blue eyes

[yellerroseintx]

my friend and I have had an ongoing query on why a horse has blue eyes...I say because it carries the splash gene...she says it means nothing...there are horses with no pinto background that pop up with blue eyes.....soooo...why does a horse have blue eyes? Inquiring minds want to know..

 

[Mona]

Your friend is wrong. Yes, solid "appearing" horses can have blue eyes, but they didn't pop up from nowhere. It is an indicator that the horse carries splash or frame. That same horse that looks solid and had blue eyes can throw a loud colored pinto even when bred to a (true) solid.

 

[minih]

Mona, can you explain also why a foal would have one blue eye when neither parent has blue eyes? I know this has been discussed on here before I don't remember what was said.

 

[Windhaven]

Well since you say the horse has to carry the splash or frame gene to have blues eyes, I would assume that this also is true in the big horses, right? Now tell me how a Quarter Horse from well know bloodlines was born with two very blue eyes (the horse was a liver chestnut so his eyes really stood out) and 4 high white socks. His mother was a solid chestnut with a star and if I am correct his sire was a dark chestnut with some roaning (but not 100% sure). Quarter Horses are not suppose to have pinto or overo genes so where did this colt get his blue eyes? This was years ago (about 28 years) when they pulled papers for to much white in the Quarter Horse association.

Just curious because I still wonder about this.

 

[shelly]

Paint horses in the biggy horsey world are Quarter Horse/Pinto crosses...maybe your Quarter Horse was a minimal paint instead! That would explain the blue eyes and the socks!!!

 

[casilda]

my friend and I have had an ongoing query on why a horse has blue eyes...I say because it carries the splash gene...she says it means nothing...there are horses with no pinto background that pop up with blue eyes.....soooo...why does a horse have blue eyes? Inquiring minds want to know..

Horses that have the frame overo gene can pass on the blue eyes to their foals.. I have a foal who has one blue eye.. her mother has brown eyes and so does her father but her mother is frame overo so I would say that is how she has the blue eye ..maybe I am wrong ?????

 

[Genie]

I have had 3 foals from a sorrel and white pinto stud, homozygeous for pinto, and his breeding of a sorrel and white pinto mare (2 different mares)who were not homozygeous.

Neither parents have blue eyes and all three babies had one blue eye and were homozygeous for pinto.

 

[Buckskin gal]

Would the same apply to a horse that has blue areas in his eyes? Neither parent is a pinto.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Paint horses in the biggy horsey world are Quarter Horse/Pinto crosses...maybe your Quarter Horse was a minimal paint instead! That would explain the blue eyes and the socks!!!

Actually crop outs (AQHA horses with too much white) were not uncommon and a paint is essentially a quarter horse that has more white than the quarter horse registry would accept. You will see solid paints as well because they are basically the same breed of horse. To see blue eyes and plenty of white on a registered 1/4 horse is not that unusual (altho they would have had their papers pulled because of it)it merely means they are carriers of a gene likely to cause lots of white markings in their offspring which the AQHA was trying to eliminate.

 

[chandab]

Well since you say the horse has to carry the splash or frame gene to have blues eyes, I would assume that this also is true in the big horses, right? Now tell me how a Quarter Horse from well know bloodlines was born with two very blue eyes (the horse was a liver chestnut so his eyes really stood out) and 4 high white socks. His mother was a solid chestnut with a star and if I am correct his sire was a dark chestnut with some roaning (but not 100% sure). Quarter Horses are not suppose to have pinto or overo genes so where did this colt get his blue eyes? This was years ago (about 28 years) when they pulled papers for to much white in the Quarter Horse association.Just curious because I still wonder about this.

This is where lumping most white patterns under the term "overo" causes confusion...

All white markings, even those considered just normal white markings (like seen on quarter horses and other usually solid breeds) are caused by one of three genes: sabino, frame and splash; although, on these "solid" horses the gene is expressed minimally to give the "normal" face and leg markings. Blue eyes comes from splash or frame. [Double cream dilutes: cremello, perlino and smokey cream; will also have blue eyes.]

 

[Dona]

Well since you say the horse has to carry the splash or frame gene to have blues eyes, I would assume that this also is true in the big horses, right? Now tell me how a Quarter Horse from well know bloodlines was born with two very blue eyes (the horse was a liver chestnut so his eyes really stood out) and 4 high white socks. His mother was a solid chestnut with a star and if I am correct his sire was a dark chestnut with some roaning (but not 100% sure). Quarter Horses are not suppose to have pinto or overo genes so where did this colt get his blue eyes? This was years ago (about 28 years) when they pulled papers for to much white in the Quarter Horse association.Just curious because I still wonder about this.

Any horse who "appears" to be solid and exhibits ANY white markings (even as little as a tiny star) is a 'GENETIC PINTO'. They carry a pinto gene (splash, frame, sabino or tobiano...or a combination of those)

Most of these horses are registered as Solids......for identification purposes, but are actually pintos (genetically) and can throw pinto patterns.

 

[Genie]

I was interested to read Dona's post about the solids with only a white star carrying the pinto gene, as we had a little black mare that has a white star and she had a beautiful black and white pinto filly.

The mare is out of a buckskin dam and an appaloosa sire and we were surprised at her colour being black and then, another surprise was her first foal from a bay pinto stud is a black and white filly.