be sold in that market, one of which was used as the foundation for the Moroccan Spotted Horse. And though there are four breeds that have shown this coloration that are very different now, over 100 years ago they were not very different at all. Almost every breed that displays this color in Argentina cannot rule out the use of local mares as their foundation.

At the turn of the century breeding was done quite differently, they top crossed or only used males of the breed of choice to breed to local mares and then bred those offspring back into the local lines to create their breed. So if this color was in the local mare population at the time, and not bred out, then it would have been distributed widely, even more so if it was recessive.

Other than one odd set of half siblings (sire's side) showing the Manchado gene there have been no other direct relatives produced with this coloration. Even as far back as the famous Arabian mare Trabag. Though she had 10 foals in her breeding career, not a single one of them had the Manchado coloration. In later generations (2nd and 3rd removed from Trabag) it did appear again but was never directly bred from a Manchado.

Trabag Right1 by CapNRCubey Manchado Overo trabag left1 by CapNRCubey
Trabag, foaled in 1946 had 10 offspring none of which ever displayed the Manchado coloration.

In all cases thus far, these manchado horses have had multiple lines that are distinctly known to Argentina, and because of that it would not be impossible to have a recessive patter there in the native, pre-studbook population which has since then spread.

“The repeatability of the manchado pattern suggests a genetic cause, though the range of breeds in which it occurs is awkward because they are not related nor are they commonly crossed one with the other to produce breeding stock. Paintings of Hackney horses from the 1800s suggest that the pattern has been around at least since then, if only rarely. The sporadic occurrence of manchado suggests that it might be due to a recessive mechanism, and moreover that the allele is rare.” - Dr. Sponenberg’s Equine Color Genetics (Third Edition)

Pre-Stud Book Era


Examining the pre-studbook era of Argentina brings up an interesting argument on the evolution of horses as a whole. In Patagonia, the area that would become the Americas millions of years later, there lived a species of patterned horses called Hippidion Saldiasi. These primitive horses co-existed with humans, and their extinction to this day remains a mystery. There are some theories suggesting that some of these animals survived until Europeans arrived and began influencing the breeding populations of horses post 1492.


Frmhips by CapNRCubey

Whether or not this species continued on despite ideas that it had been extinct is hard to guess, there have since been bones found that date decades and centuries before the Spanish arrived that suggest that there were a few herds remaining but unfortunately we really can never know. It at least however gives an idea of where this odd coloration may have originated.

The last theory is that Manchado is a somatic mutation, or an effect that happens inside the womb causing a gene to stop expressing. This can be caused by the position of the foal or even the temperature of the womb. It is not inheritable, and you cannot recreate the same mutation. It's possible that Manchado is a form of somatic mutation because of it's infrequency, but unlikely because it only appears in one country in the world.

In Summary


In all honesty this coloration is one of the difficult ones, from not having any foal photos ever of these manchados above to not seeing a direct trend of inheritance or having complete gene research or studbook information...it's a real head scratcher. But what we know at this point is this color does not appear to be inherited, it appears to happen at random to a small percentage of the horses in the world only if they originate in Argentina. We also know that in order to be Manchado they must exhibit:

The white appears minimally around the top of the neck, giving a partial white mane, the head and legs are typically dark, then there are white crisp-edged areas that also have round or oval colored spots within them.

They are however also eligible to have other white factors or white spotting genes that could be displaying causing hidden manchado as seen below.

PatoPony1 by CapNRCubey 7aaac3bd65a1c24b9c1ec9c1e7ee0764 by CapNRCubey

Both of the above horses are Polo Ponies, one is Pato and the other is Vasco Piscui, the half sibling to Vasco Rosa pictured above, are displaying Manchado and Sabino. The sabino in this case is making it harder to see the Manchado, however if you look closely you can see the hallmarks of the coloration. White on the neck, white partial mane, overall dark heads, Piscui has the dark legs, but the biggest sign is the crisp-edged areas of color and white, as well as the oval or round colored spots within the white. 

The Imitators


It's important to know what Manchado is not, but what it can be confused for at times. For that here are some different horses displaying genes that can be confused with Manchado, but do not occur in Thoroughbreds. Also here is a little test to see if you can find the hidden Manchados, inside this group, the answers are below the references!

Predestined+filly+2009 by CapNRCubey Scallopedtovero141 by CapNRCubey Snowflake2 by CapNRCubey Needymare11 by CapNRCubey


Var-che-rn-blket by CapNRCubey Cattracks by CapNRCubey Ch-leop-2 by CapNRCubey


Untitled by CapNRCubey E82a97931e9d33d8f9079a4517c876ec by CapNRCubey Appy-blanket by CapNRCubey






References


Answers to the Imitators


Leopard Appaloosa, Manchado Sabino, Snowflake Appaloosa, Fungal Infection
Blanket Roan, Pinto, Leopard Appaloosa
Leopard Appaloosa, Manchado, Blanket Appaloosa
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WildOracle's avatar
ooo O_O so cool!