Classic

Champagne on Black

Champagne Showcase, a Classic Champagne TWH stallion owned by Maxine Doner

"Classic" is the rarest, and perhaps the most exotic, of the Champagne colors.

It is rare because it is the result of the champagne gene acting on a solid black base coat.*

Its exotic quality will speak for itself.  It's considered difficult to photograph accurately, and has sometimes been described as "lilac"; in fact, this is one color that has been called "lilac dun" in the past.  Others say it looks "green".
One might use the description "dark taupe" for this color.

Here are close-ups of the "Champagne characteristics" of the Classic Champagne colored
Quarter Horse mare, Ms Dowdy Doc Bars.

Pictures and names of some other Classic Champagne horses are below.

If you click on this thumbnail you will see a very large version of this picture, showing the amber eye color
and freckled skin around the eye, typical of horses with Champagne coloring.

This thumbnail enlarges to a close-up of her muzzle, showing the typical purplish-grey freckles on pink skin.

Since most areas of a horse are covered by hair, one has to look in some private places to see more exposed skin.  This mare shows the characteristic freckled skin under the tail, though her private parts are darker than most champagnes.
On a Gold champagne horse, this is not how the under-tail skin would look.  It would be a Palomino. 
This mare is unusually dark all over, even for a classic. 

OTHER EXAMPLES OF CLASSIC CHAMPAGNE:

	Champagne Showcase, a Classic Champagne TWH stallion owned by Maxine Doner
	Champagne Justice E/T Classic Champagne Missouri Fox Trotter stallion owned by Merv and Diane Reichle of NM
	24 year old half-Arab, half - Saddlebred. Color traces to Palomino Peavine.
	Emerald Buddha Percheron/QH cross mare owned by Beth Esfandiari
	Mark's Cindy, a Dark Classic Champagne Missouri Fox Trotter mare, owned by Bob and Charlotte Blackwell
	Little Nikita, a Classic Champagne (tentative) Grulla QH mare owned by Ruth Lewis of Cleves, OH.
	Classic Champagne Sparkle, #58, by #50.  2001 MFT filly. Owned by Myrna Warfel of Missouri.

To see more Classic Champagnes, check out our STUD BOOK.

* Solid black is a relatively rare color because most horses in the world carry a gene, called "agouti", which changes solid black to bay, by confining the black color to the horse's "points"; i.e. mane, tail, sometimes the face, & legs.  This is a long way of saying bay is the most common horse color, not black, or even chestnut.