Chestnut leopard horse

Color and markings are about right for Token, though of course this is not a mare.

I’m looking for photographs I can use to illustrate some of the horses in Tourist Trap. All of the horses have the kind of spotting seen in the Appaloosa breed in the United States, and in several other breeds around the world. The ones I need would be of riding horses, animals useful on a long, cross-country trek covering 30 or so miles a day: modern Appaloosas or mustangs.

The ones I have managed to photograph could almost stand in for Flame’s chestnut leopard mare, Token, who is intended to be about 16 hands, and

Chestnut varnish roan with spots

This boy could stand in for Splash if he were bay rather than chestnut.

Amber’s Splash, a bay varnish roan with a moderate blanket and spots over his hips, more like 14:3. The other three are between these in size: Freckles, a bay leopard, Dusty, a buckskin leopard, and Raindrop, a grulla with a large spotted body blanket. Gail Lord’s foal photo could be Raindrop as far as markings are concerned, but I’d really like to find photos that could stand in for all of them.

Roi has never seen a horse with the leopard gene, and this is his first view of the horses the party will be riding across plains occupied by mammoths, saber-tooth cats, and other Pleistocene animals:

Grulla appaloosa foal

If this foal’s blanket enlarges with maturity, it could grow up looking like Raindrop. Photo credit Gail Lord.

Roi blinked hard when he saw the horses, thinking for a moment he must have hit his head on something, after all. They were polka dotted. Flame’s mount was white sprinkled with round copper spots. Amber’s, a little bay roan with curious dark lines on its nose, looked less exotic until it turned as she halted it. Then it became apparent that it had a large white area, punctuated by dark bay spots, over its hips. One of the two led horses had a black-spotted white body, but its neck, legs and chest were a dark mouse gray, set off by a black head and mane and a black and white tail. The other had markings resembling those of Flame’s mount, but its spots were a lighter, sandy color with a good deal of black mixed with the white of its mane and tail. Then Flame and Amber jumped down from their horses and slammed into Roi, and he had to concentrate on keeping upright.

If you have photos you’d be willing to let me use, contact me at sbowling at mosquitonet dot com.