Appaloosa Breeders and CSNB

[zyndyna]

I was wanting to get the Appalossa breeders opinion on CSNB (Congenital Stationary Night Blindness) Does any of your stock have this disorder and if so how do you try to stop it from being passed on to the foals? For everyone that may not know about this disorder, it effects the horse's night vision and usually only seems to show up in few spot or snow cap appaloosa's which seem to be homozygous for the LP gene.

 

[Maple Hollow Farm]

To stop it being passed on to the foals in easy, simply do not breed two appies together for the chance for a fewspot or snowcap as you said the LP/LP horses are the ones that are night blind so if you dont cross appy to appy, you dont get a homozygous appy. I do have one mare that I have not tested but suspect to be LP/LP as she seems to be night blind, only way I can tell is if I feed after dark she doesnt push her way to the feeder like normal and tends to follow me around instead. I will say that other than her being more timid at night, she seems to do just fine in the herd and doesnt need any special treatment. Because it doesnt really seem to affect the horse or bother them is why I think so many people still breed for the homozygous appies since they want the color producers. I do cross my appy mares to my appy stallion simply because they are a good cross for conformation, movement, and disposition, I dont really care that much about color, it is just an added bonus if I do get it.

Edited to add....while snowcaps and fewspots are the visibly homozygous forms of LP, I do want to remind everyone that the characteristics only can also be LP/LP they just do not carry a PATN gene. My mare in question is a snowflake/varnish type but fits the Appaloosa Project's description of an LP/LP non patterned appy.

And on a side note a reminder that homozygous appies of any form do NOT guarantee spots, only that they will inherit the LP gene which can range from just characteristics to leopard, does give better odds for spots since you are guaranteed the appy expression but does not guarantee spots.

 

[zyndyna]

My stud which I would say is classified as a lace pattern app has these characteristics. He is a buckskin with some solid white coloring on his hips with no spots.The only reason I even started digging was like you said a night time feeding and noticing he was very timid and had a hard time finding his feed bowl unless I showed him where it was at. Other then that he is fine. His parents are two loud leopard app's. I was just wondering what everyone else's take was on this and if they make any modifications with their breeding. Thanks for adding your input Melinda. We are just getting started in this and I like getting as much input as possible.

 

[ohmt]

We give our few spot stallion some night lights. 1 in his shelter and 1 by his water bucket. Have never had any issues-he does great with that!

His few spot daughter is in the pasture with about 30 other mares and has never needed any lights. The mares usually sleep in their barn at night and she is always snuggled up with them. No issues whatsoever

 

Have had several over the years with night blindness, and just keep them pastured near the barn, and leave the barn lights on so they can see where they are. Never had any problems, in fact didn't know much about it until one night when a pasture gate was left ajar and a whole pasture of horses left --leaving behind one snowcap mare who was standing perfectly still in the middle of the pasture trying to call her friends. Her foal had wandered off with the rest of the herd, and she was frantically calling for her to return (which she did).

After that, I moved her and the other affected ones to a pasture right near the barn, where I left lights on, and never had a problem again.

It really isn't a problem for them, or at least hasn't been here.

 

[HGFarm]

I have 4 fewspots right now- the stallion stays out with the mares and does not have any problem getting around at night. I have one mare that I can tell is a little more night blind than the others but they all do fine.

 

[shorthorsemom]

Night lights. I pushed those solar walk way lights along the outside of the fence near the water bucket and had a solar spotlight mounted near the shelter. This was mostly for my one boy I had who was snowcap appy, it was very important not to leave the fly mask on after dusk because it made him totally blind, and I used to bring him into the small loafing paddock at night and shut the gate. If left out he would stand in the field and wait for me, even if it was raining so I took extra measure to be sure he was in a secure place where he felt comfortable at night. It wasn't a problem at all and probably my measures were a bit overkill, but he really seemed to appreciate it.

A friend of mine puts rope Christmas lights on her fence, that works well and looks pretty all at the same time.

. I learned to call his name and not just walk up on him when the lighting was limited. He wore a fly mast during the day because that is like wearing sunglasses and is a good thing to do with all appys.

 

[zyndyna]

Thanks everyone for your advice. He stays stalled most of the time especially at night so I guess I will need to devise some sort of night light for him.

 

[shorthorsemom]

If he is stalled all night he probably does not need a night light. He will be just fine.