| Archive for PasoVoice.Com Paso Fino, Trocha Pura, Trote Galope and Trocha Galope Horses |
| The Professional |
~*Sabino Gene Mutation *~  
The pictures above show a white spotted pattern on a horse coat commonly call by “Bird catchers”. (some others like bend-or, and tetrarch too) Although Bird-catcher it’s a nickname and means nothing scientifically, it only resembles the “look alike” marks as they look like bird droppings. I was discussing about these marks a few years ago and also recently with another fellow forum member and till today they haven’t found any scientific evidence of what may cause these white spotted marks. As far as I know they’re the result of a sabino gene mutation. Below this line I paste some links that may be helpful to better understand the white spotted marks pattern. Bird Catcher http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/Birdcatcher.html Bend Or http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/BendOr.html Tetrarch http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/TheTetrarch.html An explanation of bird-catcher spots: http://books.google.com/books?id=...result&resnum=7&ct=result Scroll down to the section on bird-catcher and chubari spots: http://www.whitehorseproductions.com/tbcolor3.html 
Sometimes this marks are easily confuse with Slice bites. A microscopic kind of lice that have very poisonous saliva and their bite leave a white round spot on the coat of the horse. When spread, in the worst of the scenarios, looks like a blanket instead of spotted. Also the concentration occurs in the horse face, neck and chest mostly so is easy to set apart. Some people claim these marks fade between seasons but they’re not. 
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