Cremello is a horse coat color consisting of a cream colored body with a cream or white mane and tail. It occurs when a horse is homozygous for a dilution gene sometimes called the cream gene acting on a red (chestnut) base coat. Such horses have pink skin, blue eyes, and are a light cream or gold color when born, but sometimes fade to almost white as an adult. Cremellos are not white horses, which have a pure white coat from birth with brown or blue eyes and pink skin, and no genetic dilution factor. Cremellos do not carry any of the genes that produce true white coloring, thus they also will not carry any of the "lethal white" conditions, such as lethal white syndrome. Cremello horses are also not albino: they do not have a white hair coat nor do they have non-pigmented eyes. (True albinism has not been found in horses, it is also believed to be a lethal gene.) A horse who has a "red," or chestnut, base coat and is heterozygous for the dilution gene, that is, has only a single copy of the gene, or a "single dilution" is a palomino. Most palominos have a golden coat with a white mane and tail, and usually have dark eyes (though occasional individuals have blue eyes due to other factors). A single dilution gene acting on a bay base coat produces a buckskin colored horse. (see also perlino for more information on dilution genes on a bay base coat) The cremello gene can be found in any breed that also produces palomino or buckskin coloring, including the American Quarter Horse and Morgan horse. Another dilution gene that sometimes resembles cremello is the champagne gene. However, champagne horses can be differentiated from cremellos by the presence of mottled skin, striping on the hooves, and eyes that darken from blue to yellow-green or hazel, and often a noticeably darker coat at birth. A few horses carry both the champagne and cremello genes, and can only be sorted out by genetic testing.
References
Bowling, Ann T. "Coat Color Genetics: Positive Horse Identification" from Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis. Web Site accessed February 9, 2007
