Since the genetics study on CSNB ( Congenital Stationary Night Blindness) was released last year, there has been some misinformation, some confusion, and some out right panic concerning night blindness in Appaloosas. Click here for The Appaloosa Project's information on CSNB. And here are my thoughts on night blindness in Appaloosas (note that this does not include night blindess in other breeds!).
1) All Appaloosas who are homozygous for leopard complex (the appaloosa characteristic gene, abbreviated as LP for the dominant and lp as the recessive form) have CSNB. No exceptions.
2) This is nothing new. This is likely the way it has been for hundreds if not thousands of years.
3) Horses with CSNB are born that way and usually have well developed senses they rely on at night other than their sight.
4) CSNB is not painful.
5) Technically, this is an inherited trait because it occurs when a horse is LP/LP although it interestingly does not manifest itself in LP/lp horses. (Maybe it's a gene that attaches to LP and acts like other recessive genetic traits that need to have both recessive genes in place for the phenotype to occur.) However, people who refuse to breed LP/LP horses because they don't want to pass on CSNB aren't thinking it through logically - avoiding LP/LP altogether means that all Appaloosas will have to be LP/lp to lp/lp breedings, meaning 50% of all Appaloosas will be noncharacteristic, meaning 50% of all Appaloosas will not show a major feature of the breed! The other part is to refer back to #2, #3, and #4.
I've heard of people lighting part of a pasture or a shed/shelter for their night blind horses. We do neither. Our nightblind stallion frequently gallops in his pasture in the middle of the night, either leading his little herd when there's a full moon or galloping alone when there's no moonlight - the night-sighted horses don't like galloping when the moonlight is not there whereas his spatial memory is so good and he is so accustomed to his lack of night sight that he has no such trouble! In a couple of our other groups, fewspot mares are our alpha mares, nipping or kicking at other horses who dare to eat off their hay piles uninvited or who jostle them, never missing in their aim. In one group where it's a fewspot mare and a leopard stallion, the leopard stallion is older and his night vision is mediocre, and the fewspot mare has no night vision at all. Which one is the protector against wildlife? The mare! With unerring aim, she will chase dogs out of their pasture, skidding to a halt a few feet from a fence that she cannot see. We train our Appaloosas, especially the night blind ones, at night occasionally so that we don't have trouble doing anything with them in low lighting, like leading an escapee back into his/her pasture in the pre-dawn darkness or loading a horse onto a dark trailer at night. The one time our night blind stallion got loose and was tangled in briars, he remembered his training and was led back to his pasture in the dark with only a t-shirt looped around his neck - the only thing available when he was found - with never a fuss, despite being unable to see, in unfamiliar areas, and with other horses running along a fence only feet away. He followed the voice of his person beautifully!
In the end, it's simple for me. Night blind horses are in no way defective. They do not have a "disease" that must be bred out. It is simply another trait found in the Appaloosa.
