International Champagne Horse Registry

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Gold Amber Classic Sable Skin coloration Combinations Champagne Chart

Champagne Colors


Depending upon which base colors and other color modifiers are present in a horse with a Champagne gene, the appearance of the horse varies.


Effects of the Champagne gene on the four basic horse colors:

Base Color

 

One or Two Champagne Genes added

     
These horses will have dark or black skin in all pigmented areas.
 
These horses will have pink skin with darker freckles in all pigmented areas.

Starting with a red based horse (a chestnut / sorrel) :

Chestnut

 

If the red horse has one or two champagne genes from one or both parents, it's a Gold. (Occasionally a gold may have a reddish mane and/or tail.)

Gold

 

 

 

Starting with a black based horse with a bay (agouti) gene:

Bay

 

If the bay horse has one or two champagne genes from one or both parents, it's an Amber.

Amber

     

Starting with a black based horse with the  (seal) brown (agouti-t) gene:


Seal Brown

 

If the seal brown horse has one or two champagne genes from one or both parents, it's a Sable.


Sable

 

 

 

Starting with a true black horse without a bay gene:

Black

 

If the black horse has one or two champagne genes from one or both parents, it's a Classic.

Classic 

More on the four champagne colors:

 
 

GOLD   ... when the Champagne gene acts on the chestnut, or sorrel, (red)  color.  The body is a golden color, usually with a white mane & tail.  To see photographic examples of this color, click on the color name, button, or picture.

These horses are usually registered as Palominos.   However, most Palominos are the result of one Cream gene on red, and do not carry Champagne genes.

 

AMBER    ... when the Champagne gene acts on the BAY color. The body will usually be a golden tan with dark brown points. To see photographic examples of this color, click on the color name, button, or picture.

These horses are sometimes mistaken for, and registered as,  buckskins or duns.  However, actual buckskins are bays with one cream gene, and actual duns have dun striping from the dun gene.

 

SABLE Click this thumbnail to see full sized picture ...  when the Champagne gene acts on the BROWN (SEAL BROWN) color. The body will be a color between amber and classic, though closer to classic, perhaps with more "shading" than either of those colors. To see photographic examples of this color, click on the color name, button, or picture.

See notes on amber vs. buckskin or dun, above.  This color is usually verified by testing a horse that looks close to classic in color, but tests "A" (carries agouti, or bay, gene.)

 

CLASSIC   ... when the Champagne gene acts on the SOLID BLACK color. The body is a nearly lilac tan, with darker points of the same hue.  This one is darker than most. To see photographic examples of this color, click on the color name, button, or picture.

These horses are sometimes mistaken for grulla, and sometimes called "lilac dun".  However, it is not any form of dun (grulla is dun on black).

 
 
 

You may have heard a horse called an "IVORY CHAMPAGNE" by someone who doesn't understand horse color genetics.

"Ivory" was the name used originally, before it was completely understood,  for the combination of Chestnut, Champagne and Cream; which would be a Gold Champagne with a Cream gene, yielding an "ivory-colored" horse with a white mane & tail.

Then it was discovered that Ambers, Classics and Sables 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 a distinct champagne color.

To be consistent and genetically correct, we use the name of the base Champagne color, plus "Cream", as we do with other dilution genes.

For example, just as:

amber + dun  = "amber dun"

or:

amber + tobiano = "amber tobiano"

so:

amber + cream = "amber cream"

(which might have formerly been called "bay-based ivory")

 

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