Wendy Bockman, Robin Mitchell, Natalie Nelson
& Milynda Milam lead the rule change charge.
The following is quoted from the March 2005 SouthWest
Horse Trader magazine.
View the breeding color chart below to see the color
possibilities.
While Perlinos and Cremellos have been accepted across various horse associations as a coat color not genetics gone bad, the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) put their foot down when it came to accepting these coat colors into their registry.
With the removal of rule 227(i) from the AQHA handbook in 2003, breeders and owners of Double Dilutes who once were forced to register their horses as Paints, even though they were 100% Quarter Horses, can now relax and enjoy their breeding programs. Where once it seemed only a few existed in the Quarter Horse world, Perlinos and Cremellos are seen advertised in virtually every Equine magazine throughout the United States and for what they truly are, American Quarter Horses.
Four women, Natalie Nelson, Wendy Bockman, Robin Mitchell Forrest, and Milynda Milam, took on AQHA at the AQHA Convention in March of 2000 to try to get the rule changed. Their mission was to plea for the removal of Rule 227(j) at that time and allow the Double Dilutes into the association for registry. What they learned was that convincing the AQHA that accusations of health issues were false and simply wives tales was going to take a lot of time, hard work and many people for support.
In June 2000, Wendy Bockman established the Cremello and Perlino Educational Association (CPEA) and created the website, www.doubledilute.com. This gave the group an opportunity to educate the public about these horses and as the group continued to grow, so did the support to continue to fight AQHA. Eventually,over 300 members went to the website daily to discuss issues to overcome the registries objections as well as put together ideas to educate the public. The website also did a great job of providing information on color genetics and how they work.
At the 2001 Convention the Committee Chairman recommended that the phrase "commonly called albino" be removed from rule 227(j). However, it was the belief of the Committee that cremello and perlinos have health and eye problems, therefore the rest of the rule would remain intact. AQHA Rule 227(j) was then revised to AQHA rule 227(i) in 2002.
On Monday October 7, 2002, the AQHA Stud Book & Registration Committee had a specially scheduled meeting at the AQHA Headquarters in Amarillo. They met to discuss several issues including rule 227(i). The Committee voted to eliminate Rule 227(i)! The new chairman said they had reviewed the information CPEA had presented and had reviewed the follow-up research done by Gary Griffith. They discussed it and felt there were no longer any valid reasons to continue to exclude cremellos and perlinos from registration. The Committee's recommendation for removal of the rule was put on the agenda for the next convention. At the convention in March of 2003, it went to the Board of Directors and General Membership and was approved.
With two years of registrations in the books, the statistics are showing that there is approximately one Perlino born for every four Cremellos. According to the AQHA registration department, there were 898 Cremellos and 281 Perlinos registered in 2003, the first year they were eligible for registration, and there were 809 Cremellos and 218 Perlinos registered in 2004.
It took several years of hard work and education to change how the public and AQHA perceived Cremellos and Perlinos. The final reward for the hard work of those four women as well as a dedicated group of believers — AQHA papers on their Cremello and Perlino horses.