Wondering if anyone has experience horses with Cremello coloration with blue eyes (BEC), especially/specifically if you found sight to be a problem.
All double dilutes have blue eyes. I’ve never heard of any issues caused by their eye colour, though some might be a bit more prone to sunburn around their eyes due to their lighter skin colour
Some do believe there can be problems in these horses due to lack of proper pigment. This article explains some of it:
https://nfqha.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Editorial-Cremello.pdf
Thank you! Very helpful…
There have not been that many cremellos until recently, when people started seriously breeding for color, so not that many for the general public to have much experience with any problems related to that color.
We do know that blue eyes can be more sensitive to light and lack of pigment around eyes, on any color, can bring on some cancers in eye and surrounding structures.
In our area with high winds, dust and higher altitude sun exposure outside, those kinds of problems are definitely more common when horses have lighter pigment and blue eyed faces.
Old timers would not accept such horses as breeding stock.
Some times, old timer’s ideas were wives tales, that one, maybe one we should double check and heed, at least until we know more that such definitely is not a problem, which right now we don’t know with certainty.
Those with horses with those characteristics can be proactive and if their horses show any irritation, keep them protected with face masks, ointments and keeping them out of the sun as much as sensible.
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I’ve noticed some squint in bright sunlight. I think a fly mask would help immensely, as would night turnout with a small shady paddock during the day.
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I have a cremello QH gelding that I raised up from a weanling.
His nose sunburns a tad at the beginning of summer, kind of like my other horse who has a blaze face.
He can see fine. I took the cups out of a racing mask and put it on him anyway, since there’s a (afaik unproven) theory that he might need something to reduce glare from hurting his eyes over time.
He gets a few more ticks on him than my other horses.
That’s pretty well it. The “old timers” in my area think that any blue eyed horse is crazy.
I don’t put much stock in it. The color had nothing to do with it, but my little cremello gelding is the best horse I’ve ever had.
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I had a double dilute mare, but her eyes were more of a light hazel, not blue; she was comfortable in a fly mask, and she didn’t appear to have any vision issues.
She was very fine coated, but didn’t seem to attract more than her share of bug bites. We don’t have a tick problem here – which is the one good thing about fire ants.
This apparently misunderstands the concept of double dilute.
If you have a cremello or perlino you can breed palomino or buckskin reliably. If you accept palomino and buckskin in your registry, breeding two single dilutes can create a double dilute foal (statistically a 25% per cent chance).
Excluding double dilutes doesn’t keep the registry “free” of “bad genes” in some way. It could reduce the preponderance of palominos and buckskins over time if that was your goal.
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fair number of them on my client list (farrier) of stock horse breeding. Haven’t noticed any trend in actual eye issues other than the tendency to sunburn on their faces. Have noticed they tend to have poor quality hoof wall, though that is more likely more to poor breeding choices in general (ie that stud or mare wouldn’t have been bred if they were bay) as opposed to an actual genetic link to the colour.
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I have one. No issues.
Yikes. That is from back when AQHA was just starting to change to allow double dilutes to be registered. There is a lot of misinformation in that article.
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Exactly. Double dilute stallions who are otherwise top quality, have a “bonus” factor of guaranteed producing buckskin or palomino when bred to a bay or sorrel mare. Whereas a palomino or buckskin stallion, even when bred to a palomino or buckskin mare, will only give you a single dilute color 50% of the time.
E: Palomino parent and sorrel parent: 50% palomino, 50% sorrel.
E: Palomino parent and palomino parent: 50% palomino, 25% sorrel, 25% cremello.
E: Cremello parent and sorrel parent: 100% palomino.
So, most likely if I acquired a cremello & managed it the way I do other horses (night turnout, fly sheets & fly masks, rugs in winter), he would thrive equally? I have an Appaloosa/Percheron cross that is masked always in all degrees of light to protect her eyes (theoretically)…would that be a good idea for a cremello, also? Thanks, again…!
Mine does fine in Alabama on full pasture turnout w/ fly mask. YMMV, different horses have different needs, not just based on color, obviously. I don’t really do anything extra for my gelding except the mask just in case.
Noticed that too. A lot of the issues mentioned are for horses with white around their eyes an nose, not double dilutes. This would likely be the remains of the old boys club that thought double dilutes albinos.
I would think so, since sunburn seems to be the biggest issue. Honestly, the appaloosa is probably more at risk for problems, since they seem to be more at risk for uveitis. A fly mask to reduce sunburn to the eyelids (and therefore the increased risk of skin cancer) wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Personally, I would get a cremello before I got a gray! (says the owner of a gray…)
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I’m in FL and my cremello does get squinty in bright sunlight - the barn workers joke that he always looks like he just woke up… so if he’s turning out mornings he goes out with a UV flymask (sunglasses) and desitin (sunscreen) covering his muzzle. He’s just a kid and thinks eating / destroying flysheets is the greatest so he doesn’t turn out in one… night turn out would probably be best but not the program our herd runs on. Haven’t noticed any actual eyesight /vision issues while riding in bright sun light sans flymask but his pink muzzle does get extra pink if I don’t apply the zinc cream in the morning.
edit- I do swipe the desitin (or generic) over his eye lids and under his eyes when I do his muzzle in the mornings, or he’ll burn there too without it.
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I used to have a cremello QH mare with blue eyes in Western NY – she is still healthy and doing up/down kid lessons for her current owner and the mare must be going on late 20’s in terms of age. As far as I know no eye issues.
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I have green eyes and fairer skin than my SO but fortunately he still likes me, despite my eyes being more sensitive to light and my skin more susceptible to sunburn.
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