The Cremello Dilution appears in all the Turanian's descendants, in the Caspian itself, and persists today even in the English Thoroughbred. It may have appeared in the Arabian horse at some point, as Lady Ann Blunt's compilation of Arabic words for horse color describe the white-maned, golden or cream bodied horses in many different ways. It does not appear to be present in the modern-day Arabian, although flaxen-maned golden chestnuts are selective breed for this color.

Cremello is perhaps the only horse color gene whose expression depends upon whether the horse has one dose of it (is heterozygous for it) or two (is homozygous for it). In a single dose, Cremello turns red pigment to yellow, and may lighten the eyes to hazel in some cases. Black pigment is unchanged or lightened to a "smoky" sable brown (called Smoky Black). The result is either a palomino or a buckskin, a yellow horse with black points, without a backstripe. In a double dose, red pigment is turned to ivory, and black pigment is lightened to rust or "pink." Eyes are pigmentless and look blue due to the Tyndall effect of light being refracted among the tissues of the iris. The Cremello has a very white mane and tail, white the Perlino may have a mane and tail slightly darker than the body color, and a bit of color on the knees, hocks and fetlocks.

Because blue eyes are erroneously believed to be "weak" by some, the use of Cremellos and Perlinos in breeding the Akhal-Teke has been severely discouraged, and the earlier editions of the stud books recommend breeding even buckskins and palominos to blacks or dark bays in order to avoid any chance of getting one. The Russians considered Cremello to be a form of Albinism, which technically it is not. In the United States, while many people do not like the way the cremello/perlino looks, its value in breeding buckskins and palominos, desired by the American market, is well appreciated.

The horse in the picture above is called, in the Eastern United States, an "isabella." The horse has dark skin and eyes but is too "yellow" and too pale to be considered a true palomino. Isabella results from the same gene which produces palomino, but generally it is a dilution of what Eastern Americans call "sorrel," (= approximately a light golden chestnut), whereas the palomino is generally a dilution of a dark or red chestnut.

The horse who is buckskin without also being dun is distinguishable from the Dun horse by its slightly lighter color and by the absence of a stripe along its spine. It is distinguishable from the Dun-Buckskin combination by not only the lack of the stripe, but its overall darker color, bordering nearly on light bay, and the absence of a sooty mask on the front of the face. The mare Anemona (foreground, right) is a Buckskin; the mare behind her, Arameia, shows the Buckskin-Dun combination, which, for lack of a better word, the current author is referring to under the Russian term bulanaya.

The true Golden Palomino is not quite as rare in the various Turkoman strains as in other breeds of horses (such as the Quarter horse and Saddlebred), but still is not all that common; probably due to the preponderance of bay over chestnut in the Turkoman breeds and strains. The combination of Palomino and Dun, which gives what in the area I live in now is called the "Yellow Dun" and is termed "Linebacked Palomino" in textbooks) is far more commonplace. It is usually somewhat less golden than those familiar with palominos of breeds of Spanish descent would recall. It should be noted, however, that, as in most breeds, the Palomino Turkoman or Akhal-Teke is typically darker in its summer coat than in its winter coat, and many become progressively more golden as they age.

 Photo Credits: Photos flushed right © 1998 Dr. Tito Pontecorvo

Upper Left: © 1998 Louise L. Firouz

Lower Left: © 1998 Martha Bowles.

All photos are used here with the permission of the photographers.