Buckskin Horse: Coat Genetics and Breeding Odds
By Breedio team
In short
A buckskin is a bay horse carrying one copy of the cream gene. Learn how to tell it from a bay dun and which crosses give a buckskin foal.
A buckskin is a bay horse with one copy of the cream gene: a yellow to gold body with a black mane, tail and lower legs. Breed a buckskin to a horse that carries no cream and about half of the foals inherit the cream gene, but two buckskins can also produce a perlino, so check the cross before choosing a stallion.
This article belongs to the Breedio coat colour series. For the full picture of every gene, start with the horse coat colours guide.
What is a buckskin horse?
A buckskin has a tan, sandy, golden or dark yellow body, with black points: mane, tail, ear edges and lower legs. The skin is dark and the eyes are normally dark too. Shades vary a lot, from pale sand to a rich gold that is nearly bay, which is why buckskins are often mistaken for other colours.
Three things define the colour:
- The horse is black-based (at least one dominant E allele on the Extension gene).
- Agouti (A) restricts the black pigment to the points, which makes the horse a bay before dilution.
- One copy of the cream gene (Cr/n) dilutes the red areas of the coat to yellow, while the black points stay black.
What is the genetics of a buckskin?
The formula is simple: bay + one cream gene = buckskin. In genotype terms, a buckskin carries E/- (E/E or E/e), A/- (A/A or A/a) and Cr/n.
Cream is incompletely dominant, so the number of copies changes the result. The same cream gene gives a different coat depending on the base colour:
| Base coat | No cream (n/n) | One cream (Cr/n) | Two creams (Cr/Cr) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chestnut (e/e) | Chestnut | Palomino | Cremello |
| Bay (E/- A/-) | Bay | Buckskin | Perlino |
| Black (E/- a/a) | Black | Smoky black | Smoky cream |
One copy of cream mainly lightens red pigment, which is why the bay body turns yellow while the black points barely change. Two copies lighten everything: the coat turns cream, the skin turns pink and the eyes blue. You can read more about the palomino side in our palomino genetics article and about double dilutes in the cremello and perlino article.
How do you tell a buckskin from a bay dun?
Look for primitive markings. A buckskin has no primitive marks, while a dun, including a bay dun, always carries them. Dun is a separate dominant gene that lightens the body and leaves a distinct set of markings:
- a dorsal stripe running along the spine
- leg barring (horizontal dark stripes on the legs)
- shoulder bars (a faint transverse stripe over the withers)
A bay dun and a buckskin can look almost the same from a distance: yellowish body, black mane, tail and legs. Up close, the dorsal stripe is the quickest check. If the horse has a clear dark line down its back, it is a dun, not a cream dilute.
The two genes are independent. Dun needs only one copy and shows no dosage effect, according to the University of Kentucky Gluck Equine Research Center, and a horse can carry both dun and cream. That is why a DNA test is the only way to be certain when markings are faint. See our dun and grullo article for the details.
What are the buckskin's relatives: smoky black, perlino and others?
The same cream gene gives a family of colours depending on the base:
- Smoky black: a black horse with one cream gene. It often looks plain black, sometimes with a slightly rusty or faded tinge, so it is easy to miss.
- Perlino: a bay horse with two cream genes. The body is cream, the mane and tail are often a little darker, the skin is pink and the eyes blue.
- Smoky cream: a black horse with two cream genes, also cream-coloured with pink skin and blue eyes.
- Palomino and cremello: the chestnut equivalents, with one and two cream genes.
A smoky black matters in breeding because it looks black yet carries a cream gene that it can pass on. A breeder who only reads the coat can miss it.
Which crosses produce a buckskin foal?
The cream gene is inherited like any incompletely dominant gene: a Cr/n parent passes it to half of the foals, and a Cr/Cr parent always passes one copy. Whether the foal turns out buckskin or something else depends on the Extension and Agouti genes too. The table below assumes the bay or buckskin parent is homozygous for both (E/E A/A), which keeps the maths clean:
| Cross | Buckskin | Bay | Perlino | Other result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bay x palomino | 50% | 50% | 0% | none |
| Bay x cremello | 100% | 0% | 0% | none |
| Buckskin x chestnut (no cream) | 50% | 50% | 0% | none |
| Buckskin x buckskin | 50% | 25% | 25% | none |
| Buckskin x palomino | 50% | 25% | 25% | none |
| Buckskin x cremello | 50% | 0% | 50% | none |
In the real world, many bay horses are E/e or A/a, not E/E A/A. Then the foals can also be chestnut, palomino, black or smoky black. The table gives the best case, and a calculator is needed to work out your own pair.
Why can two buckskins produce a perlino or a cremello?
Because each buckskin carries one cream gene and passes it on half the time. Each foal receives a cream gene from the dam with a 1 in 2 chance and from the sire with a 1 in 2 chance. That gives a 1 in 4 chance of two cream genes (a perlino if the foal is bay-based), a 1 in 2 chance of one (a buckskin) and a 1 in 4 chance of none (a bay).
If one or both buckskins carry the chestnut allele (E/e), the same 25% double-cream foal can instead be a cremello, since a red-based foal with two creams is a cremello. A double dilute foal has blue eyes and pink skin, which can need extra sun and fly protection in summer.
A double-cream foal is healthy. If you want to avoid the double dilute, cross a buckskin to a horse without cream. If you want a foal that is always a cream dilute, cross a cremello or perlino to a horse without cream: every foal will carry exactly one cream gene.
What is the difference between genes and what the coat shows?
A coat never shows every gene. A chestnut hides Agouti, a grey hides everything under the grey, and a very pale buckskin can look like a palomino. That is why a calculator gives a range of possible coats, not one answer. Grandparents' coats narrow the range, and a DNA test confirms the genotype.
The coat on a horse's papers is a declaration, not a test. In France it is recorded by the SIRE/IFCE, and in Ireland by the studbook or passport issuer, so the recorded colour tells you what the horse looks like, not which genes it carries.
How do you estimate the odds for your own pair?
- Note the coat of the mare and the stallion, as seen today.
- Add the coats of their parents if you know them: this narrows the Extension and Agouti options.
- Add any DNA results you already have, for example a confirmed cream gene.
- Read the list of possible foal coats and their odds.
The Breedio foal coat colour calculator is free and runs in your browser. It covers Extension, Agouti, Cream, Champagne, Silver, Dun, Grey, Roan, Tobiano and Frame overo, gives the foal's possible adult coats with their odds, and warns about the lethal white (OLWS) risk. It does not cover brown, pearl, sabino, splash, the leopard complex or white markings.
Once the mare is in foal, you can follow her through the roughly 340 days of pregnancy with the Gestation Tracker, and find the rest of the tools on the tools page.
Key takeaways
- A buckskin is a bay with one cream gene (Cr/n); two cream genes make a perlino.
- A dorsal stripe, leg barring and shoulder bars mean dun, not buckskin.
- Buckskin x buckskin gives about 25% perlino, 50% buckskin and 25% bay in the best-case genotype.
- A smoky black can hide a cream gene under a black coat.
- A DNA test confirms what the coat only suggests.
