The Tobiano pattern is the most straightforward of the Paint Horse patterns. It characterized by a vertically-dominated white pattern that seems to spread up from four white legs, and downward from the top line.

• Head: While the head may have a blaze or snip, it will be invariably be the colour of the horse, i.e. bay, chestnut, black, palomino, etc.

• Top line: For an evenly-marked horse, the white markings will often cross the top line in two to three places, generally across the top of the butt, at the withers and/or at the neck.

• Tail and mane: These are often bi-coloured.

• Hooves and lower legs: Hooves are often white, as are at least the lower legs.

• Eyes: Eyes are almost always dark brown, with some exceptions.

• Spotting pattern: Depending on the amount of white on the body, the Tobiano horse will tend to have a dark spot around the tail, along the neck and chest, and along the flank. There are often "shadows" at the edges of the markings.

The gene causing the Tobiano pattern is a dominant gene. Any horse with one of these two genes (i.e. heterozygous) will display a Tobiano pattern, if only in a "minimal" or incomplete form, a'la classic Mendelian genetics.

One parent must be Tobiano in order to produce a Tobiano (or Tovero) foal. When breeding a heterozygous Tobiano to a solid horse, there is a 50% chance that the foal will also carry the Tobiano gene. Otherwise, it will be solid, with no Tobiano gene present.

Tobiano, Homozygous
A horse which is homozygous for the Tobiano gene carries this gene on both of alleles of the chromosome. As such, all of its offspring will carry the Tobiano gene, and 99% will display the Tobiano coat pattern. The remaining approximately 1% will display the coat pattern in an incomplete form, though they will still carry the gene.

Genetic testing is the most certain way of determining whether a Tobiano horse is homozygous for the gene. There is a 25% chance of this, if both his parents are heterozygous Tobianos are bred, a 50% one parent is a heterozygous Tobiano and the other is a homozygous Tobiano, and a 100% chance if both parents are homozygous Tobianos.

Many horses that are homozygous for Tobiano display "ink spots" on their coat – small coloured spots that can also be referred to as "paw prints". Some Paint Horse breeders would argue as well that these homozygous horses are vulnerable to negative inherited conformation traits that may otherwise be recessive. These qualities are said to include a big head, a short, thick neck, and long back, for starters. Based on the HUNDREDS of homozygous tobianos reviewed for Paint Horse Africa's breeding programme, this claim is not entirely unfounded!

Fortunately, there are some lovely, albeit, pricy exceptions, with Leo being one of these. That Leo is such a well-conformed, balanced homozygous-for-Tobiano is one of the factors that make this stud colt an exceptionally special edition to Paint Horse Africa's breeding programme. Like his World Grand Champion show jumping sire, he is guaranteed to pass the dominant Tobiano gene onto any mare he covers, no matter what her colouring.