The Spotted Saddle Horse is a gaited horse breed that is similar in appearance to the Tennessee Walking Horse and always has a pinto coat.

About:
Spotted Saddle Horses were created in Tennessee in 1979, by crossing pinto American horses of Iberian heritage with Morgan, Standardbred, Thoroughbred, Paso Fino, and Peruvian Paso horses, and, on top of all, with Tennessee Walking Horses.

Spotted Saddle Horses have comfortable gaits and good endurance, which make them popular as trekking and recreational riding horses. They are also popular in saddle classes and driving shows.

Always pinto?
As their name suggests, Spotted Saddle Horses always have a pinto coat. The problem with pinto is that all of the pinto genes are dominant, meaning that heterozygous individuals also have a pinto coat. When you cross two such individuals together, you have a 25% chance of getting a solid-colored (non-pinto) foal.

Solid foals are ineligible for registration as Spotted Saddle Horses, but they are eligible for registration in a special sub-registry for solid-colored breeding stock of Spotted Saddle Horses. See the 'Solid Spotted Saddle Horse - Solid Registry' for more info.

Conformation:
Generally speaking, Spotted Saddle Horses were heavily influenced by their Tennessee Walking ancestors, with many of them resembling a smaller but stockier version of the Tennessee Walking Horse.

More specifically, Spotted Saddle Horses have light heads with straight profiles and large eyes. Their necks are long and of high-set, slightly arched, and broad at their base. Their backs are short, and the underline of their girths is straight. Their legs are long and are stretched behind their bodies.

The hair of their manes is fine and grows short or medium in length. Their tails are also fine, and are usually held either low or horizontal but not higher (unlike American Saddlebreds, for example.)

Performance metrics:
The following are the: range, average, (SD), and MOE of performance metrics of ordered Spotted Saddle Horses in Horse Isle (not bred ones). In rare cases, horses might have metrics outside of the range. Breeders can produce horses that are beyond this range.

Speed: 15.0-16.7, 15.9 (0.4), 0.08.
Sprint: 47-59, 53 (3), 0.5.

Accel: 0.88-1.03, 0.95 (0.03), 0.01.
Decel: 0.89-1.03, 0.97 (0.03), 0.01.

Jump: 5.09-5.47, 5.29 (0.06), 0.01.
Pull: 1.98-2.65, 2.28 (0.15), 0.03.

Turning: 49.10-60.07, 54.37 (2.61), 0.51.
Reverse: 2.4-3.1, 2.7 (0.1), 0.03.

Stamina: 41.49-46.48, 43.84 (1.12), 0.22.
Reaction: 0.64-0.75, 0.70 (0.03), 0.01.

Coats & Height:
Colors & patterns: the coat is always pinto and comes in all colors and patterns except for dominant-white, mushroom, mealy, leopard, and manchado.

Breeding notes: crossing two heterozygous pinto horses has 25% chance of generating a solid (non-pinto) foal. If one or both parents are homozygous for any pinto gene, then their foal will always be pinto.

Height: 13.3hh to 16hh, although most of them stand around 15hh.