CHAMPAGNE HORSES - A RARE "GOLDEN" OPPORTUNITY
They're palominos, they're duns, they're cremellos. No, they're champagnes!
Many a champagne horse has been passed over by a potential buyer or returned to a seller because the buyer thought the pink-skinned horse with "freckles" was part appaloosa or a cremello and, therefore, could not be registered by their particular breed association. That's not true.
Champagne-colored horses are a phenomenon and in great demand by those who have studied this uncommon color. In fact they are a rarity. They are eligible for registration in any of the breed associations they occur in, including the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) and the American Paint Horse Association (APHA). In fact, the APHA puts "champagne characteristics" on the registration papers.
According to D. Phillip Sponenberg, DVM, PhD, in his book "Equine Color Genetics," co-financed by the AQHA and APHA, "champagne horses are currently rare enough to be considered an oddity."
According to Carolyn Shepard of the International Champagne Horse Registry (CHR), located in Paso Robles, Calif., champagnes are the result of a dilution gene. Although the gene is similar to the creme gene, which causes palominos and buckskins, it is different in many ways.
"The champagne color is a complete dominant, while cream is an incomplete dominant," said Shepard. "This means that a champagne-colored horses will look the same with one champagne gene, or two champagne genes. A horse with one cream gene is generally called a single dilute and these are palominos, buckskins and smoky blacks. A horse with two cream genes is further diluted to cremello, perlino or smoky cream. This double dilution does not happen when champagne genes double up."
CHAMPAGNE CHARACTERISTICS:
Champagnes have three characteristics: they are born with pink skin which stays pink throughout their life, blue eyes that change to amber and freckles throughout the body, but most often freckles are seen where there is not a lot of hair, like around the eyes and on the muzzle and genitals, but the true test of a champagne is that the light skin does not turn dark - and in about two or three months of age, freckling starts to appear. The freckles start light, then darken to brown or gray. The best place to look for skin color is under the tail although later in life, it will be very pronounced on the muzzle and around the eyes. When the tail is lifted, a champagne will have light-colored skin with darker freckles. Sometimes the freckles are close together on older horses and you may need to stretch the skin to see the underlying pink. When you wet an adult champagne horse down, you can see the champagne freckles all over the skin.Other distinguishing features of champagne-colored horses are reverse dapples (dapples darker in the center) and a shiny hair coat. These horses seem to shimmer in the sunlight, which comes from what some call an iridescent hair follicle. Another feature is the evenness of the body color. The body hair tends to be the same shade from belly to side to top line and this lack of shading is often easy to spot.
Champagnes come in three main shades: gold, amber and classic. Other shades of champagne are combinations of champagne with the cream and dun genes.
GOLD CHAMPAGNES:
Champagne dilution on a chestnut coat base is called gold champagne. In adult-hood, these horses look the most like a palomino. They are born with a reddish coat and like all champagnes, have clear pink skin and blue eyes. The reddish foal colt sheds out to a gold ranging from cream to dark gold and rarely, near-chestnut. The red mane and tail generally shed to white, although some remain the same shade as the body and tend to be of darker shades. The blue eyes stay blue for several months, sometimes up to a year. The eyes gradually darken to amber.AMBER CHAMPAGNES:
Fortunately, buckskins are much easier to tell from amber champagnes, than palominos are from gold champagnes. The champagne gene on a bay base coat produces an amber champagne. This foal will be born with pink skin, bright blue eyes and often a nearly bay-looking coat with a darker mane and tail. Frequently, the foal coat is the same shade as the adult coat, which looks somewhat like a buckskin, only the points are brown, rather than black. Most buckskin foals are born with black skin, so this is an easy way to distinguish a buckskin from an amber champagne foal.CLASSIC CHAMPAGNES:
Champagne on a black base coat, such as smoky black, creates what we call a classic champagne. These foals are darker in foal coat. It seems to take a while for the cream gene to dilute the black. At shedding, the coat may go to a cream color, but classic creams often retain quite a bit of pigment. Sometimes classic creams can closely resemble straight amber champagnes. They have chocolate-colored manes and tails and the lower legs may be a shade darker than the body, or they may be the same color as the body.This is the most unusual-colored horse and is hard to mistake for any other color. The coat often does not change shade into adulthood or may lighten only slightly during shedding.
OTHER CHAMPAGNE SHADES:
Gold creams (palominos with a champagne gene) look very much like cremellos and show no trace of the red hairs a gold champagne demonstrates at birth. There is very little change in the foal coat at shedding. The eyes rarely remain blue, but usually turn to shades of green or amber; however, the eye color may not be complete for several years. The skin develops freckles just like a normal champagne and this distinguishes them from cremellos in adulthood.Other shades are a combination of champagne with cream, dun and silver (dapple) genes. Champagne and cream genes enhance one another when they are combined, resulting in foals that appear double-diluted and they somewhat resemble cremellos, perlinos and smoky creams at birth.
Champagne and gray have an interesting effect on one another. The freckles on a gray champagne tend to be darker, often a dark purple or deep navy blue. Some freckles may look nearly black. Shepard claims that the amazing thing about a gray champagne is that they do not gray completely to white as grays do.
The registry has inquired about the incidence of melanomas on gray champagnes and has found no reports of melanomas, which are common in gray horses. They have also requested reports on skin cancers and have found no incidences.
THE HISTORY OF CHAMPAGNE HORSES:
According to Shepard, the first-known and photographed champagne-colored horse was Golden Lady, a Tennessee Walking Horse mare born in Tennessee in approximately 1910. The first registered champagne-colored Quarter Horse was likely Triangle Lady 10, born in 1930. Gold Bonnet was probably the first registered champagne-colored American Paint Horses born in 1964. Known Quarter Horse champagne lines are from The Alred Dun, J Mare 64, Scooter Sue, Tallisman, Tom B, Triangle Lady 4 and Triangle Lady 10.Doc's Yellow Rose (the grand dam of Plaboys Dr Pepper), a daughter of the legendary Doc Bar, out of a Triangle Lady 10-bred mare, was a gold champagne, and produced several champagne offspring sired by some of the nation's top cutting horse sires, bringing champagne horses into the elite cutting horse ranks.
