TrueChampagneOct08.pdf

Get the real story on APHA’s newest coat colors and the discovery

of the champagne dilution gene.

By IRENE STAMATELAKYS

ature has a way of surprising us. Just

when we thought we had a good grip on

color genetics, we get thrown an equine

mystery—an unexplained and unusual-

looking palomino, buckskin or dun;

pumpkin-colored, freckled skin; eyes that

shift from icy blue to hazel to amber. This list goes on, but

it’s enough to stump even the most experienced Paint

breeder. What color is this horse?

Fortunately, advances in science have solved this genetic

mystery, helping us better understand this rare and unique

phenomenon—the champagne. Researchers recently dis-

covered the genetic mutation that causes the champagne

dilution, and a DNA test is now available to identify those

horses carrying the gene.

And there’s another reason to celebrate. The American

Paint Horse Association (APHA) is the first Western breed

registry to officially recognize the amber, gold and classic

champagne colors.

“Not just any pretty color”

“Champagne is not just a coat color,” said Carolyn

Shepard, president and registrar of the International Cham-

pagne Horse Registry (ICHR). “Champagne is a specific

gene causing a dilution of skin, eyes and hair, and is from

distinct pedigree lines. It’s not just any pretty color.”

One of the founding members of the ICHR, Shepard

has researched champagne characteristics and pedigrees

extensively and works passionately to make sure that what

the public learns about champagnes is accurate.

“Champagne is a color-modifying gene like

cream or dun and not a term for shiny, light or

strangely-colored horses,” wrote Shepard.

In addition to changing a horse’s base

coat, the champagne gene also produces

distinct characteristics that allow us to

differentiate champagnes from other cream-

related colors.

There are four colors in the champagne

spectrum: amber, gold, classic and sable.

An amber champagne results from the

champagne gene acting on a bay base coat.

This is best described as golden tan with

brown points, with the mane and tail often

darker than the legs. These horses are

frequently misclassified as buckskins.

The gold champagne horse is produced

when the champagne gene acts on a chestnut

or sorrel base coat. The body color is golden,

and the mane and tail may be flaxen or

gold-toned. These horses are usually mistaken

for palominos.

The classic champagne horse is the result of

the champagne gene acting on a true black

base coat (without an agouti gene). This rare

color is difficult to describe, but has been

called dove gray, chocolate or lilac dun. These

horses are often registered as duns, smoky

blacks or grullos.

The sable champagne horse is also a rare

shade, produced when a champagne gene acts

on a seal brown base coat (with the agouti-t

gene). Sables look very much like classic

champagnes as adults, and sometimes the only

way to differentiate the two is by testing for

the agouti-t gene. These horses are commonly

registered as duns or grullos. [Note: sable

champagne is not recognized as an official

APHA color.]

Other rare variations can be created when

you mix champagne with other dilute genes,

such as dun or cream.

In addition to coat color, champagnes are

also identified by these traits: pink skin with

dark freckles, darker coats in winter than

summer, reverse dappling and, in foals,

bright pink skin with blue eyes and darker

coats.

All champagne horses have pinkish skin

under colored hair with dark freckles. Not to

be confused with the pale, unpigmented skin

found under white Paint markings, cham-

pagne pink skin has pigment. It’s been

described as pumpkin- or salmon-colored.

This light, freckled skin is found everywhere,

but is easiest to identify around the eyes,

muzzle, external genitalia and udder.

Champagnes often sport a darker hair coat

in winter than in summer, the reverse of most

other coat colors. They sometimes have shiny,

iridescent coats. However, shine is not unique

to champagnes.

Reverse dappling, with darker centers

and lighter edges, is another champagne

trademark, although this has been found in

other colors as well.

Eye color is one of the most striking

champagne traits in foals and young horses.

They are born with icy blue eyes that turn

green around the edges and then amber as the

foals age. While many adult champagnes have

amber eyes, some darken to brown.

All champagne foals are born with bright

pink skin, with the freckles developing later.

Below: California

Champagne is a rare

sable champagne

produced when a

champagne gene

acts on a seal brown

base coat (with the

agouti-t gene).

Bottom: Gold

champagnes,

frequently mistaken

for palominos, are

produced when the

champagne gene

acts on a chestnut or

sorrel base coat.

Sable champagne

Gold champagne

PAINT HORSE JOURNAL

OCTOBER 2008

When the

champagne gene

dilutes a bay base

coat, you get an

amber champagne,

like Ima Frosted

Chloe (below).

What do you get

when a champagne

gene dilutes a black

base coat? A classic

champagne, like Dun

In Champagne

(bottom).

Many of these foals have a darker first coat

that lightens as they shed out.

Researchers say champagnes do not have

special health issues, such as a tendency

to sunburn or the melanomas that plague

gray horses.

Bellone, PhD began collecting blood samples

from champagne horses to search for the

genetic mutation causing the dilution. Saman-

tha Brooks, PhD later joined her, and together

they worked under the guidance of Ernest

Bailey, PhD, collecting families to study and

conducting genetic testing. [Note: Dr. Brooks

is responsible for the discovery of both the

Sabino 1 gene and the tobiano gene.]

Champagne Paint enthusiast Pam Capurso

first submitted a proposal to the APHA

Registration Committee in 2001 requesting

recognition of the champagne dilution gene

and the resulting coat colors on an equal basis

with the dun and cream dilution genes.

In 2003, the APHA Registration Commit-

tee decided to acknowledge the champagne

dilution gene to a limited extent. At an

owner’s request, the Registration Department

would add the remark “appears to carry the

champagne gene” to a horse’s certificate.

However, champagne horses continued to be

registered as palominos, buckskins and duns,

as the committee was not prepared to officially

recognize the champagne colors until a genetic

test could prove the gene’s existence.

Eventually, the project caught the attention

of Deborah Cook, a graduate student at the

University of Kentucky. Cook was on rotation

in Dr. Bailey’s immunogenetics lab in January

2007 when she was assigned the champagne

research project to learn the basics of

molecular work.

“I learned the PCR process [polymerase

chain reaction is a technique widely used in

molecular biology] and how to do the marker

mapping,” said Cook. “I took it a step further

and I got addicted to it.”

Using three families of champagne horses—

two were Tennessee Walking Horses and the

third was a Paint Horse family—Cook

mapped the gene’s location by comparing ge-

netic markers of heterozygous stallions with

their offspring, half of which were champagne

and half of which were not. Genetic

sequencing then led to the discovery of the

champagne dilution mutation.

“I thought I was getting close early in the

summer,” recalled Cook, “and I found it in

October 2007.”

Also remarkable was the discovery that the

champagne dilution was caused by a

completely different gene on a different

chromosome than the other dilution genes—

cream, dun, pearl and silver.

Next, a molecular test for the champagne

dilution gene was developed and verified by

A dilution gene like no other

D. Philip Sponenberg, PhD, Ann Bowling,

PhD, and Liz Nutter were the first to docu-

ment the champagne colors and dilution gene

in literature in 1996. They correctly identified

the champagne gene as dominant, diluting

black to brown and red to yellow. Whether the

foal inherited one or two copies of the gene, it

would express the champagne phenotype.

In 1999, at the University of Kentucky’s

Gluck Equine Research Center, Rebecca

Amber champagne

Classic champagne

PAINT HORSE JOURNAL

OCTOBER 2008

testing more than 200 champagne horses in

12 breeds. The genetic test became available

commercially in early July, first through the

University of Kentucky and shortly after at the

University of California-Davis and other

DNA testing labs.

Finally, breeders had a tool to distinguish

the champagne gene from other hair dilution

genes and correctly identify this coat color.

“The champagne message boards online are

just buzzing with people getting test results,”

said Cook, who owns four Paints.

The peer-reviewed paper on this study was

scheduled to appear on-line in the September

19th issue of PLoS Genetics.

True to their word, the APHA Registration

Committee officially accepted the gold, classic

and amber champagne coat colors at the asso-

ciation’s annual Workshop meeting in June.

At press time, four horses have been registered

as champagnes, the first being Raffelscham-

pagnewish, a 2-year-old solid champagne

stallion owned by Ned and Barby Stewart of

Celeste, Texas.

Blue eye color

Champagne made in Iowa

While the champagne dilution gene is a

recent discovery, one family of champagne

Paints traces all the way back to Gold Bonnet,

a 1964 tobiano mare registered as a palomino,

but more than likely a gold champagne.

Bred by Howard Quillin of New Sharon,

Iowa, the mare was by Red Ball Baby, a bay

Quarter Horse stallion, and out of Queen, an

unregistered Paint mare. Pam Capurso of

Brooksville, Maine, has extensively researched

these bloodlines and says that Queen was a

Waggoner mare that Quillin picked up at an

auction in Pennsylvania. The champagne

dilution gene in stock horses traces back to the

Burnett Ranch in Iowa Park, Texas, and the

Waggoner Ranch in Vernon, Texas.

Gold Bonnet’s original owner was Don

Allgood, also of New Sharon, Iowa. As the

story goes, he unknowingly perpetuated this

line of champagne Paints, breeding Gold

Bonnet and producing five registered

offspring, and among them, four champagnes.

Three of her daughters—Gold Zip, Jr’s Honey

Moon and Jr’s Goldigger—together produced

17 champagne Paints.

The Gold Bonnet line continued, and

mares accounted for most of the generations

that followed.

The family tree eventually leads to Good

Gold Almighty, a 1996 homozygous tobiano

stallion registered as dun, but who was

Hazel eye color

Amber eye color

actually a classic champagne. Gold Bonnet is

in the fourth generation of his pedigree.

Making his way from Massachusetts to Maine

to Arizona to Washington, Good Gold

Almighty introduced many people to the

champagne coat color. Along the way he sired

24 registered Paints, with about 16

champagnes among them, before he died in

2006. Good Gold Almighty and his offspring

were one of three families used in the

University of Kentucky’s research to locate the

champagne dilution gene.

Today, Gold Bonnet has more than 56

champagne Paint descendants, including

Champagne foals

are born with

icy blue eyes that

turn hazel green

around the edges

and then amber as

the foals age.

PAINT HORSE JOURNAL

OCTOBER 2008

This light, freckled

skin is found

everywhere on a

champagne,

but is easiest

to identify around

the eyes, muzzle,

external genitalia

and udder.

Peppy Digger, APHA Champion and earner

of 492 APHA points. The number of

champagne Paints is growing annually, as

breeders continue this family line and

outcross to Quarter Horses with the

champagne dilution gene.

In the beginning, with each new foal, the

family would argue what color the foal was.

Capurso, who has done extensive research on

the Gold Bonnet line, explained that when

Golden Frost’s second foal, Ace Junior, was

born, they were delighted because they were

sure he was a black and white tobiano.

“Champagnes are born darker and then

shed out lighter, so you can just imagine their

surprise when he shed out to be a classic

champagne,” Capurso said.

Today at Champagne Acres in Albia, Iowa,

Trish Johnson and her daughter Carla Bates

are carrying on the Gold Bonnet family line.

Johnson was so taken by the horses’ unusual

and attractive coloring that she couldn’t bring

herself to sell them. Instead, she built a

champagne broodmare band.

“Mom raised 26 champagnes out of those

mares and had a grand total of 32,” recalled

Bates. “She still has Illusion Farm Champ, a

classic champagne tobiano stallion by Good

Gold Almighty, and five champagne mares,

including My Champagne Streke, a grand-

daughter of Q T Poco Streke.”

According to Capurso, the family played an

active role in raising awareness of the

champagne dilution and supporting the

efforts to get APHA to recognize the color.

On the West Coast, Carolyn Shepard also

breeds champagne Paints in Paso Robles,

California, in addition to her duties as ICHR

president. Among her 13 Paints, she has seven

champagnes, including a stallion named

California Champagne. “Fred” is a 6-year-old

sable champagne tobiano by Good

Gold Almighty.

Today, California Champagne stands at

JMJ Stables in Graham, Washington.

“When Good Gold Almighty died, his

owner [Michele Jorgenson] needed someone

to take his [breeding] book, so I leased Fred

to her,” said Shepard. “He has been making

little champagne Paints in Washington for two

years now.”

To date, Fred has sired 13 registered Paints,

including a 2008 champagne tobiano filly

named Carolina Champagne.

Carrying on the tradition

In 1986, Richard and Marcia Ratliff of

Rocking R Paints in Albia, Iowa, purchased

Gold Moon, a gold champagne grand-

daughter of Gold Bonnet who the next year

produced Golden Frost. She in turn

produced seven champagne Paints out of

nine foals.

Resources

International Champagne Horse Registry—www.ichregistry.com

Champagne Horse Breeders’ & Owners’ Association—www.chboa.com

University of Kentucky Equine Parentage Testing & Research Lab

www.ca.uky.edu/gluck/EPTRL.asp

PAINT HORSE JOURNAL

OCTOBER 2008

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