Researching Paints :)  

Posted by Renee in , , ,


Who knew horses could be so complicated? I admit it, I'm a city girl. And although I think all horses are beautiful creatures, I really wanted to use the paint breed in my story. Now, I'm not so sure that I can.

The more I dig into the research the more I realize that Paints may not have been Paints at the time my story takes place, which means that I'll have to change my horse breed.

Instead of going to the Internet, I think I'll look for an authority on horses, Caroline Fyffe, for those of you who don't know, she has a wonderful blog called In the Nicker of Time. Her debut, Where the Wind Blows, will also be out through Dorchester in August.

When I figure out what I'm going to do about the horse issue, you all will be the first to know.

This entry was posted at Tuesday, June 23, 2009 and is filed under , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

9 comments

Brynna  

I always find it fascinating what I learn when I research one little thing. It takes me to the next one and the next one and . . . well, you know I get sucked into learning new things. ;) I'm interested in hearing what you learn about Paints and why they won't work, so let us know. :)

June 24, 2009 8:52 AM
Renee  

Hi, Bryn,

I sure will. I want to make sure I get every little detail right, and it looks like that the term 'paints' may not have been recognized until about 1940. So now I need to figure out if that was just because Horse Association didn't consider them a breed until the 1940s. I'm sure the paints were in existence. Positive, in fact. Most pictures of American Indians are shown with paints. My question now, were they called paints or something else.

June 24, 2009 10:00 AM
Brynna  

Seems like I've heard (probably read) them called something else, but for the life of me I can't think of what it was right now. If it comes to me, I'll let you know. Maybe that will give you a direction. :)

June 24, 2009 12:13 PM
Brynna  

Okay, I was thinking of Pinto, but you probably already know that. :)

June 24, 2009 12:15 PM
Renee  

Actually, if I recall correctly pintos are a bit different. They actually look like dalmatians beneath the white and brown of their coat. But I could be wrong, it's been years since I've been to the Girl Scout camp where I was told that.

I found that paints were called piebalds, too.

June 24, 2009 12:29 PM
Brynna  

I just read on Wikipedia (shhh, don't tell my students) that
Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses were mixed with Pintos to create the Paints. I'm sure it was done before they were called Paints, but either way, Pinto was the "word" if not the right horse I remembered. :) lol

June 24, 2009 12:34 PM
Renee  

LOL, you are right. That's what I saw too. But I'm still digging. Crazy that something so simple is putting my OCD into overdrive.

June 24, 2009 1:01 PM
Anne Carrole  

Renee--I believe I've read first hand references to "paints" in some of my trail driver books dating from the 1870s--but they were called that with a small "p" not a capital P as more a description of the coloring of a horse than of a breed. Hope that helps. Carolyn, however, should know best.

June 25, 2009 9:50 AM
Renee  

Thank you, Anne. I did ask on the Heart Through History group and I got a tremendous response. Paints with a capital P didn't come into play until around the 1940s with the American Horse Association.

I'm like the names skewbald and piebald. I'm in the process of putting their responses together, because they are interesting.

Renee

June 25, 2009 10:37 AM

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