Camarillo White Horse
A Camarillo White Horse
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| Country of origin | United States of America |
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| Traits | |
| Distinguishing features | Pure white, compact, muscular but refined build, clean-cut head, well arched neck. |
The Camarillo White Horse is a rare horse breed less than 100 years old known for its pure white color. It dates back to 1921, when Adolfo Camarillo, one of the last Californios, purchased a 9-year-old stallion named Sultan at the California State Fair in Sacramento. The California White horse was owned and bred by the Camarillo family until the death of Adolfo Camarillo’s daughter Carmen in 1987.
The Camarillo White Horse is known for its pure white color, which includes pink skin under the white hair coat. Unlike a gray horse that is born dark and lightens as it gets older, Camarillo White horses are white from birth and remain white throughout their lives.
The breed is not only a color breed. It has other distinctive physical characteristics, including a compact and refined build. They are known to have strong limbs, an expressive face, large eyes, well-defined withers, laid back shoulders and a well-arched neck.
True white is a very difficult and rare color to achieve, as statistically there is only a 50% chance of producing living white offspring from any given mating, regardless of the color of the other parent. This is because of an unusual characteristic of the white "W" gene. Although it is a dominant gene, it is lethal when homozygous (WW), and such foals die in the womb. This means that all living true white horses are heterozygous (Ww) for the gene. Thus, when a white horse (Ww) is bred to a non-white (ww) horse, there is a 50% chance of producing white and a 50% chance of producing a non-white horse.
When two white horses (Ww) are bred to one another, there is a 50% chance of producing a living white horse (Ww), a 25% chance of producing a non-white horse (ww), but also a 25% chance of producing a dead foal (WW). The W gene is dominant: if a horse carries the gene it will be white and conversely, if the horse is not white, it does not carry the white gene, and thus and cannot produce white offspring if bred to another non-white horse. Breeders of true white horses generally cross them on non-white horses, as the statistical probability of a white foal is the same with no risk of producing a WW foal. However, because there are different genetics involved, Camarillo White horses do not carry the genes for Lethal white syndrome.
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