Palomino is one copy of the cream dilution (CR) with chestnut. Chestnut+Cream=Palomino.
The cream dilution lightens the red of the body to gold. The gold shade can vary from a dark gold to looking almost white. The shade can vary by age or season. The mane and tail are lightened to white or cream. The eyes and skin of palominos are dark.
Cream is a simple dominant so one parent must have a copy of the cream dilution in order for the offspring to inherit it. It can be any of the cream dilutes; palomino, buckskin, smoky cream, or double dilute. If a palomino foal is out of a non-dilute mare and the presumed sire isn't dilute either, that stallion isn't the sire. A palomino also has to be a chestnut, so both parents have to have chestnut either visible or carried recessively.
A palomino will statistically pass the cream dilution on to their offspring 50% of the time. A cream dilute will pass its one copy of cream about 50% of the time regardless of the other parent's color. A palomino x palomino cross will produce a palomino statistically 50% of the time. A palomino and a chestnut together can only have palomino and chestnut foals. Two palominos can only have chestnut, palomino, and cremello foals. It was an old assumption that a pony with a palomino parent or "a lot of palominos" in its pedigree means that it was more likely to produce one. This has been found to not be true, they either have cream or they don't.
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Light palomino tobiano in summer coat.
Lorna Dune (Don Leonard Stud x Jessica's Sea Star Sandy) Pedigree |
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Palomino tobiano. Was the last palomino in the Maryland Assateague herd.
Ninka (Nikita x Old Faithful) Pedigree |
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Solid palomino as a weanling and as an adult.
Shy and Sassy Sweet Lady Suede (Chief Golden Eagle x Pony Ladies' Sweet Surprise) Pedigree |
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Light palomino tobiano in winter coat.
Marina's Marsh Mallow (Tornado's Prince of Tides x 15 Friends of Freckles) Pedigree |
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Palomino tobiano. Sire is a chestnut tobiano and dam is a buckskin.
Misty III (Misty II's Henry x Little Beebe) Pedigree |
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Apparent palomino foals in 1927.
Ledger Star on July 30, 1927. |
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Palomino tobiano born in 1946.
Misty of Chincoteague (Pied Piper x Phantom) Pedigree Photo from the Pictorial Life Story of Misty. |
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Palomino mare and foal in 1948.
The Boston Globe on September 19, 1948. |