claim: A photograph shows a horse whose coat spells out the word 'horse.'
origin: Patterns in the colors of various animalsâ€™ hair or fur can sometimes form what humans perceive as familiar shapes, occasionally including letters of the alphabet. The markings on an animalâ€™s coat spelling out a whole five-letter word is most unusual, however, especially when the result is an eponymous identifier of the critter itself â€” as supposedly seen here on an equine whose white-on-brown hair forms the word â€œhorseâ€: < This horse photo has been circulating on facebook. I think itâ€™s photoshopped, but Iâ€™m no expert. Iâ€™ve never seen a story attached to it claiming itâ€™s authenticity. Strange patterns have been known to show up on paint horses, but this looks a little too good to be true. > Alas, this creature is as fictional as its legendary cousin, the unicorn: This image is another product of a Worth1000 (now DesignCrowd) Photo Effects Contest, a second-place entry in the â€œSpell It Outâ€ competition. Hereâ€™s a comparison showing the horse in question before digital manipulation was applied to a photograph of it: