Impy’s Ancestry and Genetics Results

Before I head into the breakdown of what I’ve learned about Impy’s ancestry and genetics, I’m going to offer up a brief history of the Painter horses. Bob Painter was one of the idiosyncratic crusty old Westerners that wanted to preserve an Old West that may never have actually existed. He grew up ranching, with old time cow ponies. And he befriended Bob Brislawn, one of the founders of the Spanish Mustang Registries.

I was the first person to take action after Painter’s death, when his neighbor reached out to for help when his horses were starving and at risk of being sold for slaughter. I pointed out to the membership of the CS registries that regardless of how they felt about Painter, his breeding program or his horses, there could be some horses of bloodlines related to their programs that could be worthy of preserving. I could agree with Robert Painter’ statements in an an email sent out in 2011 when he first began to seriously consider disbursing his entire herd.

‘I, (Robert), started out with the best horses I could acquire, based on a very strict and proven criteria. …Some of their ancestors have been registered in some of the (CS) registries…We have bloodlines that do not exist anywhere else. We also have concentrations of bloodlines that do not exist otherwise… I have only reproduced the “cream” all of these years.‘

The reaction from the other CS registries was melodramatic and disruptive. I am glad to say that despite everything, the horses that survived did find new homes and some of them are now included in preservation breeding programs. Figuring how a Painter horse can fit into a long-term breeding program can be a challenge, however.

Painter also stated that his breeding stock’s ‘genetic information base is very broad’. When I look at Impy’s genetic markers, Painter’s ‘very broad’ genetic base becomes clear. According to the information I received from a ‘blind study’ looking into the genetics of the Painter horses that were dispersed, Impy has predominately heterozygous pairs of genetic markers with only 4 out of 17 being homozygous.

This ratio is usually found in horses that are the result of outcrossing. Inbred horses will have predominately homozygous pairs. Linebreeding, as is done in any closed registry, usually results in a roughly 50/50 ratio of homozygous to heterozygous pairs. Painter’s selection of breeding stock was so broad, in fact, that there is no distinctive ‘Painter’ genetic profile.

Impy’s dam, Lancelot’s Adieu is known, but our best guess on Impy’s sire is a stallion named Gotcha Covered. Gotcha Covered is now deceased, which makes proving parentage challenging. Assuming that pedigree is accurate, Painter was line-breeding Sulphur Spring’s stallion lines in this cross. Smoke Balleau, Sulphur’s Takita and Lancelet are all Sulphur Springs stallions.

The most recent equine genetic research combined with historical provenance indicates that Sulphur Springs horses are the descendants of Iberian mares (D1 and D3 mtDNA) bred to Persian warhorses shipped back to Portugal from the Persian Gulf where the first Duke of Albuquerque fought on land as well as by sea around 1500 ad. In 1650, a Duke of Albuquerque was appointed Viceroy of New Spain. He brought the horses as well as the title with him to the New World.

BUT the mare’s lines in Impy’s pedigree are, as Robert Painter stated, from a broad array of sources.

• There are Romero/McKinley horses who share genetic profiles with the Central Asian mounts of the Saracens fleeing the Doctrine of Disocvery between 1493-1507 as well as with the Garrano.Galicino ponies that traveled north with the Basque shepherds starting with Onate in 1600.
• There are San Domingo pueblo horses who may be the closest relatives to the North African Barbs among the known CS strains
• There are Bookcliff horses that share mtDNA with the Portugeuse Sorraia and their genetic profile with the Argentinian Criollo that arrived in New Spain around 1540
• There are several different strains of Choctaw horses, although the families that bred them are not all named..
• There are also Cheyenne and Crow ponies from the Great Basin north of the Missouri, whose genetic provenance is unknown
• Impy’s own mtDNA mare’s line goes back to the ‘feral’ Arizona Apache horses whose genetic provenance ranges from the same very early arrivals as the Venezuelan Criollo through the Garrano/Galicino all the way up to the California Mission horses brought over from Charles III’s stables for the California Mission expeditions

While there is not a global Barb genetic profile, testing within Barb and/or Iberian mtDNA mares’ families, mostly falling within the ‘D’ clade, presents distinctive and sometimes unique genetic profiles. Those who would like to bred true to Robert Painter’s stated goal of breeding the ‘original Barb horse’, would breed according to the values of the Amazhig, the original Free-men of Mauritania, that became known as Berbers and Moors to the Islamic and Colonial Spanish empires. Preservation breeders looking to preserve the ‘original’ light cavalry horses of the earliest Horse Nomads would do well to follow suit and bred their horses according to mare’s families.

Robert Painter’s claims that he found and bred the ‘original Barb’ horse simply do not hold up under objective examination of biomechanics either. The original light cavalry horse of the Old World Horse Nomads were biomechanically Square horses with E/E msucle type, among other objective qualities. Some Painter bred horses are indeed Square Horses, but not all of them.

The reality is that wealthy Spanish Landowners continued to import a wide variety of horses to New Spain all the way up through the Mexican Revolution of 1812. There is documentation, in Mexico, in Spanish, of Arabes, Barbes, Sorraia, Garrano and Galiceno horses being brought in by different people at different times for a whole variety of different reasons and purposes. The Horse Tribes of North America then raided and traded those horses over the whole of North America up through the Indian Wars of the 1890’s.

Impy is a biomechanically rectangular Galloper, not a Square Horse. His ancestors were selected for speed on the flat, not agility, weight-carrying ability or thriftiness. He does have a 90o angle at the hip and shoulder. But, as the lighting in this photo emphasizes, he has a more level slop to his pelvis and a distinct downward slope from the point of his buttock to the point of his shoulder than the Square Horse.

There isn’t yet a publicly available test for roaning or rabicano,
but Impy’s lighter grulla coat with white hairs
is due to one or both of those coat modifiers.

I also sent a sample of Impy’s mane off to Etalon for them to run their pro-panel genetic tests for color, health, muscle type, disposition, height and more. Since Painter stated his ‘breeding program was/is predicated on objective preservation of the Barb Horse’, I wanted to have some actual objective to respond from when people reacted to my saying ‘I have a Painter Pony’ with ‘Good luck with that’. If there is a genetic basis for the Painter hater’s prejudice, I wanted to know about it. And, since Painter claimed to breed his horses according to a ‘strict objective criteria’, I wanted to test his accomplishments versus his intentions.

• Impy’s health panel came back clean for known defects.
• His color panel was typical CS grulla, E/E black base, D/nd1 dilute with primitive markings, W20/n accounts for his white hind socks.
• His temperament, like most CS horses,is all curious and no vigilant
• He is a true diagonally coordinated galloper with no gaiting gene
• His performance or muscle type was a bit of a surprise though. His results are ‘middle distance’, meaning he has one endurance and one sprint gene for muscle type.

I have criticized the CS registries for breeding according to paper pedigrees, not performance since the late ’70’s. Impy’s muscle type shows me why it is so important to actually be objective and test your horses under saddle before breeding. Modern horses have been selected for ‘C’ or sprint type muscling. The horse industry has trained the public eye to appreciate heavily muscled individuals and to prize tests of short explosive muscle action.

In nature however, large grazing mammals like horses are designed to absorb, store and release kinetic energy in their connective tissue. So the ‘E’ or endurance type of muscling is favored, as it complements the kinetic energy system. Endurance type muscling is long flat slow twitch aerobic fibers that are metabolically efficient.

• “Muscle building and maintenance are biologically expensive processes that require relatively large amounts of energy and nutrients”.
• Excessive muscle mass demands more energy to move at fast speeds for longer periods of time.
• Excessive muscle mass can also strain on the heart as well as compromise health and longevity in other ways.

Not least, since Johns Hopkin’s University School of Medicine developed a technique for detecting mutations in myostatin variations, equine genetic research has found that majority of equine muscle wasting diseases are further mutations of the ‘C’ sprint muscle type. Since myostatin affects many different metabolic functions, including calcium regulation within muscle and nerves cells, those mutations under research have a a wide variety of symptoms.

When I looked for a factual basis to the Painter hater’s claim that Painter’s horses had poor dispositions, that they were reactive and unreliable, I learned that one of the ‘C’ mutations, the Px calcium regulating mutation has neurological effects as well as muscular. Horses with the Px variety of mutation on the ‘C’ sprint muscle type can display ‘equine autism’ or sudden explosive behavior along with irregularities at the three beat gallop and muscle wasting. There is not yet a publicly available test for the Px calcium regulating mutation.

Since Painter’s ideal ‘original’ horses was hardy, thrifty and inexhaustible, any genuinely objective breeding program would have removed horses that tired quickly and horses that blew up under pressure as well as horses that required supplemental feed to achieve their full growth and stay in good condition. If Painter had actually been objectively testing his breeding stock under saddle, Impy’s ancestors would not carry the ‘C’ sprinting muscle type gene nor would the Px variation of it be endemic among Painter stock.

• Impy came off winter pasture in poor condition with very little muscle mass. ‘E’ or endurance type muscle requires much less of an investment of calories and protein to grow and maintain than the ‘C’ or sprint type.
• Impy tires much more quickly than my other CS colt that can go for hours without tiring. Impy rebounds pretty quickly, but he needs more rest periods sooner to accomplish the same
• He has a wonderful disposition, calm and curious. So it does not appear he carries the Px mutation.

There are many wonderful horses among Robert Painter’s widely sourced breeding stock. They are living libraries that can illuminate much of our suppressed and unknown histories from Colonial Spanish times through the present. Preservation breeders who educate themselves on the history of their chosen strain, who produce sane sound healthy horses, who are transparent about their horses origins, genetics, and pedigrees will be those who succeed in passing the appreciation of these horses into the future.

Impy is still definitively a Colonial Spanish horse. Impy will make some one a wonderful companion horse. He will excel at most modern horse competitions.

But making unsubstantiated claims like Impy is the ultimate original mount of the first Horse Nomads whose survival depended on their horses’ hardiness mostly just discredits his breeder. In fact, the CS registries pattern of making such unsubstantiated claims of ancestry and ability and then defaming and harassing those who question their lack of evidence is one of the forces driving their general lack of credibility. Preservation breeders who wish to establish their credibility among equine geneticists and the general public will have to provide more evidence of their claims than ‘because Painter said so’.