This post first appeared on January 6, 2012
Here is one more interesting horse with pale skin, this time an appaloosa. Like the amber champagne mare from a few days ago, her skin is quite consistently pink. Here is a close-up of her face.

She has the small freckles often associated with champagnes, but the area behind her eye has the patchy skin coloring more typical of an appaloosa. Although most appaloosas have patchy skin, rather than freckled pink skin, there are individuals that look like this mare.

It may be that she is also a champagne as well as an appaloosa. She was squinting in almost every shot I took, and I never was able to get a good look at her eye color before she was gone. This poor photo doesn’t give a clear idea. Her body color is in keeping with what might be seen on a champagne, but with the appaloosa gene influencing the appearance of her skin it is hard to be sure. Even if she is a champagne, this kind of skin coloring can be found on appaloosas that are clearly not champagne. It isn’t really common, but it does occur.