The palomino horse, with its golden coat and white or ivory mane and tail, has been a firm favorite with horse enthusiasts for centuries. Although the exact origins of the genetic variant responsible for this striking horse color are not known, its widespread distribution across many breeds indicates it happened a long time ago.
In this post, we look at the complex genetics underlying the palomino coat color, and discuss the various shades and patterns that can occur. We also touch on the prevalence of palomino coloration within specific horse breeds and discuss the factors that influence its expression.
Color Features of Palomino Horses
Base Color
Palominos are chestnut or red-based horses (genetically denoted as ‘ee’ at the Extension or MC1R gene).
Genetics
The palomino color results from a single copy of the cream dilution variant (CR or Cr) of the MATP gene acting on a chestnut/red-based horse (Palomino Horses, 2024). This variant dilutes the red pigment in the coat to a golden hue.
Ideal Coat Color
Palomino coats can range from light cream to very dark gold or tan. The variation in shade depends on factors like genetics, nutrition, and exposure to sunlight.
Coat Shade Range
Palomino coats can range from light cream to very dark gold or tan. The variation in shade depends on factors like genetics, nutrition, and exposure to sunlight.
Mane and Tail Color
A palomino’s mane and tail are typically shades of white, silver, or ivory. They can vary from pure snowy white to shades of yellow or grey, and may contain dark hairs as well.
Eyes
Palominos generally have dark eyes – brown, black, or hazel. Foals may be born with blue-grey eyes that darken as they mature.
Skin Pigmentation
Adult palominos have dark skin pigment – black, dark brown, dark tan, or dark grey – with pink skin under any white markings. Foals are often born with pinkish skin that darkens within a few days.
Note that adult horses with pink or light-colored skin and light hazel eyes are more likely to be gold champagnes, not palominos.
Points (Legs, Ears)
The legs and ears, known as “points,” are typically the same color as the body unless white markings are present.
Markings
Palominos often have standard white markings on the legs and face. Those carrying coat pattern genes like frame overo, tobiano, or leopard complex (Lp) may display additional white markings consistent with those genes.
The Allure of the Palomino
Palominos stand out in any crowd with their golden coats and contrasting white manes and tails. However, whilst many consider a rich golden coat and pure white mane and tail to be the “ideal” palomino color, this coloration is less common than you might think. Furthermore, a “newly minted gold coin” is actually quite light, meaning the ideal palomino shade is not quite as dark as you’d imagine.
Palomino coat colors also vary widely. However, many palomino registers have clearly defined standards for what constitutes a “perfect” palomino. These standards typically specify a coat “the color of a newly minted gold coin, or three shades lighter or darker,” and “a mane and tail of white, silver, or ivory with no more than 15% dark or colored hairs”.
Genetics of the Palomino Horse Color
A palomino is defined by its genetics, not its color. This means that a horse is genetically a palomino if it possesses the correct DNA to be one, regardless of its visual appearance.
Some horses for instance may appear palomino but don’t have the right genetics so are not palominos. Purebred Haflingers are a notable example as they can look like palominos but are genetically flaxen chestnuts. Conversely, some horses don’t look palomino at all but because they have the right genetics, they are palomino.
All palominos have:
- Two copies of the recessive variant of the Extension (MC1R) gene (ee) which produces a red-based (chestnut) horse.
- One copy of the cream dilution variant (CRcr) of the MATP gene, which dilutes the red coat pigment to gold.
Also, horses with different base colors and one copy of the cream variant display different coat colors:
- Bay-based horses with one copy of cream are buckskins.
- Black-based horses with one copy of cream are smoky blacks.
Palomino Horse Color Variations
Dapples
Dapples are concentric rings of lighter-colored hair on the coat. While they can be attractive to look at, many palomino registries consider them a color fault for the purposes of palomino registration. Dapples also differ from “self dapples” or “health dapples,” which are slightly darker marks indicative of good health.
Ticking
Ticking is a sprinkling of white hairs throughout the coat, sometimes incorrectly called “roaning”. It can vary from barely noticeable to very pronounced. Like dapples, ticking is often considered a color fault by palomino registries.
Smutting
Smutting is dark hairs either sprinkled throughout the coat or concentrated in certain areas. When spread over the coat, it gives the horse an overall sooty appearance; when localized, it creates dark patches or spots.
Some palominos have both types of smutting. Some are permanently smutty while others develop dark hairs seasonally or from eating certain feeds. Rich spring grass, alfalfa, and clovers can all intensify smutting in susceptible horses. Generally, smutting reduces once the diet changes or the offending feed dries out. Most palomino registries view smutting as a color fault.
Spots
Spots are solid patches of white, lighter gold, or dark hair. If they have underlying pink skin, or are large enough, they can disqualify a horse from palomino registration if they occur on the torso or exceed a certain size.
Manes and Tails
The mane and tail colors for palomino registration are white, silver, and ivory. In reality, they can range Specified mane and tail colors for palomino registration are white, silver, and ivory. In reality, they can vary significantly due to the presence of colored hairs.
- White Manes and Tails: These have very few colored hairs, resulting in a pure, snowy appearance.
- Silver Manes and Tails: Darker hairs mixed throughout create a silvery appearance.
- Ivory Manes and Tails: These have palomino-colored hairs throughout, giving them an off-white or ivory tone.
Many palominos have white manes and tails as foals but get progressively more colored hairs throughout as they age.
Palomino Combined with Other Coat Color Modifying Genes
Palominos can also carry additional coat color modifying genes, resulting in a range of interesting colorations:
- Dunalino (palomino dun): Palomino with dun.
- Gold cream champagne: Palomino with champagne.
- Palomino pearl: Palomino with pearl.
- Palomino carrying silver: Palomino with silver.
- Palomino mushroom: Palomino with mushroom (found only in UK lines of Shetland Ponies).
- Broken-colored palominos: Palomino with patterns like tobiano, frame overo, leopard complex (Lp), or roan.
Palomino Horse Color: Iridescence vs. Shine
Iridescence is associated with palominos but is often confused with shine. Iridescence is a shifting glow created by narrow, fractured medullae in the hair shafts. This feature makes the hair more translucent and allows for ‘constructive interference’ of light waves.
In contrast, shine is simply the reflection of light off the clean, healthy outer layer of the hair shaft (cuticle).
Common Palomino Horse Breeds
Although palomino is a color not a breed, it is particularly common in some breeds such as:
- Quarter Horses
- Some of the gaited breeds – Saddlebreds, Tennessee Walking Horses.
- Welsh ponies and cobs
- Morgans
- Partbred Arabians and Arabian Derivatives
There are specific breeds where it is not found in purebreds, notably:
- Purebred Arabians
- Purebred Haflingers
Until recently it also wasn’t present in modern Thoroughbreds, having been bred out of the breed in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, it reappeared in 2 lines of American Thoroughbreds in the latter half of last century, and today, all cream-dilute Thoroughbreds trace back to one of these 2 palomino stallions.
Famous Palomino Horses
Surprisingly, considering how popular palominos are, there aren’t very many famous palomino horses, and one of the most famous wasn’t genetically a palomino…
Golden Cloud (Trigger)
Included in our list of the most famous horses in movies, the Thoroughbred cross stallion Golden Cloud shot to fame as cowboy movie hero Roy Roger’s mount Trigger in the 1940’s and 50’s. Rogers loved the 15.3hh horse so much that he bought him and owned him throughout most of his film career.
Tilly (Argo)
In 1995 another palomino horse shot to fame as Argo, Xena’s beloved golden mare in the Warrior Princess series that ran from 1995 to 2001. Although a male palomino played Argo in the early episodes, and several other palomino mares were used at times throughout the series, the best-known Argo was a palomino mare called Tilly. Tilly’s breed is not known, or not available.
Argo’s only verified offspring, Argo II, also a palomino, followed in her mother’s hoof prints as Xena’s second mount in later episodes.
Blondie (Thowra)
Thowra, a ‘palomino’ brumby stallion, is the central character of the Australian Silver Brumby series and the movie of the same name. Although the precise color of Thowra and the other ‘silver’ brumbies has never been confirmed, they have always been portrayed as light palominos.
In the 1993 movie The Silver Brumby, the starring role of both Thowra and his dam Bel Bel was played by palomino mare Blondie.
Bamboo Harvester (Mister Ed)
Back in the 1960s, when Bamboo Harvester, a Saddlebred/Arabian cross gelding, played the famous talking horse Mister Ed, the champagne gene in horses had yet to be identified. At the time, bay-based (amber) and red-based (gold) champagnes – like Bamboo Harvester – were often mistaken for light-skinned buckskins and palominos.
However, modern genetic testing reveals that Bamboo Harvester had no cream dilution genes in his pedigree, meaning he couldn’t have been a palomino. Instead, he came from a line of verified gold champagnes, inheriting the golden coat from his sire, who was also a gold champagne but labeled a palomino according to the conventions of the era.
References
- palomino horses. (2024). Horse-Genetics.com. https://www.horse-genetics.com/palomino-horses.html
- Equine Genetics Basic Coat color inheritance W 891. (n.d.). https://utia.tennessee.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/269/2023/10/W891.pdf
