

This is due to skin pigmentation around the eye and eyelid rather than the eye-color itself, which is why certain breeds are more prone to developing SCC. The study did find that blue-eyed horses appear to be more susceptible to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) than their dark-eyed brethren.

While this is no doubt good news for you blue-eyed horse owners, you’re not completely out of the woods. And they will have Zephyros (the West Wind), nimble god of wayside. “There is a common misconception that the blue color of their iris makes them more likely to get cataracts, have vision problems, or develop equine recurrent uveitis this study demonstrates that this isn’t true.” In Greek mythology Phaethon was a youthful son of Helius who begged his father let. “The most important takeaway from this study is that blue-eyed horses are not any more likely to get disease of the eyeball itself than brown-eyed horses,” said Labelle.

The researchers found no significant difference between the proportion of blue and brown-eyed horses with problems in adjacent structures to the eye (such as eyelid lacerations and neoplasia), corneal disease (such as ulcerative and non-ulcerative keratitis), or disease in the eye or eye socket (including equine recurrent uveitis, glaucoma, cataract, intraocular neoplasia, orbital cellulitis, and orbital neoplasia). The team found that blue and heterochromic eyes were just as common as brown eyes in both groups of horses. That accusation, a standard feature of right-wing attacks on the environmental movement, has recently been advanced by some left-wing critics as well. Researchers studied the medical records of hundreds of horses-164 with diagnosed ocular disease and 212 without any known eye ailments-to determine if blue-eyed horses possess unique temperament qualities or are more prone to eye problems. Increasingly, activists who warn that the world faces unprecedented environmental danger are accused of catastrophism of raising alarms that do more harm than good. “They’re a lot more prone to skin cancer.”īut is any of it true? You’ve heard it around the barn, from a vet, from your great granddaddy the cowboy and read it on the internet, so IT HAS TO BE, RIGHT?!Ī study conducted by the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital has the myth-busting conclusion.
