PreciousPearls.pdf

By IRENE

STAMATELAKYS

hen Janet Spears first laid

eyes on the pale, young colt

nursing under his chestnut

dam, she didn’t know what to think

about his strange color.

“I bought Mr Unusual in 2003,

when he was 2 weeks old, from a cou-

ple I used to work for,” said Spears. “I

knew he was a little different from the

get-go—just didn’t know until later

how rare he really is.”

Spears describes her overo stallion

as the color of straw, which just didn’t

make sense at the time, according to

the laws of equine color genetics.

Many people thought he was a pale

palomino that would darken with

age. Others said he was a champagne.

“I tested him to verify that his sire,

Awesome Mr Conclusion, was truly

his sire,” said Spears, who lives in

Lyons, Oregon. “I just wanted to

make sure there wasn’t some kind of

mix-up. I knew that he couldn’t be a

palomino. It wasn’t possible coming

from a sorrel stallion and a chestnut

mare, but being he was such a light

color, I tested for cream just to make

sure and he tested negative.

“His color is very hard to explain,

and even harder to catch on film. In

the summertime his coat is very shiny;

even when dirty, he has an unusual

sheen. His eyes are the same light tan

as his body. Around his eyes, nose,

under his tail and around his genitals,

the skin is pinkish-purple with darker

purple-looking specks, similar to

those of a champagne.”

Mr Unusual could easily be con-

fused with a palomino, says Spears,

but not with a cremello.

“He is very different from a

cremello, as there is quite a lot of color

to him, whereas there is mostly only

pink skin on the cremello,” she said.

“Another big difference between him

and the cremello is the eye color.They

Extremely rare,

there’s nothing like a real pearl—dilution. Get

the real story

behind pearl—once known as the Barlink Factor—

and the role

Paints played in the discovery of this little gem.

And Joy—descend from Barlink

Macho Man. Neither champagne nor

cream, it turns out Mr Unusual car-

ried a double dose of an entirely dif-

ferent dilution gene that lightened his

coat color to a shade few breeders

have ever seen.

Even today, very few people are

familiar with this unusual dilution

gene,commonlycalledtheBarlinkFac-

tor but now officially named “pearl,”

andtheuniquecolorsthegenecanpro-

duce.Paintsplayedaleadingroleinthe

discovery of the pearl gene—it turns

out that there are dozens of pearls and

pearl-creamsandhundredsofpearlcar-

riers in the breed, waiting to surprise a

luckybreederwithanunexpectedgem.

It takes two doses of pearl to

change coat color. A homozygous

pearl is visibly diluted—the coat,

mane and tail are uniformly

lightened to a paler shade.

the past, the only way to confirm their

status was through their progeny.

That being said, several owners of

Paint pearl carriers have reported skin

with lighter mottling rather than uni-

formly pigmented skin. Heterozygous

pearls in the Spanish breeds have not

shown these characteristics.

“The terminology is not yet set in

stone, of course,” said Shepard. “Even

thoughpearlisnotalwaysvisibleonthe

heterozygous non-creams, I’ve been

callingthemredpearl,baypearl,brown

pearl and black pearl. There are folks

who think since you can’t always see it,

you should just call those horses red,

bay, brown or black, and note that they

‘carrypearl.’Onceyouknowtheycarry,

I think it’s okay to call them by the

‘base color + pearl’ names.”

Paint stallions Barlink Macho Man

and Mighty Awesome are just two

examples of heterozygous pearls.

It takes two doses of pearl to change

coat color. A homozygous pearl is vis-

ibly diluted—the coat, mane and tail

are uniformly lightened to a paler

shade. On a red base (sorrel or chest-

nut), this color is frequently described

as apricot. On a black base, the color

is similar to a dark amber champagne.

In general, skin color is also lightened.

“One interesting thing about the

double pearls is that they can have

really dark eyes,” said Shepard.

Standard names have not been set,

but Shepard calls these colors by the

base color (red, bay, black or brown)

plus homozygous pearl—for example,

red homozygous pearl.

“It’s also perfectly okay to substitute

‘double’ for ‘homozygous,’ ” Shepard

said.“Iactuallyprefer‘reddoublepearl,’

as this flows off the tongue better.”

The color of pearl

Both the emergence of pearls in the

American Paint Horse and the story

behind the discovery of the gene are

easier to follow once you understand

how the pearl gene works and the col-

ors it produces.

Pearl is a dilution gene that modi-

fies hair color. We’ll look at three spe-

cific cases: the heterozygous pearl, the

homozygous pearl and the heterozy-

gous pearl with cream.

The heterozygous pearl has one

pearl allele. There is no visible dilu-

tion of the hair coat.

“Most pearls are in ‘plain clothes,’ ”

said Shepard, who played a pivotal

role in the discovery of pearls. “They

are not so obvious.”

Today, these pearl carriers can be

identified through genetic testing. In

A palomino pearl, One Awesome

Moment has green eyes.

With both a pearl allele and a cream allele, One Awesome Moment could

easily be mistaken for a cremello. That’s not possible, of course, since his sire,

Mighty Awesome, is sorrel.

are not even close to blue—they are

very much light tan.

“I wasn’t sure what his color was, so

I contacted Carolyn Shepard of the

International Champagne Horse Reg-

istry (ICHR). She told me that there

was a newly discovered gene in the

Barlink Macho Man-bred horses.”

Both the colt’s sire and dam—Awe-

some Mr Conclusion andTNTs Pride

76 PAINT HORSE JOURNAL MONTH 2008

PAINT HORSE JOURNAL

MAY 2009

Thinking she might be champagne, Barlnk Peachs N Cream’s owners tried to

thereby launched the search for a new dilution gene.

everywhere else, and he’s a very

light body color.”

Buckskin pearls are easily confused

with perlinos, says Shepard.

“Buckskin pearls are born a pale

cream color with darker manes and

tails,” she explained. “At this stage,

they closely resemble amber cream

(champagne) foals.The points tend to

fade as the horse ages, such that they

end up looking like perlinos. How-

ever, the skin will freckle a bit darker,

and the eyes will turn a shade of yel-

low-green, which should distinguish

them from perlinos.”

Stars Sunny Delight and Just A

Honey Rose are two examples of

buckskin pearls.

Smoky black and smoky brown

pearls are extremely rare in Paints.

R Smoken Lark appears to be a

smoky black pearl, that is to say, a

smoky black with one pearl gene.

Shepard says his skin is diluted to

near pink and his hair is a very

unusual shade, somewhat resem-

bling a smoky black cream.

Owner Janet Spears describes Mr

Unusual, a homozygous pearl, as the

color of straw, very shiny, with light

tan eyes and speckled skin.

the July 2002 issue of the Champagne

Horse Journal , describing a possible

new dilution gene in Paint Horses that

mimicked champagne, yet was differ-

ent. In tribute to Barlink Macho Man,

she called it the “Barlink Factor.”

Before the test for the champagne

gene was available, when a dilute

horse tested negative for the cream

gene, it was generally accepted as

proof the horse was champagne.

Barlnk Peachs N Cream, and others

like her, tested negative for cream.

Shepard was certain these horses

weren’t champagne and they weren’t

diluted by cream.

About the same time, an unusual

dilution phenomenon in Iberian

horses caught the attention of those

who study equine color genetics. At

first, it was believed that the cham-

pagne gene was at work. But that

possibility was gradually eliminated,

and it was discovered that the dilute

horses were related through a com-

mon, non-dilute parent. The ICHR

discussion group came to the

conclusion that perhaps

an entirely new

dilution

gene existed that behaved exactly like

the Barlink Factor found in Paints. In

Iberians, this dilution was commonly

called pearl.

Then in 2003, Shepard came across

Barlink Dun N Gold, an apparently

homozygous Barlink Factor dilute

who went back to Barlink Macho

Man on only one side of the pedigree.

The mare was out of My Tontime

AQHA, the grand-dam of Barlink

Macho Man.This proved to be a cru-

cial discovery because Barlink Dun N

Gold was registered as a palomino,

but was by a sorrel out of a red roan—

in effect two chestnut parents—which

was impossible.

For the next three years, Shepard

and others continued to study the

Barlink family of horses, trying to

understand the intricate workings of

this new dilute gene. One question

kept popping up. Why weren’t the

pseudo-cremello horses, with one

Barlink Factor and one cream gene,

producing foals like themselves?

In April 2006, Shepard came up

with a theory.

“Nicole MacPherson and I had

been watching [on a Web site], foal by

foal, as One Awesome Moment’s

Mr Unusual, Barlnk Peachs N

Cream and Barlnktwentyfourkarat are

all homozygous pearls.

The heterozygous pearl with cream

has both a pearl allele and a cream

allele. The two genes interact to pro-

duce pseudo double cream dilutes,

with pale skin and blue, yellow or

green eyes. These foals surprisingly

resemble a cremello or perlino, but

often have a parent that is not visibly

dilute, like a chestnut.

The pearl-cream nomenclature is

pretty standard, and the colors are

called palomino pearl, buckskin

pearl, smoky brown pearl, and

smoky black pearl.

One Awesome Moment is a 2000

palomino pearl overo stallion owned

byTriple C Ranch LLC in Smithfield,

Kentucky.

“He is a lighter palomino coloring,

similar to a cremello,” said trainer and

ranch manager Kari Sipes. “He has

freckling around his nose and eyes,

has a lighter pigmentation of skin and

he has green eyes.”

Another good example of a

palomino pearl is the 1988 overo stal-

lion Barlink Gold Rush.

“I knew his color could not be

explained by the colors of his sire

and dam,” said owner Darla

McConnell-Fox of Sandpoint,

Idaho. “He looked cremello or

champagne, but his parentage didn’t

support that. ‘Gold Rush’ has green

eyes and dark pigmentation or

freckling of the muzzle, eyes and

genitalia. He has dark pinkish skin

a 1997 solid mare. Registered with

the American Paint Horse Association

(APHA) as a palomino, the mare

appeared to be champagne. (See

“True Champagne” in the October

2008 Paint Horse Journal .)

Shepard, ICHR president and reg-

istrar, remembers the case clearly.The

mare’s sire and dam—Barlnk Tardy

Too and Barlink Snoopy Sue—were

sorrels, and no dilute horses appeared

in the first three generations of her

pedigree.

“ ‘Peachs’ didn't have an obvious

champagne ancestor, her color was

not quite right, and her eyes were so

very dark that I just wondered about

her,” said Shepard. “But I couldn’t

think of what else she could possibly

be [besides champagne] with the

characteristics she had, so I gave her

the tentative registration status.”

Shortly thereafter, Shepard learned

of other unusually colored Paints that

looked much like champagnes with-

out champagne parents—R Smoken

Lark, Woodstock Chocoblanco and

Raleighs Barlink. Studying the pedi-

grees, Shepard realized that the four

horses shared Barlink Macho Man as

a common ancestor.

Following her discovery, Shepard

wrote the first article, published in

Finding pearls

In 2001, Carol and Don Schneider

of Durango, Colorado, submitted a

registration application to the Inter-

national Champagne Horse Registry

(ICHR) for Barlnk Peachs N Cream,

The term “Barlink Factor” was coined in honor of Barlink Macho Man, a “plain

clothes” pearl. “Macho” was not visibly dilute because he was heterozygous

for the gene.

Two doses of the pearl dilution gene visibly diluted the sorrel base coat, mane

and tail on Barlnktwentyfourkarat to an apricot color.

78 PAINT HORSE JOURNAL MAY 2009

PAINT HORSE JOURNAL MAY 2009 79

babies were being born,” she said.

“They were all palomino or chestnut

in his first few crops. I was cleaning a

stall one day, thinking deeply as to

why he wasn’t making any ‘Barlink

cream’ babies like himself.

“I’ve never seen a Barlink cream

make another Barlink cream from a

non-dilute mate. They make regular

cream dilutes [palominos, buckskins

and smoky blacks]. Then it hit me.

Barlink must be on chromosome 21,

just like cream. If you look at the pedi-

grees, Barlink creams come from one

cream parent and one Barlink parent.

That would be why they don’t give

both genes together.They can’t. When

the chromosome numbers divide in

half to make eggs and sperm, each

gamete has only one copy of chromo-

some 21. So half of the sperm or eggs

carry cream, and the other half carry

Barlink. That means a Barlink cream

will either give out cream or give out

Barlink.There are no other options.”

Shepard had been in contact with

Cecilia Penedo, PhD, of the Veteri-

nary Genetics Laboratory at the Uni-

versity of California, Davis, who was

studying the Barlink Factor. When

Shepard shared her theory that June,

she learned that Penedo was think-

ing—and researching—along the

same lines. A few months later, in

October 2006, UC-Davis made the

test for the Barlink Factor available to

the public, and the gene was initially

named “apricot.”

In the days following the test

launch, Shepard was on the road,

getting hair samples from an Iber-

ian dilute horse to submit to UC-

Davis for testing. Results showed

that the mutation found in Paints

was exactly the same as the one

found in Spanish horse breeds, such

as Andalusians and Lusitanos.

It’s believed that My Tontime AQHA, grand-dam of Barlink Macho Man,

introduced the pearl dilution gene into the Paint breed.

Although My Tontime was regis-

tered as a red roan, Kay Simmelink

remembers the mare’s coloring as

truly unique.

“My Tontime had such a golden,

deep-burnished, gold-red color under

her red roan-colored coat. She truly

glittered,” said Kay. “With her cop-

per-gold sheen under her roan hair,

she definitely wasn’t like any other

roans we’ve ever seen.”

It has been said that My Tontime

introduced this dilution gene into

the Paint breed. But where did she

get it? As Kay recalls, Tina’s mater-

nal line had some unusually colored

horses as well.

“My Leo Nita—she wasn’t a dun

[as she is registered],” said Kay, who

recalls the mare being a light shade.

“As I remember the pictures, she had

sort of strange-colored eyes. They

weren’t blue but more the color of her

body. I remember thinking she was a

very odd color.”

Kay has also seen old

photos of My Leo, sire of

My Leo Nita.

“He, too, was not the

dun they registered him

as,” she said. “He was

so light—possibly a

diluted palomino.

You could barely

see the white legs

and face. My

guess—cremello—but of

course they [the American Quarter

Horse Association] didn’t register

them at the time.”

What color were they? Unfortu-

nately, we’ll never know. MyTontime

quietly carried both that secret and

the pearl gene, passing them on to her

daughter Prize’s Bar Link and her

grandson Barlink Macho Man.

Macho’s first foal hit the ground in

1985, but it wasn’t until two years

later that the Simmelinks saw any-

thing unusual.

“When we bred Macho to his

grand-dam, My Tontime, the baby

was a beautiful dark golden color

like the statues they used to give out

for AQHA Grands—just glittered,”

recalled Kay.

That cross in 1987 produced Bar-

link Dun N Gold. Though she was

registered as a palomino, her photo

shows her to be, in fact, a red

homozygous pearl.

At the time, no one knew what to

call this color. As the Simmelinks con-

tinued breeding Macho, they eventu-

ally made two discoveries.

“We have found that we can get a

gold-colored foal out of breeding

a Macho to a Macho,” said Kay.

“And we did learn quickly not to

cross Macho on palominos or buck-

skins because he would dilute it on

occasion and at that time it was

not popular.”

In other words, crossing a pearl car-

rier with a pearl carrier could produce

a homozygous pearl, and crossing a

pearl carrier with a cream carrier

could produce a pseudo-cremello or a

pearl cream.

Over the years, the Simmelinks

have bred a few homozygous pearls,

including Barlnktwentyfourkarat and

Barlnk Misters Gold, both sired by

Barlnk Macho Man Two and out of

Macho daughters. The foals had

gold coloration with same-colored

manes and tails.

“We had to register these colts as

sorrels, so we just sort of assumed they

were diluted sorrels,” said Kay. “We

knew Macho could certainly dilute a

palomino mare, which at the time

wasn’t very desirable like it is now.

Now it’s the rage.

“At the time, anything lighter [than

a palomino or dun] was not desirable.

Now it’s hot property. Had we known

what a goldmine we had, well, we

could have added a lot more of the

light colors to the breeds. All of these

foals, their sire and dams are double-

registered APHA and AQHA, so it

impacts both breeds.”

For the Simmelinks, first and fore-

most on their minds was breeding

quality horses that could halter and

ride. Had they been less successful,

the pearl gene probably would have

slipped by unnoticed. Thanks to

their legendary breeding program,

this rare dilution gene, a legacy of

the Paint’s heritage in the Spanish

breeds, is alive and well today.

It then became clear that the

Barlink horses were not the sources of

a new mutation, but simply carried

the genes, reflecting the Spanish an-

cestry of the Quarter Horse and Paint

breeds. Dilute-color enthusiasts then

rallied for the name to be changed

from “apricot” to “pearl” to better re-

flect the gene’s origins.

stallion by Tuffys Two Spades AQHA

and out of Prize’s Bar Link. “Macho,”

a two-time national champion, earned

266 Open points, 52 grands and 30

reserves in halter competition, and was

a Western pleasure point-earner.

As a sire, he is simply legendary.

Macho’s 393 offspring have earned

13,095 halter and 11,195 perfor-

mance points, propelling the Sim-

melinks to the top of APHA’s list of

Lifetime Leading Halter Breeders by

points earned, second based on halter

point earners and fifth on the list of

Lifetime Leading Performance Breed-

ers by points earned. (See “High

Desert Dynasty” in the January 1997

Paint Horse Journal .)

The Simmelinks were uniquely

focused on producing overo halter

horses that could also perform.

Unbeknownst to them, the success

and popularity of the “Barlink” horses

would bring an old and rare dilution

gene back into the limelight.

But the Simmelink story actually

begins with Macho’s grand-dam, My

Tontime AQHA. Purchased as 2-

year-old in 1965, “Tina” was sired by

Tonto’sTime, byTonto Bars Gill, and

out of My Leo Nita, by My Leo.

The Simmelink story

Although we know today that this

unusual dilution gene was imported

several centuries ago from Europe, it

might have never caught our atten-

tion had it not been for the great stal-

lion Barlink Macho Man.

Bred by Kay and Charles Sim-

melink of Madras, Oregon, Barlink

Macho Man was a 1982 sorrel overo

The success and popularity of

the “ Barlink” horses would

bring an old and rare dilution

gene back into the limelight.

Barlink Mister Gold is part of the legendary Barlink family of horses bred by

Kay and Chuck Simmelink. The “Barlinks” brought the pearl dilution to light.

80 PAINT HORSE JOURNAL MAY 2009

PAINT HORSE JOURNAL MAY 2009 81

String of Pearls

Real pearls

Like cream, dun, champagne and

silver, pearl is a dilution gene capa-

ble of changing base coat colors into

something completely different. It

has been found in Paints, Quarter

Horses, Andalusians, Lusitanos,

Peruvian Pasos and Gypsy Horses.

There are seven known homozygous

pearls, 27 pearl creams and an esti-

mated 1,000 pearl carriers in the

Paint breed.

“It is absolutely fascinating to see

how widespread this is,” said Shepard.

“I wonder why we didn’t notice it

long before we did.”

Currently, APHA does not recog-

nize pearl as an official coat color.

However, now that genetic testing is

available to identify carriers, Paint

pearl owners have one wish.

“I hope someday soon that APHA

will recognize the pearl color,” said

Janet Spears, who owns Mr Unusual.

“Every foal he produces carries the

pearl gene. Mr Unusual is misregis-

tered as a palomino, a color that he

has no genes to produce. I was told

that he would be registered as a

palomino because he looked the clos-

est to that color.”

Known homozygous

pearls

Ambitious Blonde

Barlink Dun N Gold

Barlnk Misters Gold

Barlnk Peachs N Cream

Barlnktwentyfourkarat

Mr Unusual

Shesa Bita Awesome

TwoTone Gold

Ultimateawesomemoment

WDWhatcha Lookin At

Wildfire Gem

Woodstock Angel Baby

Woodstock Chocoblanco

Known Pearl Carriers

An Awesome Image

An AwesomeTicket

Annvers Glory

Awesome Andy

Awesome Mr Conclusion

Barlink Classical Joy

Barlink Macho Joy

Barlink Macho Man

Barlink PennyWise

Barlinks Fancy

Barlinks Jewel

Barlinks Lasting Doll

Barlink Snoopy Sue

BarlinkTriplecash

Barlnk Islebegrand

Barlnk Macho ManTwo

Barlnk MeriTardi

Barlnk Peaches Rita

Barlnks Conclusive Joy

BarlnkTardyToo

Callin Granny

Exclusively Connected

J C Silver Cash

Jetalita Fools Gold

Known Cream Pearls

Awesome Sugar Cookie

Barlinked In Gold

Barlink Gold Rush

Barlinkscodycandy

Grace N Elegance

Just a Honey Rose

LittleYella Fella

Looking Ata Dream

Machos Ladys Lass

Mighty Alrighty

Miss Cool Image

Mr Awesome Boy

One Awesome Moment

Oro BlancoWoodstock

Raleighs Barlink

R Smoken Lark

SarcoTartanero (also dun)

Sheza AwesomeTicket

ShezablondeWoodstock

Stars Sunny Delight

Twofeathers Karmalita

Ambitious Blonde, a red homozygous

pearl, shows how the apricot color

can vary from horse to horse.

Manchester

Midnight Cassanova

Mighty Ambitious

Mighty Awesome

Mighty Cool Image

MyTontime (AQHA)

Palmer Mountain

Prize’s Bar Link

Shes Mighty Concluson

Sir Nottingham

Sweet Dream Baby

TC Bita Bonanza

TNTs Pride and Joy

TwoTone Barlink

Jennifer Cline first discovered pearl when she bred Shesa Bita Awesome, and

is working to gain APHA recognition of the color.

Last fall, Jennifer Cline submitted

a proposal to the APHA Registration

Committee to recognize pearl as a

new, approved coat color. Cline, who

lives in Glendale, Oregon, bred and

owns Shesa Bita Awesome, a red

homozygous pearl.

“My filly is a very unusual color, the

color of apricot,” wrote Cline in her

proposal. “Without a white mane, she

does not carry the cream gene. She

is, however, registered as

palomino as the APHA

does not yet recognize

pearl as a color.

“It seems odd to

me that my reg-

istry would be

so involved in

the evolution

of this partic-

ular color, yet

not make it a

choice for those who have these

uniquely colored horses and who

have contributed so much in the

research. Our horses are still incor-

rectly identified as palominos, when

clearly they are not.”

Although the proposal was denied,

Cline has not given up.

“I am very dedicated to getting this

color recognized,” she said.

In the meantime, as more people

learn about the pearl gene and colors,

more pearl Paints are discovered and

their popularity grows.

“I’ll have to admit, however, that

these gold colts are hot property,” said

Kay Simmelink. “Everyone seems to

want that color.” p

This list was compiled by Carolyn Shepard, president and

registrar of the International Champagne Horse Registry,

based on APHA records, pedigree analysis, progeny records

and owner testimonials.

“The horses on these lists are just the ones I know of,” said

Shepard. “There are, without a doubt, many more that have not

come to my attention.This is, by no means, a complete list.”

At first glance, Barlink Gold Rush looks like a cremello,

but he’s actually a pearl-cream or palomino pearl.

Cremellos don’t have his dark green eyes and freck-

ling around the muzzle.

Howmany Paints carry the pearl gene?

“Barlink Macho Man has 393 registered APHA foals, of

which half would carry pearl,” she said. “Mighty Awesome

has 672 foals. Awesome Mr Conclusion has 135 foals. Barlnk

Macho Man Two has 53 foals. Barlink Gold Rush has 82

foals. Awesome Andy has 102 foals.”

In theory, half of those foals are pearl carriers. Pearl Paints,

says Shepard, greatly outnumber the estimated 250 cham-

pagne Paints.

“Right there, just from offspring of those six stallions,

there would be approximately 718.5 pearl-carrying foals,”

said Shepard. “And each of those pearl carriers has 50 per-

cent pearl foals. So there are more than 1,000 of them out

there in the world.”

Registered as a perlino, Stars Sunny Delight is genetically a buckskin pearl.

82 PAINT HORSE JOURNAL MAY 2009

PAINT HORSE JOURNAL MAY 2009 83

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