Paint color patterns

I'm interested :) I don't really know anything about this.
Here he is!
Hawk
15h
10y/o
One blue eye one brown

He is a tobiano... those smaller "paw prints" are usually a visual expression of the homozygous gene... that means if he was a stud he would have most likely thrown only colored babies...

He has a very cute face!

Thanks :) And yes, he does. Especially when it's making funny faces

While he looks like a Tobiano, he would most likely be classified as a Tovero by APHA if he was reg. Because Tobi's do not have different colored eyes, that is an Overo trait, yet the white crosses over his back and that is a Tobi trait. So I would say Tovero. I know a horse that is the same as this one. Typical Tobi pattern but cause he has one blue eye he was Reg Tovero.

If you want to learn more about the paint patters, go to APHA's website.
http://www.apha.com/breed/tovero.html

I didn't think that toveros could have the paw spots... thought that was a tobiano only thing... ?

Tovero is not a pattern. It is a combination of patterns, such as tobiano and one of the overos (frame/OLWS, sabino, dominante white, splash, etc.).

How do you tell which overo is which?

Frame Overo is like this....

http://cloud.equinenow.com/250932_1/ptha_dcroa.jpg

It is "framed" by the color...

Overo can be quite a bit different, but here is a pic of my guy....



And of course there are different variations of each and every pattern :)

I, too, would classify him as a Tovero, not only because of the one blue eye, but also because of the head white on the underside. Tobianos typically have solid colored heads (with or without a blaze).
BTW, the APHA website says 'One or both eyes blue' for Tovero, but there are Toveros with 2 brown eyes (as well as Tobianos with 2 blue eyes).

Tobiano for sure, as others have said. I also think Sabino and Frame. Sabino because of the roaning on the edges of the markings - that doesn't seem quite like tobiano halo effect to me - and the white on the underside of the head. Frame because something has to be causing the blue eye, and the colour on his left side seems to be trying to frame the white a touch, like you would expect if tobiano and frame were fighting over expression.

In terms of the paw prints, there is nothing that suggests they occur more frequently on homozygous horses.