[Appylvr]

Has anyone read about it??? I saw this horse and his breeding and immediately thought of it. I read a bunch about it when I thought Teak might be a Champagne.

Here's an article about it... it's pretty interesting.
http://ichregistry.com/Barlink%20article.doc

Barlink Gold Rush - sired by Barlink Macho Man


Hey! I found some more about it... Looks like I was on the right track

Same stud, different pic


The “Barlink” dilution (so called because it is found in horses descended from the Paint stallion Barlink Macho Man) resembles the effects of both the champagne gene and the “Pearl” dilution (which I mentioned in an earlier post):

In single dose, the Barlink factor appears to dilute the skin of the carriers. The chestnuts with submitted photographs have pink speckles on their otherwise black skin, very similar to what happens on many cream dilutes. The gene is not cream, as these mares do not demonstrate the cream gene when tested by UC Davis. With a single Barlink gene, the coat color does not seem to be affected.
In double dose, the Barlink factor appears to dilute the hair coat to a medium dilute shade (similar to one cream or one champagne gene), and dilutes the skin to near pink.
The Barlink factor appears to enhance cream, essentially causing a double dilution of the hair coat, skin and eyes. This would cause the phenomenon of pseudo-cremello and pseudo-smoky cream foals. I have not yet seen the effect on buckskin, but it is likely a pseudo-perlino would result. (Link)

The brilliant folks at UC Davis have recently announced that they have come up with a genetic test for the Barlink dilution, which they are calling “apricot”. The tests are done using mane or tail hair with the roots attached.
Update (Oct 22/06): UC Davis is now calling this dilution “pearl”. It’s been found to be the same gene, and most likely came to the Paint/QH gene pool through the breeds’ Spanish ancestry. Lovely how everything comes full circle.

[GingerSnap]

I did run across this article a few weeks back, thought it was very interesting. There are so many colors out there now I can't keep track of them.

[3WishesDun]

Ohhhhhh! That's so interesting Appylvr. I did not realize that the Barlink factor is actually the pearl dilution. Thank you for posting this.