The Colors it Produces
The creme gene is a gene expressed in horses, producing many common, and not so common, colors. It dilutes "red" hairs (chestnut). The creme gene is not a horse that survived lethal white syndrome. It has nothing to do with frame overo coat patterns.
The Creme Gene produces the colors:
- palomino
- buckskin
- smoky black
- cremello
- perlino
- smoky creme
What it does
The creme gene lightens the "red" base coat. One copy lightens red (chestnut) coloring to pale yellow (think palomino), two copies will lighten it to an off-white, cream color (think cremello).
Eye color: double dilutes have blue eyes (unlike red eyes of an albino, or brown eyes of a true white horse). Many palominos are born with blue eyes, along with pink skin, which darken within a couple weeks of birth.
The creme gene is an "incomplete dominant" gene, which means that it is expressed even when there is only one copy of the gene--it is dominant--but it expresses itself even more when there are two copies (one from each parent).
Single dilutes
Single dilutes received the creme gene from one parent, and a different gene for coat color from another parent.
Palomino: One parent gave the creme gene, one the "red" base coat gene. The creme gene lightens the coat to pale yellow/ gold and the mane to white, producing a palomino.
Buckskin: One parent gave the creme gene, the other had the genes for bay (the black base gene and the agouti gene that restricts the black to the points only- see bay for explanation of the agouti gene). The creme gene lightened the coat to pale yellow, but could not change the black of the horse, leaving the mane, tail, and lower legs black.
Smoky black: One parent gives the creme gene, the other the gene for a "black" base color. The one creme gene can not change the black hairs, so the horse looks black, "masking" the creme gene. Only one true blacks can the creme gene be totally masked. Those horses with some brown or red hairs will have those hairs turned gold, and have a "glow" on their coat. Although the gene is masked, IT CAN STILL BE PASSED ON. So a smoky black stallion can pass on the creme gene to the next generation, and produce, say, a palomino horse from a chestnut mare, even though neither parent appears to have the gene.
Double dilutes
Double dilutes have 2 creme genes (one from each parent). This even further lightens the red color: from the golden color of one dilute to a "creme" color of the double dilute.
Double dilutes are not albinos, even though they have pink skin. Nor are they white: they have blue eyes, whereas a white horse would have brown eyes.
Cremello: The double dilution of chestnut/red coats. The body and mane is a cream color (hence the "cream gene").
Perlino: Double dilution of bay, so that the body is a light creme, with "pinkish" points (mane, tail, lower legs).
Cremello and Perlino horses fade in color as they mature, so that they look almost white. There eyes and skin remain their respective colors.
Smoky Cream: Double dilution on a black coat. The cream gene is not completely hidden like it was in the smoky black. The horse is a pinkish or pinky-gray color (although colors vary).
Color differences
| Color
| Coat Color (Birth)
| Coat Color (Adult)
| Eye Color
| Skin Color
|
| Gray
| Dark
| Gray or White
| Brown
| Black
|
| Cremello
| Light Cream, visible markings
| Fade to white
| Blue
| Pink
|
| White
| White
| White
| Dark
| Pink
|
| Albino*
| White
| White
| Pink
| Pink
|
| Ivory**
| Light Cream
| Pale Cream
| Green/Greenish
| Pink
|
| Champagne
| Chestnut or bay
| Shades of yellow
| Birth: blue, adult: hazel
| Pink
|
See also
- To read more on albino horses and the genetics of white horses, see Gray (horse)
- To read more on Ivory horses, and the champagne gene, see champagne gene
External links