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Arctic White

© Patricia Celley

What is so special about Arctic White? He is the only registered white thoroughbred stallion living in the world today. And at 3years old, he is ready to make his debut on the racing and breeding scene.

White thoroughbreds are not albinos. They do not have pink around their eyes, and they do not sunburn like albinos. Nor are they like gray horses. Gray horses (even the pure white Lippizans) are born black and slowly change to white.

Out of 1.7 million horses ever registered in thoroughbred breeding history, there are only 15 white thoroughbreds. The odds of conceiving a white thoroughbred are staggering; but Arctic White had someone stacking the odds in his favor.

Dalene Knight owns Painted Dessert Farm in Oregon, USA. She has been working to breed quality thoroughbreds with color for many years. Thoroughbreds born with splotches of color on their bodies are called ?crop outs? and can be registered as Paint horses. All Paint horses must have registered Quarter Horse or Thoroughbred bloodlines. Many Thoroughbreds and Quarter horses are registered under both breeds. This is referred to as ?double registered? or ?cross registered.? It was Dalene?s idea to breed Arctic White?s parents. She was hoping to get some very colorful foals ? what a delight to get pure white!

Arctic White?s mother was Tropicanna Anna. His father was one of Painted Desert Farm's stallions, Airdrie Apache, a Paint with very interesting bloodlines. Airdrie Apache?s grandfather was a successful race horse named Mr. Prospector. His mother was Not Quite White, one of nine original registered white thoroughbreds.

For the first 200 years of the Thoroughbred breed registry, there was no such thing as a white Thoroughbred. The very first one was a horse named White Beauty. She was born in 1963, a genetic mutation, a million to one long shot. Arctic White?s grandmother, Not Quite White, was one of her foals.

There are seven basic genes that determine the color of a horse. All non-white horses carry a recessive white gene, but it very rarely becomes dominant. To further stack the odds against pure white foals, there is a white gene in the Paint breed that is fatal to the foals. Foals born with this gene die shortly after birth due to intestinal tract defects. Airdrie Apache has tested negative for carrying this gene.

The first year Dalene Knight bred Airdrie Apache she got three white babies. Arctic White was the only colt. He also had two white sisters, Silver Mystique and Snow Baby Go. Silver Mystique was sold for a respectable 85,000 and will begin her racing career in Ireland. I am not sure what became of Snow Baby Go. Arctic White now has two more white baby sisters born at Painted Desert Farm this year.

The copyright of the article Arctic White in Horse Talk is owned by Patricia Celley. Permission to republish Arctic White in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.