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.