When I arrived here in NC, I was directed to go to a Walking Horse show... There were bay/white pintos everywhere (some were quite beautiful!!), but the announcer kept referring to "Tri-Color" horses. During a break, when there were some different colored horses in the ring, I turned to the couple next to me and had to ask what the reference was. The couple (man/wife) both looked at me like I'd arrived from outer space - and said "...well, the one right in front of us and those two over there are Tri's...". My comment back was "OOOOHHHH, you mean the bay/white tobianos???" Again, got "the look"... Can't stand the term "tri-color" as used for horses - for one - do they mean bay/white or buckskin/white or roan/white??
Recently had a horse color described to me as a "calico". Sorry, calicos are cats (& in the past there was a definite difference between calicos and torti's, now not so much, again here in NC it seems to be interchangeable). I totally didn't understand (the horse was a buckskin and white with dark, well defined black points and nice, really gold spots with a mixed mane and solid black, non-faded black tail). But then there was a post recently on Equine Genetics FB page that was talking about Dr Sponenberg having used the "Calico" in reference to a specific spotting pattern... (?? - can't remember what type of pattern/color it was- but pretty sure it wasn't for a typical buckskin tobiano).
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I have gone to using the term "spot" - it seems to work with all the non-horse people, including my family, here. It's also just easier than always having to explain "painted" paint/pinto terms - especially with all the changes in "Overo" (OMG, I used the wrong term. I'm referring to rabicano, frame, sabino and white gene) patterns (bay spot in pasture one, black spot in pasture 3, 6 silver spots - in Jr mares pasture). I do understand that my using the word "spot" is irritating to others, though, ROFLMBO.
I have a lot of others, but can't think of them right now...