Champagne coats
Classic champagne
A classic champagne horse has taupe to chocolate-brown hair on its trunk and neck, sometimes with darker mane and tail. Pinkish skin becomes freckled and eyes often turn amber.
Classic champagne: how the color works and is inherited
Classic champagne is Champagne on a black base. The SLC36A1 variant lightens black pigment toward brown throughout the horse rather than leaving an evenly black coat.
One Champagne copy can produce this coat on a black base. A classic champagne horse does not have a different Champagne variant from gold or amber champagne horses.
Classic champagne: origins and the role of breeding
Champagne comes from a naturally occurring SLC36A1 variant whose role was identified in 2008. That is the date of the scientific discovery, rather than the birth of the first champagne horse: the variant’s original appearance has not been dated. The same variant is inherited in several breeds, including Tennessee Walking Horses and Quarter Horses.
Classic describes Champagne on a black base; it does not mean this coat was the ancestor of other champagnes. All three colors use the same variant on different bases.
Classic champagne: photographs of horses
A classic champagne with black pigment lightened to brown.
The sheen on a classic champagne Tennessee Walking Horse.
A ridden classic champagne Tennessee Walking Horse.
A classic champagne Tennessee Walking Horse’s head and dark mane.
Freckled skin around a classic champagne horse’s eye.
Champage-TWH-detail.jpg: Just chaos derivative work: Countercanter (talk) · CC BY 2.0
I’m Just Divine, a classic champagne pinto filly.
Photograph credits
Photographs have been resized. Photographs within scientific figures have been separated by cropping. Colors are preserved.
- A classic champagne with black pigment lightened to brown. — Cook D, Brooks S, Bellone R, Bailey E. · CC BY-SA 3.0
- The sheen on a classic champagne Tennessee Walking Horse. — Just chaos · CC BY 2.0
- A ridden classic champagne Tennessee Walking Horse. — Just chaos · CC BY 2.0
- A classic champagne Tennessee Walking Horse’s head and dark mane. — Just chaos · CC BY 2.0
- Freckled skin around a classic champagne horse’s eye. — Champage-TWH-detail.jpg: Just chaos derivative work: Countercanter (talk) · CC BY 2.0
- I’m Just Divine, a classic champagne pinto filly. — Carrot Mama · CC BY-ND 2.0
Classic champagne: telling similar coats apart
A sun-faded black horse can also look brown. A classic champagne’s freckled skin and amber eyes arise through a different process from sunlight fading the hair.