Cream-diluted coats
Palomino
A palomino horse has golden hair on its trunk and neck, with a cream or almost white mane and tail. Shades range from pale yellow to deep gold. Some palominos have darker hairs or darker manes.
Palomino: how the color works and is inherited
Palomino combines a chestnut base with one Cream variant copy in SLC45A2. Cream lightens red pigment. A horse that would otherwise be chestnut becomes golden, with a lighter mane and tail.
A palomino has one Cream copy and passes it on with a one-in-two chance. Two palominos do not always produce palomino: their foal can inherit zero, one or two Cream copies.
Palomino: origins and the role of breeding
Cream coats come from a naturally occurring variant of SLC45A2. Ancient DNA shows that this variant existed almost 3,000 years ago, including in buckskin horses from Siberia. Identifying the genetic mechanism in 2003 explained a color that had already existed for a long time.
Breeders can select Cream-carrying parents to produce palomino. Palomino occurs in several breeds: it is a color, rather than the inevitable result of crossing two particular breeds.
Palomino: photographs of horses
A palomino with pale yellow hair and an almost white tail.
Hillan Jarran, a dark palomino with a darker mane.
A palomino Icelandic horse with a very pale mane.
A golden-coated palomino photographed in a meadow at Matching Green, England.
The contrast between golden hair and pale mane on a palomino.
Happadís frá Stangarholti, a palomino Icelandic mare.
Dagur Brynjólfsson from Hafnarfjordur, Iceland · CC BY-SA 2.0
Photograph credits
Photographs have been resized. Photographs within scientific figures have been separated by cropping. Colors are preserved.
- A palomino with pale yellow hair and an almost white tail. — Acabashi · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Hillan Jarran, a dark palomino with a darker mane. — Pitke · CC BY-SA 3.0
- A palomino Icelandic horse with a very pale mane. — Bernard McManus · CC BY 2.0
- A golden-coated palomino photographed in a meadow at Matching Green, England. — Acabashi · CC BY-SA 4.0
- The contrast between golden hair and pale mane on a palomino. — Acabashi · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Happadís frá Stangarholti, a palomino Icelandic mare. — Dagur Brynjólfsson from Hafnarfjordur, Iceland · CC BY-SA 2.0
Palomino: telling similar coats apart
Flaxen chestnut can resemble palomino, but its hair stays redder. Gold champagne can also be golden; its skin develops dark freckles and its eyes often become amber.