Coat colour in the PRE and Lusitano rules: what is preferred, what is excluded
The PRE breeding programme lists exact white-marking limits and eye-colour faults; the Lusitano standard only says which colours are common. A clause-by-clause comparison.
Most Iberian horses in photographs are grey, and that has led to a common belief that the breed rules require grey. They do not. Neither the Purebred Spanish Horse (PRE) rules nor the Lusitano studbook regulation makes any single colour compulsory. What the PRE rules do contain is something more precise and less often quoted: measurable limits on white markings and eye colour.
What each text says, clause by clause
| Topic | PRE, Orden APA/3319/2002 (repealed) | PRE, breeding programme 2020 | Lusitano, APSL regulation 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base colours | Grey (torda) and bay (castaña) dominant, “others admissible” (annex 3.C) | “Grays and bays are dominant coat colors” (II.1.3) | “The most frequently found are all shades of grey and bay” (Appendix I.3) |
| Is any colour excluded? | No colour excluded | No colour excluded as such | No colour excluded |
| White patches on the body | Not addressed | Not acceptable; a disqualifying defect if any spot on depigmented coat exceeds 3 cm in diameter, unless acquired (II.1.3, II.1.6) | Not addressed |
| White on the head | Not addressed | Disqualifying when it invades the eye sockets or covers the whole face (II.1.6) | Not addressed |
| White on the legs | Not addressed | Disqualifying when socks reach the knee or the hock (II.1.6) | Not addressed |
| Eye colour | Iris colour not addressed; depigmentation around the eyes listed among regional defects (annex 3.F.b) | Different-coloured eyes or blue eyes unacceptable when not a feature of the coat colour; disqualifying (II.1.3, II.1.6) | Not addressed |
| Melanomas | Melanomas under the tail, at the anus or perineum listed among regional defects (annex 3.F.b) | “Presence of melanomas” listed among penalising defects (II.1.7) | Not addressed |
The column for the Lusitano is mostly empty on purpose. The APSL standard describes colour as a frequency, not a requirement. Its admission conditions (Article 17) exclude horses with “blemishes or defects for fear of hereditary transmission”, but they do not list colour or markings among them.
Reading the PRE marking rules correctly
Three distinctions in the 2020 programme matter in practice:
- Acquired marks are exempt. The white-spot rule excludes “acquired characteristics”, so a white patch from an old saddle sore or scar is not the same as a congenital marking.
- Disqualifying and penalising are different outcomes. A disqualifying defect keeps a horse out of the Permanent Register (breeding). A penalising defect lowers the assessment but does not by itself exclude. White markings over the limits are in the first group; melanomas are in the second.
- The eye rule has an exception. Blue or odd eyes are a fault only “when not a characteristic of a given color coat”. The text does not list which coats it has in mind, so a buyer should ask the stud book rather than guess.
The 2002 order said nothing about white markings or iris colour. Anyone comparing an older PRE description with the current one will find the marking limits are an addition, not a restatement.
A tension worth noticing: melanomas
Wikipedia’s page on the Carthusian line (English edition, CC BY-SA 4.0) reports that melanomas under the tail, once called “warts”, were traditionally taken as a sign of descent from the founding stallion of the Carthusian line. The 2020 programme lists melanomas as a penalising defect and names melanoma among the hereditary problems that can trigger a full genetic study (section III.1). So a feature that tradition read as proof of good ancestry is, in the current official standard, a fault. The 2002 order already listed melanomas under the tail among defects (annex 3.F.b). This is our observation from setting the texts side by side; neither source comments on the other.
How common is grey? What the numbers cover
None of the three official texts gives a percentage for any colour. The often-repeated figure, about 80% grey, 15% bay and 5% other colours, appears in the English Wikipedia article on the Andalusian (CC BY-SA 4.0), which attributes it to the rules of the United States Equestrian Federation and limits it to horses in the US. It is not a Spanish or worldwide figure, and we did not find a census by colour in the PRE or APSL documents.
Practical checklist
- Grey is preferred by habit, not by rule. A sound bay, black or chestnut PRE or Lusitano is not out of standard because of its colour.
- For a PRE with white markings, measure: any congenital body spot larger than 3 cm across, white on the head that invades the eye sockets or covers the whole face, or white socks that reach the knee or hock is a disqualifying defect in the 2020 programme.
- Check the eyes in good light against the coat colour.
- For a Lusitano, the APSL standard does not regulate markings; ask the association if a marking matters to you.
Sources
- ANCCE: Purebred Spanish Horse Breeding Program, English edition of the programme approved on 15 June 2020; sections II.1.3, II.1.6, II.1.7 and III.1. Opened 2026-10-31.
- BOE: Orden APA/3319/2002, annex point 3.C (repealed; used for comparison). Opened 2026-10-31.
- APSL: Lusitano Breed Studbook Regulation, approved at the General Assembly of 29 April 2022 and by DGAV on 3 May 2022; Article 17 and Appendix I.3. Opened 2026-10-31.
- Wikipedia: Andalusian horse and Carthusian Spanish horse, text under CC BY-SA 4.0; used for the US colour figure and the tradition about melanomas only. Opened 2026-10-31.
Who this is for
A reader looking at a grey, bay or unusually marked Iberian horse who wants to know what the PRE and Lusitano breed rules actually say about coat colour, white markings and eye colour.