Blue Ice Chinook – Natural Breeding Down-Under

By Ray and Robyn Morris, New Zealand

We started breeding horses in 1987, when we bought a palomino Quarter Horse mare, Sheyene. She had been injured, but was good broodmare material, as she had great conformation and temperament, and had started a successful showing career before the trailering accident (with her previous owner). We bred her to a Quarter Horse stallion, Blackford Chinook, who had been imported to New Zealand from Australia. He was an unusual colour, described in his registration papers as a sooty palomino, but in reality more a silvery fawn colour, with a white mane and tail that had a dark line running through them.

In spring 1988 our mare produced Billy, a cremello colt (later registered as Blue Ice Chinook). We were more than a bit surprised by his colouring, and as he and his mother were clearly visible from the nearby road, we received all sorts of comments about his appearance, from all sorts of people. We were told he was an albino, that he was blind, that he would be bad and dangerous, that he was ugly, a freak, and that we should put him down, sooner rather than later! New Zealanders are often very conservative as far as horse colours are concerned, and anything unusual or “flashy” tends to be regarded with great suspicion. Fortunately for Billy we are fairly independent thinkers, so we decided to do some research instead.

First we found that he was definitely not an albino (true albinos do not exist in horses). We could clearly see that he was a pale cream, with white markings and a white mane and tail. He was a predictable result of breeding horses of dilute colour together, and any such cross has a 25 % chance of producing a blue-eyed cream of some sort. Depending on the base colour of their coat, the shades are cremello (2X dilute chestnut), perlino (2X dilute bay), or smoky cream (2X dilute black).

It seemed cremello horses were no more likely to be dangerous than any others – our boy certainly was great to handle, and quick to learn. True, some cremellos do have poor sight, but our colt seemed to have no problems at all. We also learnt that cremellos are invaluable if you want to produce dilute coloured young stock, as they always pass on the gene that dilutes coat colour to their offspring. Our colt had the potential to produce 100% palomino foals from chestnut mares, so rather than gelding him as a foal we decided to assess his breeding potential as a two year old.

As he grew up we made sure he was well handled and respectful around people. He lived with our small herd of mares and geldings until he was about 18 months old. All the older horses kept him in line, and he learnt great manners from the mares. He showed no real interest in breeding at that stage, but to be safe we decided to graze him with a group of geldings from 18 months old. In his 2 year old summer, as his behaviour was excellent, and he was looking good, we ran him with three of our own mares, two chestnut Quarter Horses and a palomino half-bred Arab.

Billy’s first foals were born in January 1992 – three really nice palomino fillies.  We kept him entire, and to date he has sired 35 foals (with one due any day now) – mostly out of our own mares. We decided that we simply wanted to breed nice natured, attractive horses that would be a pleasure for people to ride. Although Billy was registered as Blue Ice Chinook with the NZ Quarter Horse Association, we have not specifically bred Quarter Horses. In fact we have a mixed group of mares ourselves – over the years it has included Quarter Horses, a half-bred Arab, thoroughbreds, a Trakhener, a Hanoverian / TB and two pintos. Other mares he has served have ranged from show ponies to an Irish Hunter.

We have tried to keep our breeding operation as simple and natural as possible. Billy runs with his mares, and paddock serves them. He learnt good manners as a youngster, and is well socialised. He always has at least one mare with him, all year round. We do not stable our horses, and he only gets rugged if the weather is particularly bad. Billy is very patient with foals. One of our own mares foaled in the paddock with him, and he behaved perfectly with the baby. He tolerates his legs being kicked and bitten, and his tail being chewed. When it all gets too much he will lay his ears back or wave a back leg, but that’s about as far as it goes.

As a colour producer he has been great. So far the tally is: 26 palominos of varying shades (no pale ones), 2 buckskins, 1 buckskin pinto, 3 black buckskins, 2 black buckskin pintos, and 3 cremellos. The cremellos were produced out of a palomino, a buckskin, and a grey (whose birth colour must have been dilute).

Some of his foals have gone on to showing and eventing careers. Some have gone to riders who trail ride through some of the most beautiful country in New Zealand. One spectacularly dark palomino filly, out of a chestnut TB mare, became a great polo pony, now being used by a 13 year-old boy.

Billy’s biggest success as a sire in competitive terms, has been Saraceni, a black buckskin gelding out of our Trakhener mare. In his first season in competition he won almost every dressage contest he was entered in, and was judged on movement and temperament to be the most suitable young horse to go on to Olympic level dressage, out of a group of mostly pure Warmblood 4 year-olds. The judges included American author Sally O’Connor.

The best thing about Billy’s foals however is that they are, as we intended, nice natured, attractive and rideable; horses we can be proud of, as we are proud of him.

Ray and Robyn Morris breed horses on 50 acres of drought prone country, 70 miles northwest of Christchurch, on New Zealand’s South Island. They have two sons, Blair aged 22 (who works on a dairy farm) and Callum aged 11, a whippet called Zac, 3 cats, and 21 horses of mixed ages & uses, including their stallion Blue Ice Chinook.