Photo by Walcott Schley
Article by Pat Murphy


Horses are considered by many to be living pieces of art, so it is little wonder that they are celebrated in so many of our artistic masterpieces. Presently, there is great interest in unusually colored horses, but until recently reliable information on the amazing variations of horse coat colors had only been published in Dutch and Spanish. So there has been a rush to publish books and articles on this topic in English. It appears that an exciting future has been opened for horses of unusual color and discriminating connoisseurs and breeders of those horses.

Cici Huston caught the colored horse fever several years ago. In addition to Paint Horses, she now raises Grullas and other horses of unusual colors at her Cielo Celeste Farm in Santa Ynez. Cici has been closely involved with horses since childhood, progressing from ponies to five-gaited Saddlebreds, to Arabians, Andalusians and Paint Horses.

Cici recently reminisced, “As a young girl I really had the horse bug and worked as a polo exercise girl for Russel Havenstrite, who was a noted player in the Los Angeles area. One of my favorite pastimes was swimming horses in the surf of Malibu. In 1969, I decided to start breeding Arabians and traded a pearl and diamond necklace to Sunny Hearst for an Arabian stallion.

”When Cici became aware of how fascinating it was to breed for different colors and patterns in Paint Horses she bought the fine Paint stallion "Bold Win” who is now in his twenties and still producing quality offspring with beautiful coloring. Cici presently rides several stallions each day and feels lucky to have such an interesting life. Not that her life was ever boring: She grew up in Hollywood, where many of her friends were well known in the motion picture industry. When she was married to the film icon, John Huston, they lived in Ireland and enjoyed riding to the hounds. But it was when she visited her husband on location in Arizona for "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,” that she took what was probably her most unusual ride--on the back of a very large, male lion.
"They were using a bear in the movie whose very best friend and traveling companion was a male lion,” explained Cici. "The bear and the lion had their own room at a motel. When the bear was working, I would keep the lion company and play with him, which is how I happened to be riding him when they took the photo. We had a very good relationship, until one day I decided to comb his mane. He let out a mighty roar and gently took my hand in his mouth—and that was the end of my feline hairstyling career!"


Returning to her current interest in horses of many colors, Cici elaborates, "My whole family has always been interested in art, so when I became acquainted with the beautifully-colored Grullo Horses, it struck a chord. I was very moved and wanted to become involved with them.”

Grullo horses originally came from Spain, and their name is a Spanish word for a slate-colored crane. Grulla is the female version of the word. Cici says, "The color looks almost mousy to some people, but it has many different mottlings, shadows and shades and often the horse has a darker head--but there are absolutely no white hairs. The 'points' are also of great importance— they are the mane, tail, rims of the ears and lower legs, and they all must be darker than the body. A true Grullo must also have a dark dorsal stripe down its back. It may also have a shadowed face, or even webbing on the ears and legs, almost like tiger stripes. If there is webbing around the eyes it, makes the horse look like it is always awake, which may have been a protection when these horses were in the wild. Dark blue eyes are acceptable in only the true silver Grullo.”

The beautiful shading of the horses' coats is an endless source of fascination for equestrians around the world and such terms a 'lobo dun’, ‘olive grullo', and 'silver grullo’ have emerged. English riders tend to refer to most Grullos as 'mouse colored' or ‘blue.’ But Grullo is a recognized color by the American Quarter Horse Association, which reports that these horses are so rare that out of 150,000 Quarter Horses foaled in 2002, only 715 were Grullos.

"Of course, one doesn’t know how well bred those are, so there might be only a few really fine ones,” says Cici. "I have a black stallion with a créme gene that can produce a beautiful array of diluted color. A horse that has two créme genes, such as my Grullo stallion, can produce a 'Perlino' or a 'Cremello,’ if he is bred to a Palomino mare. The Cremello has a light cream-colored coat, darker points and blue eyes. The Perlino has a similar coat and eyes, but red or blue points. They used to be considered undesirable, but now they are recognized as a rarity that is sought after because their offspring will always be either Buckskin or Palomino.

As in other beautiful things in life, the Grullo is sought after because it is hard to reproduce. In the past, this unique color was sometimes found in Mustangs or Peruvian Paso horses. Recently Quarter Horse breeders have become very interested in the Grullo for western riding. But Cici cautions, "When breeding for color, the pedigree is of great importance, so one doesn’t get into other faults. The future for these horses is huge if their production is pursued by skilled horse breeders. I believe that fine Grullos will be collected like rare gems- and they deserve to be.”

This past year Cici's farm produced peach colored foals, chocolate Palominos and a Perlino--a pearl colored foal, born with a red mane, tail, dorsal stripe and webbing on the legs! The Quarter Horse Association accepts Cremello and Perlinos in their registration, as does the paint Horse registry. Foaling time, which begins in January, is very exciting at Cielo Celeste Farm, as there are many possibilities for colorful surprises. Appointments may be made to tour by calling (805) 688-8020.

This foal is a rare silver grullo, only a few days old.
Note the dark stripe clearly visible on his back.


Contact Information
Cielo Celeste Farm
Santa Ynez, CA 93460
(805 688-8020 Barn
(805) 693-8410 FAX
Send mail to cchuston@hotmail.com

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