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When a horse carries two copies of the cream dilute gene, or in other words is homozygous, it is often called a 'double dilute'.

Double dilutes are called cremello, perlino, or smoky cream depending on their base color.

A cremello is a chestnut with two cream genes; a perlino is a bay with two; and a smoky cream is a black with two.

These horses are homozygous for the cream gene, meaning that every foal they produce will carry a cream gene, and thus be a dilute.

For one interested in breeding buckskins or palominos, a double-dilute would be the best choice, as they will always pass on the cream dilute gene.

One cream gene will lighten red pigment to a yellow or cream color (thus creating palominos and buckskins). Two cream genes lighten the red pigment twice as much, and also lighten black pigment, producing cremellos, perlinos, and smoky blacks.

The pigment in the skin and eyes is also lightened in a double-dilute. Although some people believe that this leads to sun burning, blindness, weakness, or other problems, these myths have long been disproved. Some blue eyes may be more light sensitive, as they have less pigment than brown or other colored eyes. This may be like what happens in humans - some fair skinned, light-eyed people are more sensitive to sunlight.

The common myths that these horses are blind or will sunburn if left outside, however, are plain ridiculous.

Cremello

A chestnut horse with one cream gene is a palomino; with two, it is called a cremello.

Such a horse could also be called a "homozygous cream" or "double diluted chestnut".

The basic description of a cremello is pink skin, blue eyes, white or cream hair.

The cremello's skin is not really pink like that seen under white markings; it has some pigment, protecting it from the sunburning that some true pink-skin suffers from. Many white facial markings have underlying pink, pigmentless skin. The white areas are completely void of pigment. Pigmentless skin is more prone to sunburning that skin with pigment. The cream genes just dilute the pigment in the skin, but do not remove it, like white markings do. If you look at a cremello with a white facial marking, you can see the difference in the two types of pink skin, one with pigment, the other without.

The eyes are blue, and stay blue throughout the horse's life. They are not inferior to the eyes of any other colored horse.

The hair, although often described as "white", actually does not lack pigment like the white patches seen on pintos. Instead, it is a light cream-color; when paired with white markings or pinto markings, the color difference is obvious.

Cremellos do not have weak immune systems, are not deaf, do not die early, have sick foals, nor are they related to lethal whites. Unfortunately, these myths are still in circulation.

Cremellos (and other double-dilutes) occur in every breed that carries the cream gene - any breed with palominos or buckskins will also have double dilute colors.

Non-cremellos can be born with pink skin, blue eyes, and cream hair, too-- but they usually darken at a few weeks/months old.

Perlino

A bay horse with one cream gene is a buckskin; with two, it is a perlino.

This horse could also be called a "double dilute bay" or "homozygous cream", but perlino is shorter and the accepted term. It probably came into use because of the horse's off-white, pearly coloration.

The description of a perlino is pink skin, blue eyes, cream coat, and coffee- or pinkish- colored points. Like the cremello, the pink skin and light coat have some pigment; they aren't like the unpigmented patches on pintos.

Because this horse has a bay base, the points are darker than the body; the Cream gene dilutes red pigment more than it does black. Sometimes the mane, tail, and legs are a tanish-coffee color, and sometimes they can get very pink-- it varies from horse to horse.

Magic Dun On Ice, owned by Cathy Sanchez of Classic Paint and Quarter Horses	Invest In Rodeo AQHA/APHA stallion Owned by Robin Mitchell Forrest website: InvestInRodeo.com Sire: palomino Dam:buckskin
	Legacy of Gold, owned by Jennifer Thompson Website: cremelloquarterhorses.com

Smoky Cream

A black horse with two cream genes is a "smoky cream"; the hair is diluted to a cream or smoky cream color, the eyes are blue, and the skin is pink.

In single doses, the cream gene has little or no affect on black pigment. In double doses, it does-- a smoky cream and a smoky black (black + 1 cream) look vastly different-- one nearly white, the other black-- visually opposites but genetically very close.

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