Blue-eyed cream Connemara stallions now OK because Irish say so

Irish Connemara officials have lifted the ban on registering blue-eyed cream stallions in Ireland, so the United States has followed suit, according to a post Jan. 22, 2016, by the American Connemara Pony Society. The post, published on the ACPS home page, specifically says the U.S. is doing so to follow the Irish.

I applaud the decision but cringe at the reason: Blue-eyed cream stallions are fine now because the Irish say so.

The ACPS considered registering blue-eyed cream stallions several years ago but decided against it. The message being sent by ACPS officials now is: The opinions of U.S. members count for nothing. Don’t bother showing up at meetings; don’t bother voting; don’t bother doing any scientific research. We can’t hear you.

No scientifically based or moral argument mattered in the decision. Only the discriminatory whims of Ireland.

I wasn’t at the ACPS meeting when the debate took place, but the ACPS exists to “preserve the unique qualities of the breed,” according to its own mission statement.

The blue-eyed cream color is in fact a unique quality of the Connemara that goes back a long way.

German veterinarian Beatrice Milleder wrote an article on blue-eyed cream Connemaras that was republished on connemara.com, the website of Foothills Farms.

Milleder said blue-eyed cream horses were considered jewels in the Middle Ages. “Everyone who thought he was important wanted to have a horse of that colour,” she said. “There were big studs that only bred for this colour. BEC were the carriage horses of kings and queens. You just have to think about the ‘Royal Victorian Creams’ in England or the ones at the French and Spanish court.”

“Especially in Spain they were very fashionable and horses of that colour were often the best ones of their breed,” Milleder said. “That was the reason rich Irish merchants from Galway, who were trading with Spain, bought these very best horses to bring them home and then they were crossed to the Native Irish ponies.”

But tastes in beauty changed over time.

Milleder said the Irish ban on blue-eyed cream Connemara stallions began in 1965. Prior to the ban, blue-eyed creams had been seen as bad luck in Ireland but were tolerated, she said. “Then from 1965 on, they were seen as a damnation,” or something that would result in divine punishment.

So individuals guided by superstitions and bigotry rather than science put this ban in place in Ireland, not geneticists who said blue-eyed creams would lead to extinction of the breed.

1965 is not a long time ago.

The idea that this ban was put in place based on bigotry and superstition in 1965 is astonishing.

A 2009 story by Sorrel Lambton posted on the ICCPS website said a blue-eyed cream committee conducted a worldwide survey in 2000 of 55 Connemara owners of blue-eyed creams on issues related to light sensitivity, hearing, sight, melanoma, medical problems, rashes, hardiness, etc.

“The results were nearly 100 percent positive, with no one reporting any problems other than some of the BECs experiencing nose rash and slight light sensitivity with their pale eyes. Nose rash can occur from sunburn or sensitivity to irritants where any horse with a pink muzzle is grazing,” Lambton said.

A lot of U.S. owners told the ACPS two decades ago that blue-eyed creams had no health issues. They were ignored.

Basically the ACPS board chooses to follow powerful people elsewhere rather than lead in America.

Let’s consider a few other points in history where people followed those in power and discriminated against or annihilated others?

• Witch hunts (driven by superstition)

• Slavery (driven by bigotry)

• The Holocaust (driven by bigotry)

• Leprosy colonies (driven by superstition and bigotry against genetic issue)

• House Committee on Un-American Activities (driven by fear)

Does anyone remember why this country was founded?

Immigrants wanted to think for themselves.

It’s really disheartening to see one group of American horse owners so determined to go back in time. The rest of us would like to think for ourselves and move forward in the 21st century.

The ACPS has long maintained that Irish officials forced it to have Connemara inspections or the U.S. couldn’t be part of the international Connemara organization.

The only real argument to be part of the international group has been U.S. breeders’ ability to sell registered Connemaras to Ireland. Last time I checked, zero horses had gone from America to Ireland.

This blue-eyed cream ban was implemented simply to please those in power in Ireland who, according to a veterinarian’s research, thought blue-eyed creams were bad luck.

Blue-eyed cream stallions never should have been excluded, and a lot of useful genes have been thrown away.

What cost has this ban inflicted on the United States over the last two decades?

We won’t know the horses that were never born.

In Germany, Albert Einstein went into exile when the Nazis came to power because he was Jewish. He lived the rest of his life in the United States.

What ponies never had a similar chance because no one stood up for them and their genes?

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“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

― Abraham Lincoln