# Two different colored eyes!



## Jumping4Joy (Jan 29, 2014)

Has anyone seen or owned a horse with two different colored eyes? My gelding has one blue and one brown eye, and I was just curious to see if it's common or not. I think it makes him look more interesting! He's a paint gelding, I don't know his pedigree or anything, I have no papers for him  but is it common in paints?
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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

I used to lease a horse with one blue eye. It's not super common but not exactly uncommon either. 

Blue eyes like those, in either one or two eyes, are caused by pinto pattern genes (frame and splash, specifically) and since Paint horses are generally bred with the goal of preserving pinto genes, they tend to have blue eyes more often than other breeds.
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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

Yes but he only has a partial blue eye.











On the first picture if you click on it to make full size you can see the 2 different colored eyes better.


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## kiwi79 (Nov 11, 2011)

My paint gelding has one blue eye and one brown eye too - he is an overo sabino paint. I quite like them although would probably say the brown one is 'prettier'. The blue eye tends to be weepier and I have to clean it every few days. People have commented that they think his blue eye looks evil, I know a lot of people arent so keen on blue eyes in horses - I don't think it is particularly common. What colour is your horses coat?


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

Others have already mentioned the genetics, and blue and/or partial blue eye(s) are not uncommon in Paint/pinto horses. Our lead mare is a bay tobiano Paint (obviously with some other pinto gene(s)) that has two very light blue eyes.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I have a pinto filly with one blue and one brown eye. Like others said, it's relatively common in horses carrying pinto genes, especially if they have a lot of white on or around their face.


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## NorthernMama (Mar 12, 2008)

Yup, I've seen it a fair amount too. Cute story: Years ago there was a pair of paint ponies (just around the time that "Paint" as a breed was beginning to be established I think). I swear their markings were so much alike that in the field you couldn't tell them apart, but Lightning had one blue and one brown eye. Thunder's eyes were both the same colour.


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## Lockwood (Nov 8, 2011)

My RMH gelding has one light amber and icy green eye and one dark amber and blue eye. He's a buckskin.


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## Breezy2011 (Nov 23, 2012)

I have a solid black quarter horse mare with one blue eye, one brown eye.


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## Jumping4Joy (Jan 29, 2014)

kiwi79 said:


> My paint gelding has one blue eye and one brown eye too - he is an overo sabino paint. I quite like them although would probably say the brown one is 'prettier'. The blue eye tends to be weepier and I have to clean it every few days. People have commented that they think his blue eye looks evil, I know a lot of people arent so keen on blue eyes in horses - I don't think it is particularly common. What colour is your horses coat?


He is all white except for a brown spot over his eye and some brown in his ears. I guess that makes him a pinto?
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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

Jumping4Joy said:


> He is all white except for a brown spot over his eye and some brown in his ears. I guess that makes him a pinto?
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Paint is the name for the breed associated with the APHA. Pinto refers to any horse of any breeding who displays the characteristics of the tobiano and/or various overo genes (splash, frame, sabino, maximum white).

So, all paints are pintos (unless you have a solid bred/breeding stock paint), but not all pintos are paints.

For example, my gelding (in my avatar and signature) is a paint/Percheron cross. His sire was registered with the APHA. However, because Aires is crossed with a breed that is not permitted registration with the APHA (they only allow crosses to QHs and TBs to be registered), he is considered a pinto because of his coloring. To call him a paint would be a misnomer, as he is not and cannot be registered with the APHA.
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## Drifting (Oct 26, 2011)

Yup!

One brown, one partial blue


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## Roux (Aug 23, 2013)

My horse has a brown on one side and blue on the other... yes he is a paint!

Brown Side:









Blue Side:


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## Chasin Ponies (Dec 25, 2013)

One of my registered QHs has one solid blue eye and the other is brown with a crescent moon blue streak in it. Everyone mistakes him for a Paint but he's solid QH all the way back. Have had zero health problems with either eye except that when he's tired and wants to quit he sure can give me an 'evil eye' look with that blue one!


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

I had a beagle once with a blue eye and a brown eye. Does that count?

At night one eye would glow red and the other green. Looked like a little roving traffic light.

When I was in 6th grade I sat next to a kid with 2 different color eyes. Sat the entire year and it was June before I noticed.


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## Jumping4Joy (Jan 29, 2014)

Wow, I never knew that! I haven't really learned about anything about registeries so that's really interesting. It's also really cool to see other horses like my own. One question I get asked frequently is if he is blind in his blue eye. 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Helquist (Jun 28, 2014)

I saw a horse at a show once called half-face. His face was half a dark bay color and half white. He had a blue eye on the white side, and brown on the brown side. He was so pretty! His name was also half and half, and he had patches of dark brown all over his body. It was the prettiest horse I've ever seen!


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

Jumping4Joy said:


> One question I get asked frequently is if he is blind in his blue eye.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Complete myth. Blue-eyed horses don't have any more problems than brown-eyed horses.

Technically, almost any breed can have blue eyes. This is because blue eyes are associated with the overo genes splash and frame (and I think maybe sabino? I could be wrong about that, though). Splash, frame and sabino are the genes that cause pretty much all white markings in all breeds.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## jamesqf (Oct 5, 2009)

DraftyAiresMum said:


> Technically, almost any breed can have blue eyes. This is because blue eyes are associated with the overo genes splash and frame (and I think maybe sabino? I could be wrong about that, though).


Isn't that different than having eyes of two different colors, though? I know one horse that's a dark chestnut with a very broad white blaze (we sometimes wonder if his mother got a bit too friendly with the Hereford cattle ) One eye's in the blaze, and is blue, the other is just outside, and is brown.

A friend has a dog that's much the same: mostly white with brown patches, one over an eye. The eye in the patch is brown, the other blue.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

We bred a skewbald filly in the UK (what we call 'any colour and white') that had one blue eye and one brown


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

jamesqf said:


> Isn't that different than having eyes of two different colors, though? I know one horse that's a dark chestnut with a very broad white blaze (we sometimes wonder if his mother got a bit too friendly with the Hereford cattle ) One eye's in the blaze, and is blue, the other is just outside, and is brown.
> 
> A friend has a dog that's much the same: mostly white with brown patches, one over an eye. The eye in the patch is brown, the other blue.


What drafty is getting at is that the pinto pattern itself is what causes the blue eyes, and any horse of any breed with a white marking is carrying some sort of pinto pattern. If they didn't, then they likely wouldn't have a single white hair on them (excluding things like roan or LP or any other pattern that will create white hairs). The blue eyes and white faces, while are most commonly seen together, aren't necessary to each other. For example, Breezy's gorgeous black mare with a blue eye. Minimal facial markings there. There are also horses that have very little color on them, maybe a brown spot on the ear or shoulder but the rest of their body is totally white and they still have brown eyes

So, while it is unusual to end up with a blue eye on a registered QH or TB or Arab, it's theoretically possible if they carry the correct pinto gene.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

The filly we bred - both eyes are on brown hair colour


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## kiwi79 (Nov 11, 2011)

jaydee said:


> The filly we bred - both eyes are on brown hair colour


Wow, what a little stunner!


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## ecasey (Oct 18, 2013)

Lockwood said:


> My RMH gelding has one light amber and icy green eye and one dark amber and blue eye. He's a buckskin.


Stunning!


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## jimmyp (Sep 5, 2013)

Lockwood said:


> My RMH gelding has one light amber and icy green eye and one dark amber and blue eye. He's a buckskin.


Lockwood, 

Is that the eye color or is it cysts related to ASD? Im not trying to be a jerk because I am genuinely interested, but we raise a few RMH foals from time to time, and though we often hear how rampant ASD is among the RMH bloodlines, specifically related to the silver gene, I have yet to encounter one with visible cysts. So whenever I hear about one of these horses with off colored eyes I am curious.

Jim


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## Lockwood (Nov 8, 2011)

jimmyp said:


> Lockwood,
> 
> Is that the eye color or is it cysts related to ASD? Im not trying to be a jerk because I am genuinely interested, but we raise a few RMH foals from time to time, and though we often hear how rampant ASD is among the RMH bloodlines, specifically related to the silver gene, I have yet to encounter one with visible cysts. So whenever I hear about one of these horses with off colored eyes I am curious.
> 
> Jim


Just eye color, bad lighting, and sky glare.


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## Paintedponies1992 (Nov 17, 2013)

My paint gelding has a brown eye and a partial blue eye.


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## Creeping_Charlie (Mar 25, 2020)

Jumping4Joy said:


> Has anyone seen or owned a horse with two different colored eyes? My gelding has one blue and one brown eye, and I was just curious to see if it's common or not. I think it makes him look more interesting! He's a paint gelding, I don't know his pedigree or anything, I have no papers for him  but is it common in paints?
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Mines a qh paint mix and has 1 brown and 1 blue


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

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