Iberian Pearls in the USA

The Pearl gene in Andalusians and Lusitanos (and crosses of those breeds) was first identified in horses of those breeds living in the USA.

To get to know some of them, especially the "major players" in its discovery in those breeds, just CLICK (!) on the horses' names on the buttons, left.  A summary is also available, in the tables below.

Pearl is a recessive dilution gene that reacts to the cream gene.  There are no known homozygous pearls in the Iberian breeds in the USA as of this writing. (The only known homozygous [double] pearls in the USA are in the Barlink line of American Paint Horses.)

There had been noticed, and documented, several startling cases of a cream dilute horse being crossed with a base color horse (chestnut, bay, black, brown) and producing a foal that looks like a double cream dilute, in two Andalusian "families" in the USA, as detailed below.

When these foals were color tested, without exception they were found to have only one cream gene, as expected by their parentage.  (This parentage is almost always DNA verified because of the regulations of the Iberian breeds involved.) 

Now, most of these foals have also been tested for Pearl, and those who have been tested all carry it.

The cream dilutes never produced these colors except when bred to the same particular dark-colored horses.  That's how it was first noticed.

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