Double Cream Champagne
Carolyn Shepard
The ICHR has recently documented two double cream champagnes. The first one is Legacy’s Frontier Gold, a gold double
cream (cremello champagne) Tennessee Walking Horse stallion owned by Edna Edwards of Utah, and bred by Jon Brickwood
of Ontario, Canada. (His photos are on the left.) He has been tested by two different labs, and has two cream genes on a red
base. His sire is a gold cream champagne, and his dam is buckskin. He had a star apparent at birth as his only white marking.
He has produced a
classic cream foal out of
a
bay
mare,
demonstrating he also
carries champagne.
The second cremello
champagne
(gold
double cream) is Wind
D.’s Thunder, another
Tennessee
Walking
Horse stallion. He is
owned
by
Leroy
Summers, and was bred
by Renee Woodward, both of whom are from Kentucky. (His photos are on the right.) This horse has a gold cream sire, and a
cremello dam. He also had a
recognizable star at birth. He has
tested with two cream genes, and
has produced a gold cream filly
from a sorrel mare.
The skin photos on these horses
are nearly identical. The owners of
both stallions state that the horses
look “just like” cremellos.
I
discussed the photos with Wendy
Bockman of the CPEA
(www.doubledilute.com) and
her feeling was the same as
mine - that the skin on these
double cream champagnes
appears
“pinker”
than
ordinary cremello skin. Both
horses have clear, pink skin,
without the pale mottling or
freckling common on double
cream dilutes. There is no
evidence of champagne on
the skin, other than the
apparent “triple dilution” to
what looks like pinto-pink skin. If these are representative examples of
double cream with champagne, then we can safely say that champagne is
not visible on cremello, but may additionally dilute the skin to pinto-like
pinkness. We have not yet documented champagne on a perlino, smoky
cream, or brown double cream. It would appear the skin would dilute to
this same level of “pink-ness” but it is not known if the addition of
champagne to an “E” double cream would further dilute the coat and
point color.
Until a test for champagne is developed, in order for the ICHR to
register a double cream champagne, it must demonstrate a plausible
pedigree, test positive for two cream genes, and produce an obvious
champagne cream foal from a non-dilute mate.
Double Cream Champagne, cont.
The foal on the left is sired by Legacy’s
Frontier Gold, out of a bay mare. The filly on
the right is sired by Wind D’s Thunder, and
out of a chestnut mare. Both are unambiguous
champagne creams.
*************Editor’s Note: ************
Stop the presses! Muzzle photos of
both horses are now available, and Wind D’s
Thunder may actually have small pigmented
spots around his nostrils. Non-champagne
cremello horses are known to have these, but
he does not show these spots around his
eyes/under his tail as cremellos do.
Since these two stallions
are currently the only verified
double cream champagnes, we
are unable to ascertain which is
closer to being “typical” for this
particular genetic combination.
However, since Wind D’s
Thunder doesn’t display any
manner of small spots in any
other area, it seems more likely
that Legacy’s Frontier Gold is
the more typical double cream
champagne.
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