Horse Color Genetics: Champagne

Review: E= black, A=bay, G=gray, CR=cream, D=dun, T=tobiano, F=flaxen, Z=silver, O=overo, SPL=splashed white, SB1=sabino, LP=leapord complex (appaloosa), R=roan.

I didn't even know this color existed until I started researching genetics; it is very rare. Please don't confuse champagne with dun or other geneticly-modifying coat lighteners, or dilution gene, like the cream gene.

Champagne is basically a coat lightener, in the extreme. It makes the tone of the color very different from what it would be if it didn't have this modifier. CH is the abbreviation for champagne.
Generally, champagne's are very shiny, and have very unusual colored eyes that are hazel, but they may have been born blue and turned darker with age. The champagne gene also gives unusual freckling to the skin, which won't show through the coat but may show on the skin around the eyes, and will show in their private parts.

Here are some different kinds of champagne:

This horse is called a 'classic champagne'. It is black, with the champagne-diluting gene. It is hard to believe that the under color is black, but it is.

Here is what would be a bay, but with the CH gene. This is called 'amber champagne'. See how it makes the black of the mane and tail just a tiny bit lighter? On a bay, it looks similar to what the dun or cream gene might do.

Here is a chestnut champagne, or gold  champagne. They can sometimes be confused with palomino's, but they will have the tell-tale hazel eyes and freckled skin.

 Below is a gold cream, a palomino with the CH gene. It can easily also be confused with palomino or even cremello, but all those signs will still be there. CH is a like a super-diluter.

One very unusual color is cremello (CRCR) with CH. It looks like a cremello, but may contain that champagne gene. If you don't know what the parents are, then you won't be able to know if it has that CH gene. There is a genetic test available somewhere. I don't know if the freckles will show or not.

There actually is a champagne horse registry for champagne-colored horses here. Champagne is a simple dominant, and may override other genetic modifiers like dun; the champagne color goes on top of the dun and may lighten the markings.
Like other modifiers, it can be paired with nearly any other modifier, but may be less apparent.

Horse Coat Colors: Roan

Roan is a modifier, or a color shifter, kind of like pinto or appaloosa. It causes the base coat to be evenly mixed with white hairs, lightening the original color. Roans generally have darker manes and tails, darker heads, and dark legs. White 'normal' markings on the face and legs are acceptable.
Some roans have little dark spots. This doesn't mean that they have the LP gene. It is simply a spot that didn't get covered up by white.
Roan is a simple dominant: whether the horse has one or two dominant copies is irrelevant unless you are breeding and want to know. The following pictures there isn't any way to tell if they are homozygous or heterozygous unless you look at their parents or offspring.
A blue roan is a black horse with the roan gene. Sometimes they look a little silvery.

A red roan is a chestnut horse with the roan gene. Sometimes they are called 'strawberry' roan. Please know that there is no difference. In the past, bay roans have also been red roans, but this is not technically correct.

A bay roan is a bay that has the roan gene. Easy. None of these are hard to remember, but honestly, if we just called them black, chestnut, and bay roan, wouldn't it be easier? The first horse isn't a very even roan, but she is still bay roan nonetheless. That second one down may look like a blue roan, but the color of the head gives it away.

And lastly, there is palomino roan. These aren't very common, which is kind of weird (I don't know why). They are sometimes called 'honey roan'. 

And that concludes roan! What is nice about roan is it is easy to identify, and the base color is easy to spot.

Horse Color Genetics: Terminology

If you have any questions, please refer back to this post here.
I'm doing this post because, after sharing some of these posts, some people got a little confused with my terminology. So, I will re-go over some of the stuff from the first post.

Allelle vs. Gene: It is the same thing. If I say allelle, I mean a gene. They are interchangeable. Every horse contains two of each different kind of allelle (i.e. two black genes, whether dominant or recessive).

Genome: The DNA code inside the horse. It is showed with a string of letters. Each letter is in pairs, and every letter is either uppercase or lowercase.

Dominant vs. Recessive: Dominant and recessive refers to whether your horse has the certain gene or not. If your horse has a dominant black gene, it has a black gene. If it has a recessive black gene, it does not. Capitol letters indicate dominancy, and lowercase indicate recessiveness.

Homozygous vs. Heterozygous: Homozygous (usually when I say homozygous I mean homozygous dominant, not homozygous recessive; I usually say ust recessive if the horse is homozygous recessive) means that the horse has two of the same kind of gene. For instance: two dominant black allelles would be homozygous dominant black. Does that make sense? Why homozygous or heterozygous is important when breeding horses and understanding genetics is that, because we know what both genes are if the horse is homozygous, you can better predict what color the offspring will be.
If the horse is heterozygous, you will not really be able to guess; it is a 50/50 chance it will get the dominant gene or the recessive gene.

Simple Dominant vs. Incomplete Dominant: Some colors, like the E, A, and T gene, will display the same whether it is homozygous or heterozygous. These are called simple dominant. Some colors, like Cr and LP, will look different if they are homozygous or heterozygous. Example: if a horse only has 1 dominant cream gene, it will be palomino. But if it has two, then it will be cremello. So the colors are completely different.

Zygosity: Zygosity refers to knowing if your horse is homozygous or heterozygous.