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Double dilutes are the answer to a horse owners color nightmares. These horses can genetically guarantee you the color of the foal you desire. Perlino, is the name of the double dilute bay horse. These horses are acutally bay (reddish body with black points) and they have two dilute genes. One dilute gene on a bay horse is a buckskin, *(golden horse with black points), and two dilute genes give you a perlino (cream body with golden to reddish points). When these horses are bred to any type of horse, they will pass on their dilute genes. You are guaranteed a palomino, buckskin, or smokey black foal. A gray mare will never have a red foal when bred to a perlino, and she will foal the above mentioned colors, but due to gray being the strongest genetically, the foal can turn gray later. The actual skin under the cream hair is all pink. If it is any other color, you might have a maximum white sabino in disguise. This is a very illusive spotting gene that hasn't been totally figured out or mapped genetically.
A Cremello is similar to the above mentioned Perlino. A Cremello is actually a sorrel horse that has been bleached/diluted twice. A cremello is all light cream color with no other color unless they are paint horses, then they will have white with the cream. Yes, you can definately see the difference between cream and white. One bleach , or dilute gene on a sorrel horse creates a palomino. The cremello also will pass on the dilute genetics, and will guarantee you the palomino, buckskin, or smokey black foal when bred to any color of horse. Again, you will not be guaranteed the foal to stay that color if one of the parents are gray.
A common mistake people make when seeing these horses is that they are albino. Researchers have proven that there is not an albino gene for horses. All those years that people mislabled their horses as being albino.... a misnomer. If you think about it, it makes sense. The horses that were labled albino, did not have pink eyes. They have the most gorgeous eyes of blue. With these horses, the owner does need to take precautions for sun exposure. As you might assume, they sunburn very easily due to their pink skin. People take various precautions. Some put on a fly mask. These are now made with sun blocking agents. Regular sunscreen also will do the trick, but it can be difficult when horses are eating and drinking. Many others are turning to tatooing. This is just as a person might suppose. An acutal tatoo to add color to diminish the sunburning. This is being done primarily around the eyes. This also cuts down on the squinting due to sun glare when you are riding outside, or during performances/competitions.
If you are wanting to directly identify what color your foal may be, or explore other possibilities due to spotting genes or other variances, you may want to visit ColorfulHorses.com. They have many articles that further explain the wide world of color.
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