page_title: Champagne gene
section_title: Skin, eyes, and hooves
hierarchical_section_title: Champagne gene / Coat colors / Skin, eyes, and hooves
caption_attribution_description: Champagne Eye and Skin traits. A, B and C) Eye and skin color of foals. D and E) Eye color and skin mottling of adult horse. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000195.g002
context_page_description: The champagne gene is a simple dominant allele responsible for a number of rare horse coat colors. The most distinctive traits of horses with the champagne gene are the hazel eyes and pinkish, freckled skin, which are bright blue and bright pink at birth, respectively. The coat color is also affected: any hairs that would have been red are gold, and any hairs that would have been black are chocolate brown. If a horse inherits the champagne gene from either or both parents, a coat that would otherwise be chestnut is instead gold champagne, with bay corresponding to amber champagne, seal brown to sable champagne, and black to classic champagne. A horse must have at least one champagne parent to inherit the champagne gene, for which there is now a DNA test.
  Unlike the genes underlying tobiano, dominant white, frame overo spotting and the Leopard complex common to the Appaloosa, the champagne gene does not affect the location of pigment-producing cells in the skin. Nor does the champagne gene remove all pigment from the skin and hair, as in albinism. Instead, the champagne gene produces traits known as hypomelanism, or dilution. Champagne is not associated with any health defects.
context_section_description: The color of the skin is the single most important visual identifier of champagne horses: in the adult horse, the skin is "pink with abundant dark freckles, except under white markings." The freckles - not mottles, splotches, specks, or blotches - are dark and may have a purple cast, and are small and numerous. By comparison, mottling associated with the Leopard complex is large and blocky alternations between true black or charcoal-colored skin and pigmentless-pink skin. The skin of cremellos and perlinos is pigmented-pink, and exhibit a scant few tiny black specks. Homozygous pearls and pearl-cream combinations also exhibit some freckling of the skin, however this is muted in comparison to the freckles of champagne skin. The skin may exhibit an overall lavender tone. The color qualities of the skin are most evident around the eyes and muzzle, under the tail, and on the udder or sheath.
  The eyes of an adult champagne horse are most often described as hazel or amber. In the newborn or very young foal, the eyes are bright blue to blue-green and the skin is bright pink.  The champagne blue foal eye is creamier than other types of blue eye such as the bright, unpigmented blue seen on some pinto horses.
  In the past, some breeders and horse owners had concerns that horses with light-colored skin and eyes were not healthy.  However, the lightening of these parts of the horse due to the champagne gene is not known to be linked to any health or genetic defects. While horses with white markings may sunburn on exposed unpigmented skin, the freckled-pink skin of a champagne horse is said to tan instead. In addition, the color of the hoof has no bearing on its strength.
caption: At birth, champagne horses have bright blue eyes and bright pink skin, as the horse matures the eyes darken to hazel and the skin becomes freckled.
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