So what happens when you put a single dilute to another? Well often not much, even when you put a palomino to a palomino there is still only a 50% chance you’ll get a palomino. There is also a 25% chance that you’ll get a chestnut. However there is also a 25% chance you’ll get a cremello. A cremello is your cup of tea with a huge slosh of milk, a double diluted chestnut. Similarly a perlino is the term for a bay that has been diluted with one dose of dilution from each parent. And finally a smokey cream is what happens when a black base coat is again diluted by one cream gene from each parent.

Difficult to Guess
The trouble with these three is that it is quite difficult to distinguish one from another on looks alone, (to refer one final time to beverages, all three look like “Mothers Day Tea” normally very sweet but rather pale!) but this is particularly true of the perlino and the smokey cream. This time it is even more difficult to rely on what they might produce too, as a perlino and a smokey black are capable of producing almost the exact number of variations of colour (the perlino having the capability to create a perlino when put to a smokey cream or cremello and a buckskin to a smokey black – which is not suprising when you remember the original colour of the animal prior to the affecting dilution gene would have been bay.) Paith Magical Rockset is one example of how progeny proves her true colour without the need to resort to testing.  Two smokey black parents meant she could only be one of two double dilutes, cremello or smokey cream.  The fact that she has a buckskin foal at foot (by a chestnut sire) means she can only be a smokey cream....

Cheating
I have to say I cheat a little bit when I get to the double dilutes. I just can’t keep the variations in my head, so I constantly refer to the following site which I trust implicitly. The people who set up this site had a very good reason to get the science just right in order to defend the right to register certain coloured animals, and the site remains an exceptionally reliable reference point for anyone interested in the “what ifs” of single and double dilutes. Just click here and scroll down to see the foal colour possibilities.  (Sorrel = Chestnut by the way). Also, as proven double dilutes are a little thin on the ground in the welsh sections, there is also an opportunity to see further examples of the various colours in different breeds.

Testing
Just like the smokey black in the single dilutes, It is again possible to test via tail hairs to ascertain the exact colour of the double dilutes, by means of testing for Agouti (term used by geneticists sort of means bay) and / or Red / Black Factor (the two colours from which all coat colours originate) where necessary. The following is the way the true colour of a double dilute is written in terms of genetic testing: (obviously all are CrCr)

Base Coat: Homozygous Red (ee) = Cremello

Base Coat: Homozygous Black (EE) or Heterozygous Black/Red (Ee)
and Agouti Positive. = Perlino

Base Coat: Homozygous Black (EE) or Heterozygous Black/Red (Ee)
and Agouti Negative = Smokey Cream

That is quite a bit to take in isn’t it, but what I would say is that there really is very little point worrying as to whether you have smokey cream or perlino as the odds of producing the same offspring from them are so very similar…Unless of course you are just curious and can’t resist knowing just for the fun of it!  

(updated August 08)
Of the photos above, the Davids colt has been tested and is Perlino, the Paith Mare is confirmed smokey black.  The Ysewyn Colt has now also been confirmed as Perlino but the Tai Forgan Filly could theoretically still be any of the three double dilutes, although the tint to her mane would suggest that she isn't cremello, which seem to have a much whiter hue to their manes and tails.  All the cobs on this page are absolutely adored by their owners, who are very proud of their special cobs, but only one has been shown to date (Sublime Sponte).  Maybe in 2010 we will see Rhoswen under saddle at the RW?

A few Facts and Myths:

TRUTHS

Cremello x Cremello can only give a Cremello foal

Cremello x Chestnut can only give a Palomino foal

If both parents are double dilute, you will always get a foal with a double dose of dilution.

If one parent is double dilute (and the other parent is non dilute), the foal will be a single dilute.

Blue Eyes.
Not everyone agrees with the following statement, but the majority of people believe that the double dilutes, that is Cremellos, Perlinos and Smokey Creams will always have blue eyes. Just as the diluting gene affects coat colour so too is the pigment of the eye affected. However the light blue eyes of a double dilute will not "pass on" to any offspring (unless it is also a double dilute of course)…. But then again….if the double dilute was also affected by a sabino type white pattern marking….the blue eyes might be seen to be inherited with the dilution – (not true, as it is really being caused by the sabino affecting genes...)

MYTHS
Cream is not really an adequate way of describing a horse’s colour. It is often used to describe pale palominos and buckskins, but is not a unique colour per se. Depths of colour vary greatly amongst bays and chestnuts, and the same is true of the single dilutes. It is possible that you could wrongly identify a particularly pale palmino, sometimes called Isabella,  as being a double dilute (a Cremello for example) especially if, as I mentioned above, it had two blue eyes caused for example by a difficult to see apron of white on the face extending past the eye. Knowing the genetic identity of the parents might not help (a single dilute put to a double dilute could produce a single dilute or a double dilute) but in this (now rather hypothetical) case, a swift pluck of the tail hair and small cheque shoved in an envelope would easily confirm the extent of dilution genetically, (being either nCr or CrCr).

Amber Eyes. It would be great if amber eyes had a direct baring on cream dilution, but whilst smokey blacks may often have amber eyes (if not always….) this is not the same as saying “All amber eyed animals are also dilutes… (The Trevallion mare (photo below), an obvious bay, fully illustrates this.

Another bit of bunkum: “If a grandsire was a buckskin, that might increase the odds for the non dilute sire and dam to produce a buckskin.” Absolutely not true. If neither the dam or sire possesses the dilute gene, there is absolutely 0% chance that the offspring will be anything other than black, bay or chestnut (again leaving grey aside for now). 

Personal Preferences
Personally I love all the single dilutes, whether its dark dapply buckskins, golden palominos or chocolatey dilute blacks, but I can’t honestly say I enjoy looking at the double dilutes quite as much, it’s just something about the pink I haven’t quite got the hang of yet.   BUT, I am very pleased that the WPCS does recognise the double dilutes as being pure bred and will register them to their appropriate sections. It is only very recently that some societies have finally started to accept the double dilutes as being eligible for registration!  There's no reason for any society to overide science these days is there!! 

Breeding for Colour
Nor do I think there is anything wrong with preferring one colour over another. I personally love bays, but that leaves me less likely to be sniffed at than saying that I prefer palominos or buckskins. But I would hope that every breeder continues to choose the most suitable stallion for their mares on the basis of something far higher up the list of importance than colour. The lighter the colour the greater the quality must be to compete on an equal footing with its darker counterparts. And if a foal is born double dilute this should not automatically qualify it to be good enough to breed from, but then again this should apply to all foals regardless of colour or breeding. I would hope that every breeder taking a mare to Janton Lightning does it because of the Janton stamp of a cob that he is, because of his fine pedigree and the amazing successes of his sire, Janton Meredith, (living out his days in indulged comfort at the Janton Stud) rather than simply because he is going to give you a palomino if its a chestnut mare that you took there.

In fact Janton Lightning is the only double dilute stallion at public stud on this page.**  Despite the very young age and it has to be said, as yet unproven qualities, of several of the colts on this page, the owners have turned down many requests from breeders already…. Terackie Stud have also chosen not to stand their stallion at public stud anymore for very sound reasons. 

** (Janton Philanderer, also on this page is also at public stud but he's a single dilute!)

UK BASED SITES OF INTEREST			USA BASED SITES OF INTEREST
Animal Genetics - Testing Centre			Animal Genetics - Testing Centre
Cremello Society			Cremello & Perlino Education  Association
Palomino Society

Many thanks to: 
Tanya and Jamie at Janton Stud, (page 674 of the 2008 Journal)
Kay Randell,Cynheidrefawr
Megan Jones, Tai Forgan
Tara Coppins,Taraco
Jackie McEwan,Terackie
Stefan Ysewyn, Ysewyn
Jo Mckavett, Maxcob
Jane Bugler, Davids Welsh Cobs
Kay Brydon, Balnecroft
Kris Gee, Oldeworlde
Heidi Hahn, Arvalon

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