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Horse Color(s) .us
Identifying, Understanding, Breeding
and Enjoying Horse Colors

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What is the "Cream gene" and how does it work?


The Cream gene creates the palomino, cremello, buckskin, perlino, smoky brown, brown cream, smoky black and smoky cream colors.

 ...depending on the horse's base color,  and whether there are one or two Cream genes present.

The perlino colt pictured here with his sire and dam clearly illustrates the action of the cream gene.

 


Click on the buttons, below, to see examples of the various effects that Cream gene can have
(the Cream gene's effects on brown will be added soon):


The mare in the photo at the top of this page is the AQHA buckskin, Me Smart 'n' Classy.  She was bred to another AQHA buckskin, Poco Merlin. The foal got one cream gene from each parent, so he is a "double cream dilution."  I was originally assumed that he was a perlino, but in actuality, it is unknown which variety of black-based color he is, and he may even have a dun gene.

If you breed buckskins and palominos to each other, you may get these striking double-cream-dilutes.  Sometimes even a seemingly black or dark brown horse (smoky black) may be carrying one of these genes, which can be determined only by a DNA test, or sometimes by looking at the horse's ancestors or offspring.


Important Cream Gene Facts:

 

It is very important to note that the cream gene makes the horse's color LIGHTER, but does not remove it, even when there are two present.  They cannot make a horse an actual albino (they leave some pigment in the skin, hair and eyes) and are not linked to any defects or weaknesses.

The only truly unpigmented pink skin on a horse will be under its WHITE MARKINGS, if any.

THERE ARE NO ALBINO HORSES.  Genes that cause albinism in other mammals are "recessive" genes.  Cream genes are "incomplete dominant" genes, not recessive, meaning they cannot be "hidden".  There are no known albinos, or albino genes, in the horse world.

Also, cream genes DO NOT ACCUMULATE. You cannot have more than two cream genes in any horse.  This may seem like a nonsensical concept to today's students of horse colors, but there was a time when these beliefs caused discrimination against horses with diluted color.

 

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