Smoky black pearl

Appearance

Foals		Smoky black pearl foals have a uniform, darker ashy creamy color. The coat usually lightens as they get older. The skin is pink. The eyes are blue and may darken a bit with age.

Foals

Smoky black pearl foals have a uniform, darker ashy

creamy color. The coat usually lightens as they

get older. The skin is pink. The eyes are blue and

may darken a bit with age.

Cream and pearl on a black base dilute the horse to a cream color similar to homozygous cream. Therefore, they are also often called “pseudo-double dilutes”. Their shade can be slightly darker compared to other cream pearls. They have pink skin and green/blue or amber eyes.		Adults

Cream and pearl on a black base dilute the

horse to a cream color similar to homozygous

cream. Therefore, they are also often called

“pseudo-double dilutes”. Their shade can

be slightly darker compared to other cream

pearls. They have pink skin and green/blue

or amber eyes.

Adults

Mimics

Pseudo double-dilutes (palomino pearl, smoky black pearl, buckskin pearl) look similar to homozygous cream horses (cremello, smoky cream, perlino). Genetic testing may be necessary to confirm the coat color.

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Cream pearl horses can have darker eyes and a more golden shade compared to homozygous cream horses

Genetics

Smoky black pearl is the result of a black base diluted by one copy of cream and one copy of pearl. The cream (CR) and pearl (prl) dilutions are both alleles of the MATP gene and interact with each other.

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Smoky black pearl:
Black (E/_ a/a) + CR/prl

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Articles

Sevane, N., Sanz, C.R., Dunner, S., Sevane, N., Sanz, C.R., Dunner, S.; Explicit evidence for a missense mutation in exon 4 of SLC45A2 gene causing the pearl coat dilution in horses; Animal Genetics (2019); Doi: 10.1111/age.12784