What is the Difference Between Paint and Pinto?

Among horse owners and enthusiasts, there is quite a lot of confusion on the subject of whether a horse is a paint, or a pinto. What is the difference? Is there a difference?

There is, in fact, a slight difference. But just by looking at a horse, you won't be able to tell. Any owner of a paint or pinto horse will tell you, 'Paint is a breed, Pinto is a color'. This is true to some extent, but not always.

Technically, the Paint horse is a breed. The APHA (American Paint Horse Association), because it is an official registry, doesn't allow just any paint-colored horse. They must have one parent that was registered as such, and another parent that is an approved cross-breed.

Many registries do this to allow for different types, and new blood. For example: the POAC, which is not a very old breed, allows for any POA that is crossed with an Arabian, Thoroughbred, Appaloosa, Connemara, among others, to be fully registered as long as they meet other height and color requirements. Through out-crossing, many different kinds of conformation are allowed for, whereas, if only POA blood were allowed, they would be mostly similar in build, in either a more Western type, or English type. In old breeds, like Arabians and Thoroughbreds where no outcrossing is allowed for purebreds, there is a much more typical type between all of them as a whole.

Even though it may seem that the Paint Horse is a color-oriented registry, any horse that is born solid either from two registered APHA horses or from one APHA parent and one approved outcross breed (the only out-cross breeds allowed are Quarter horses, Thoroughbreds, or Appendix (meaning 1/2 Quarter horse, 1/2 Thoroughbred)) can be registered as breeding stock. It is not the same thing as full-registry in that there are some showing restrictions, but they can produce very valuable or colorful foals by breeding back to another registered Paint horse. The horse below is a 'solid' paint.

A lot of people get confused when the owner of the horse tries to explain that their ordinary-looking horse is a registered Paint (breeding stock), but that is because most people who don't own horses don't know how registries, or genetics, work. The fact that two loudly-marked horses can produce a solid foal makes no sense. But in the genetic sense, it does. Another solid paint mare, below:

It is quite unfair, though; by reading through the APHA rules, I learned that irregular markings, or blue eyes, which both indicate some interesting genes that can produce colored foals, aren't allowed full registration.

Back to the other subject: what, then, is a pinto?

A pinto is defined by the fact that it is, and isn't, a breed.

Any horse that has paint-markings can be called a pinto. They may or may not be actually a different breed. For example: Tenessee Walking horses can be purebred, and also pinto color. If you don't know and you call them a pinto, that is totally okay, but the owner may sharply reprimand you and tell you that,  it is in fact a Tenessee Walker. Below is a paint-color Tennessee Walking horse.

Technically, there is actually a pinto registry. It's pretty cool; they are much more forgiving of breed, and you can basically double-register if you want. There are slightly more rules for registering stallions, but almost any horse that has paint markings, even with unknown parentage, can be registered. The mare below is double-registered as Half-Arabian, and also Pinto.

 In fact, any horse that shows two pinto characteristics but is not loudly marked can be registered as well. Which as basically taking into account some genetics. Registering a horse with the PtHA (Pinto Horse Association) can greatly increase a horses value, and all because of the color!

There are many un-registered paint-marked horses. Which, in any case, would be a pinto. I've found that owners of any Paint or pinto horse is very particular about calling them one or the other.

The final question: does it actually matter what you call them? To me, not really. When speaking in terms of genetics, I'll use either, although if I wanted to be technical I would use pinto because I'm only talking about the color, and not the breed.

It is fascinating how many registries there are. If you have a horse with absolutely no papers at all, there is very likely a chance you can register it somewhere.