Palomino Horse

The Palomino is a color breed and therefore the animals are registered based on possessing specific coloring, rather than physical characteristics.

Origins

Palomino coloring comes from a single cream dilution gene on an animal with a chestnut base coat. This dilutes the coat from creamy tan to a deep almost liver color, a mid-tone golden color being perhaps the most known. Mane and tail hairs are diluted to anything from a cream to white color. The cream dilution gene doesn’t occur in all breeds and can generally be achieved by crossing a chestnut with a palomino.

This coloring has been documented in horses for centuries in all parts of the world, however the US is the first to create a registry specifically for them. How this color came to be called Palomino is a mystery, however it did come from Spain, whether through a family of golden horse breeders or from the name of a golden Spanish grape. (Although it is called Isabella in Spain after the Queen Isabella.)