Champagne Horses
Champagne's Key Characteristics:
- pumpkin/pinkish skin that is 'freckled' or mottled
with dark purplish spots.
- bronze/gold cast to the hair coat.
- Eyes that are light blue at birth but change to very light amber, greenish,
bluish, or even a 'normal' brown shade
- foal coat color that starts darker and sheds to a lighter color as they
mature.
- Both Gold and Amber expressions of the Champagne gene often fade to
look identical to Creme (palomino & buckskin) with age.
Examples of Champagne Horses to be Posted Later.
The following chart will explain what a horse with a normal
base would like like if it had Champagne
Normal
Base Colors |
|
With Champagne
Genes |
Any Base - These horses will have
dark or black skin in all pigmented areas. |
+ Champagne |
Any Base - These horses will have pink skin with
darker freckles in all pigmented areas. |
| Starting with a red based horse -- a sorrel or chestnut
Sorrel or Chestnut. |
+ Champagne |
If the red horse has one or two champagne genes from
one or both parents, it's a Gold.
The horse will appear to be a palomino but it doesn't have cream.
|
| Starting with a black based horse with a bay (agouti)
gene: Bay. |
+ Champagne |
If the bay horse has one or two champagne genes from
one or both parents, it's an Amber. |
| Starting with a black based horse with the "other
agouti gene" (seal brown) |
+ Champagne |
If the seal brown horse has one or two champagne
genes from one or both parents, it's a Sable. |
| Starting with a true black horse without a bay gene:
Black |
+ Champagne |
If the black horse has one or two champagne genes
from one or both parents, it's a Classic. |
Ivory Champagne
You may have heard of a color called "IVORY CHAMPAGNE":
"Ivory" was the name used originally for the combination of
chestnut, Champagne and cream : a gold champagne with a cream gene, yielding
an ivory-colored horse with a white mane & tail.
Then it was discovered that ambers with cream genes and
classics with cream genes existed, too, making "several kinds of
ivory"; some with dark points, some with darker body color than others.
Since "Ivory" is not the result of the Champagne
gene on a base color, but a combination, just as champagne with dun or
tobiano or silver are combinations, the ICHR no longer considers it the
name of an actual champagne color.
To be genetically consistent and correct, we will use
the name of the base Champagne color, plus "cream" or whatever
other dilution is affecting the horse's color.
|
