For The Love Of Palominos

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Who doesn’t love the look of the Palomino?  With their golden coats and blonde manes, the Palomino is one of the most beautiful all around horses.  I should know, I have one and have fallen in love with her!

Let’s look at the Palomino… First of all, there might be a few things you didn’t know about this horse.

  • Close to 50% of all Palominos are Quarter Horses.  Mine is a full blood Quarter horse.  She stands about 15 hands, is 16 years old and is pretty high spirited.
  • Palomino refers to the color of the horse.  Many think it is a breed, but that is not so.  It is a color.
  • The Palomino can change colors.  My Palomino gets very dark in the summer and her mane turns almost white.  And then in the winter, her color fades and her dapples come out.
  • The Palomino was once reserved for royalty.
  • The coloring of a Palomino horse is created with a chestnut base coat and with a single allele of a “cream” dilution gene. A horse cannot be a true Palomino without those two genes. There are different coat colorings that appear similar to a Palomino, but they are  not a true Palomino.
You can see how the color changes in the winter a little lighter and the dapples come out
This is Duke. He is a lighter Palomino and his color doesn’t really change all year!
Here is a Chocolate Palomino color (Pinterest)

Here is my Sandi. This was taken in October, so she was losing her color.

Here is my Sandi. Strutting her stuff for a magazine photo shoot!

Another photo of her in the summer.  She gets that dark blonde with light mane.

Summer look. Full blonde.
Here I am riding her in the early spring. Still the lighter color and dapples.

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