Okay all you paint breeders out there can you help me with a question.
As some of you might have seen I had a red roan overo filly the other night that has one blue eye. I was told that a blue eye is an undersirable trait for the show ring. Could any of you out there answer this for me. I tried looking on the APHA site but could not find any info on this. Also I see that a blue eye will generally go hand in hand with a splash overo or sabino overo. Is this true?
Blue eyes being an undesirable trait in the show ring is absolutely false. In fact, it shouldn't even be a factor to any judge during a competition. Good halter conformation wins. Good riding manners wins. I own a horse with blue eyes. He is always in the ribbons in color classes and gets pinned in riding classes when he behaves and deserves it. I have ridden several successful pleasure horses in Paint shows that also have blue eyes....I tend to think its personal preference. I think its a beautiful trait and because its a releatively rare occurrence, people tend to question it and try to find fault with it. In my experiences, judges do NOT find it undesirable (I rather doubt they even notice it, unless its a color class). As far as blue eyes going hand in hand with overo, yeah, it seems to happen more often in overos....although my blue eyed 'monster' is tobiano. Your filly is gorgeous, don't let anyone tell ya anything different. I've never had anyone say to me...oh gross...he has blue eyes!
Thank you Shelley for the clarification on the blue eyes. I had always thought that blue eyes were part of the paint breed and that it should not matter in the show ring. But when this was mentioned I was beginging to question the fact. Only thing I did find on APHA was that it is a color trait. You have some very gorgeous horses yourself and love those donkeys! Thank you for the compliment on my little filly, I think she is gorgeous as well but being her human mom we do get bias about them. Also with the possibility (actually I know she does from her sire and dam)of her carrying the sabino gene is there anything that I should be looking out for when I go to sell her to the public? I am new to the paint world, always dealt with QH. Any help would be appreciated? Thank you again Shelley
Raven, If I am not mistaken the Lethal White gene is also an Overo trait, if your filly is overo she could carry that gene, and if she is bred to a stallion who also carries the gene it could result in a lethal white foal. You could have her checked or just make sure the stud she is bred to does not carry the gene just in case. By the way, I Looove blue eyes and actually was hoping for them with all 4 of my mares foals. Your little girl is beautiful!!
Heya Lori, Don't know who told you that, but what a load of garbage!! Come to TX....blue eyed painted ponies all over the place. That's just how it works with paints. You want the white, probably gonna get a blue eye here and there. To determine the sabino or LW status, UCDavis has both tests. I'm sure that there are other places. APHA does accept the results from UC (not sure about which other labs they use) Here is the ucdavis link. It also has some great info on color, testing, etc. http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/service/horse/coatcolor.html#sabino1
Dianne, When I first found out Nugget was pregnant, I researched about lethal whites. The sire of the foal she carries is overo (like her, but tri-colored bay) and the previous that bred her told me that my foal has next to no chance of survival !! She also said we may never bond.. (hmmff! how cruel !). When she told me about the survival chances I asked .."then why did you breed them together???". She was not an honest person and the more I visited her the more upset I got. I read that if the mare and sire have the gene, the baby has 50% chance being solid, 25 % chance color and 25% chance lethal white. The sire of Nugget's foal has blue eyes and Nugget's sire has blue eyes. Nugget's eyes are brown. I guess I have a good chance of a having a blue eyed foal???? I am dismissing any thoughts of a lethal white!!!! I can't bare it !!
Lynn, Nugget is sooo lucky to have you! I have been following her along and actually did some research myself because I have been worrying for you. In my research, the most glaring thing was that if you have a white baby, don't let anyone strong-arm you into putting it to sleep until you see symptoms! Thanks for keeping us all informed of Nugget's progress. She and you are most definately in my thoughts and prayers.
Nugget's baby daddy..LOL PEPPY-blue eyes http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t99/LynnDI_2007/DADDYHORSE-1.jpg All, I know is he seems friendly, was in a small pen with a few other horses (2 of witch were very pregnant). She said he was gaited from some TennWalker he has in him. Her son hopped up on his back while we were all in the pen. He kept an eye on him while I looked at her mares. She also had another mare with a baby in another pen (all very small and cramped and NO shelters) ( One foal with no mother...hmmmmmm about 4/5 months old. Sad place to see even though the horses looked in decent (condition) only. They were filthy and ankle deep in much, brown round bales and they kinda shuffled around the bale-hot wire not far from their bottoms. (3 pens in all crammed) *sniffles*. Sorry , didn't mean to carry on. But this woman told me Nugget lost a foal before..even though Nugget is only just turned 4 this month. I can't believe anything this woman says...because strangely....that lone foal looked like Nugget...I could drive myself crazy wondering but I'm NOT! I think she is a maiden and we are going to have a big healthy colt..!!
Don't let anyone talk bad about your blue eyed foal! I saw that some others had posted about fairness, and not discriminating against blue eyes as well, but they can actually be an asset. My halter mare is a sorrel frame overo with two blue eyes (I stopped showing her at halter because her confirmation after two was less than great since she is about 14.5 hands and looks like a pony!). She always placed well though: blue eyes really stand out against that red! AND as for having a lethal white foal- I was told that ALL overos carry this gene recessively. That is why there is no such thing as a "homozygous overo". Because getting the two recessive fatal genes causes a lethal white baby. I found that out the hard way before I knew about testing;in 1998. We named her Angel. *sniffle* I would like to say that the odds are AGAINST this happening, so don't let it get to you. I had a friend who had a pure white foal last year: the foal is fine and perky!
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( One foal with no mother...hmmmmmm about 4/5 months old. Sad place to see even though the horses looked in decent (condition) only. They were filthy and ankle deep in much, brown round bales and they kinda shuffled around the bale-hot wire not far from their bottoms. (3 pens in all crammed) *sniffles*. 
