Horse hunting - greys and melanomas?

I’ve had more greys than other colours in horse ownership. Have one at present. And one I lost New Year’s Eve age 30. I’ve NEVER had a melanoma. EVER. I have however had sarcoids with the bays
 
Cragrat said:
...
Which makes me wonder how common melanoma's are in Lippizana's?
Click to expand...
Cloball said:
It would be very interesting particularly as certain breeds like lipizzaner and traditionally PREs grey was preferred.
Click to expand...

I've sort of just presumed that Lipizzaner breeders historically maybe have preferred using older stallions which have proven that they can do their non breeding work properly, and during several years. Which in turn would've meant that a stallion which developed severe enough melanomas to not be able to continue to do their work at a relatively early age, would not have had a chance to already sire tons of foals, before basically getting culled from the Lipizzaner breeding program. But as said, that's just my presumption.

I've found one study on Lipizzaners and melanomas, and copied the text below from this link https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2746/042516403776114234
Reasons for performing study: Equine melanomas occur most commonly in grey horses at age 5 years or more. Generally, benign and malignant melanomas are distinguished by microscopy, but a more distinct classification would be helpful.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to gain further evidence concerning the occurrence of melanotic tumours, and to evaluate the impact of heredity on melanoma development.

Methods: A clinical study was conducted on a defined population of 296 grey horses of Lipizzaner breed. Individuals were classified according to their stage of disease using a 0–5 scale. Heritability was estimated on a sample of 296 grey horses with pedigrees traced back as far as 32 generations.

Results: Of the 296 horses, dermal melanomas were present in 148 horses (50%), 68 of which were more than age 15 years; 51 of these were melanoma-bearing. In 75.6% of cases, melanotic tumours were detected underneath the tail. Although melanoma-bearing grey horses were encountered up to stage 4, none of the affected individuals suffered any severe clinical effect or was handicapped in performance. Statistical analysis revealed highly significant effects of stud and age (P<0.0001), explaining 28% of the total variability.

Conclusions: In contrast to melanomas in solid-coloured horses characterised by early metastases, melanomas in grey horses showed less malignancy. Affected individuals often had encapsulated nodules or structures similar to human blue nevi. Grey horse-specific genetic factors inhibiting metastatic processes may be responsible for this phenomenon.

Potential clinical relevance: Although the obtained heritability estimate of 0.36 with a standard error of 0.11 indicates a strong genetic impact on the development of melanoma in ageing grey horses, a possible influence of the genes with large effects was also suggested. Therefore, further analysis is required of melanoma development in the ageing grey horse.
 
I bought a grey Arabian gelding from a famous horse breeding and competing family. Intial five-stage vetting was clearHe did very well over several disciplines for a number of years. He then lost condition in a very short space of time. Vet work-up indicated internal melanomas. He was quietly pts the following week.
 
As i said earlier it is the internal melanomas that cause the most trouble. Often owners have no idea that the melanoma even exsists until it is too late. Just because your grey doesn't have any externallly, don't think they necessarily are clear internally.
I know many old grey horses with only external melanomas that have not caused the horse any significant problem.
It's the one's you can't see that are most dangerous!
 
I've had dozens of grey horses, of the ones who were older about half had melanomas, none were problematic and none caused their ultimate demise. I wouldn't buy a horse with advanced, very obvious melanomas (other horse colours can get them, but rare), but it certainly wouldn't put me off buying a grey horse. For many years the only horses I've had were predominately grey, or black.
 
If my young grey cob develops any (he is a dark dapple grey currently) then I would have them lasered off early on. Our lovely highland mare has had hers removed so that she is comfortable, I appreciate that you don't know what is going on inside. It didn't put me off purchasing another grey but then after a run of suspensory and athritis issues with my old boy, you can't control much with horses and a bay could pop a sarcoid? So who knows?
 
  • Like
Reactions: JGC
God, reading this thread makes me feel like I'm going to go out to the field tomorrow and find a melanoma riddled horse on deaths door waiting for me!

I didn't intend to buy a grey as I have always been a bay person and didn't fancy the cleaning, but I just fell in love with him so that was that. My last one was Bay and riddled with sarcoids - every horse has a risk.
 
Argh! Another thing to think about when horse hunting, as I will be doing in the New Year.

Naively, I thought that the main issue with greys was keeping them clean! I didn’t realise melanomas were more of an issue, and I’d never heard of an internal melanoma. When I had a chat with a friend who’s an equine vet, albeit a surgeon, she’d given the impression that melanomas in horses were much less worrisome than in humans and hadn’t even mentioned the possibility of internal ones.
 
  • Care
Reactions: JGC
Not something that ever crossed my mind when I bought my grey aged 7. He did stay quite dark on his points and his sire was bay. He had some lasered off aged about 22/23. He was put down because of an injury aged 25 and hadn’t had any other issues with melanomas in that period. I’d have missed out on an amazing horse if had ruled him out.
 
The owner of the stud that bred my (grey) Connie also said the homozygous greys are the problem. She has around 30 ponies and routinely has them living to 30 with no (external) melanomas which is one of the reasons her sires are both non grey.
 
First Frost said:
As i said earlier it is the internal melanomas that cause the most trouble. Often owners have no idea that the melanoma even exsists until it is too late. Just because your grey doesn't have any externallly, don't think they necessarily are clear internally.
I know many old grey horses with only external melanomas that have not caused the horse any significant problem.
It's the one's you can't see that are most dangerous!
Click to expand...
This was the case with ours. Very minor signs of them externally but internally a massive one was growing that blocked his rectum and we lost him. He was in his 20s at this point and had had a wonderful life. Would we buy him again if we knew that is what would happen…1000% yes!

There are so many ‘what ifs’ with horses. My 18yo and 4yo black horses both had/have sarcoids.
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
God, reading this thread makes me feel like I'm going to go out to the field tomorrow and find a melanoma riddled horse on deaths door waiting for me!

I didn't intend to buy a grey as I have always been a bay person and didn't fancy the cleaning, but I just fell in love with him so that was that. My last one was Bay and riddled with sarcoids - every horse has a risk.
Click to expand...

Sorry off topic but I was wondering what colour he would be classed as. He looks quite unusual. I didn’t think he’d be a grey, I assumed he would be one of those colours I’d never heard of 😂
 
JGC said:
Potentially looking for a new horse given I now have two who have decided a permanent holiday is more to their liking :rolleyes:

But one of the criteria I've been using to select has been no greys - not because I mind about the colour at all, but I am concerned about melanomas, having had a share a long time ago who had a lot of problems and at my last stayaway show, I was next to a grey 11 year old trained to PSG but the lady left after the first day saying she was going to retire him because he was obviously too bothered by his melanomas.

I've seen an ad for a grey who ticks all the other boxes on paper, so I wondering whether to view, but I don't want to waste anyone's time. Am I exaggerating the risks in my mind a bit? This is a 12 year old and has a recent vetting (pass), and apparently no melanomas showing. Would that make a difference, i.e. would problems already have started to show up?
Click to expand...
It is personal choice, I have had 3 grey but were not that colour to start with, late mare had a couple under her tail, but they never grew or changed in the 25 years I had her. This one has a few near elbow which are to be removed.

When I start horse shopping in October, I won't turn away from a grey as long as there are not any melanomas. That said i won't look at bays or blacks or coloured, when I do start shopping. Personal choice ATEOTD
 
Last edited:
Only just seen this thread and thank you for all the interesting posts. I’m heartened to hear of some doing well into old age. Melanomas are horrid though and when they burst and ooze it’s not good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top