Favorite horse color

Olivia   December 13, 2014   Comments Off on Favorite horse color

12. Favorite horse color

This is a fun one as I really like horse colors. I’m fascinated by the genetics and the way the hairs create different colors. I used to have a book that explained by diagram how the hairs were structured to create different colors.  I can’t find it so here’s a website with cool microscope images of horse hairs of different colors.

Palomino hair under microscope

Before I get into my favorites, a quick note about colors I don’t like. My least favorite color is chestnut. I know you’re supposed to buy horses based on a ability and not color, but I just cannot own a chestnut. It took me a long time to find a mule that wasn’t chestnut.

Also, in case you were – quite logically given that I own two of them – thinking that I like palominos, you’d be wrong. It’s really not one of my favorite colors; I’ve just happened in to having two of them. I love the summer coat, but the winter coat is this terrible off-white sadness that is usually covered in mud as well.

Dijon in the summer – golden and gorgeous
Washed out  in the winter
I need to find a picture of him shaved as he looks nearly cremello when I clip him in the winter. 
Nilla is technically a pangare palomino. Pangare is described here. You can see her white belly in this gif.

Too fat to flip over

 Nilla also has a lot of roaning which is especially noticeable around the head.

Roaning (and candy canes)
She suffers from the same winter color issue as Dijon. The coat difference is a bit more dramatic with her as I got her in the winter and took a bunch of “look at my new mule” pictures. With Dijon, I must be subconsciously avoiding taking pictures of him all winter because I can’t find any.
Winter

Summer
I really like paints especially dark bay and white. My previous horse was pretty much my favorite coloring.
Boots with the fur…
I also like anything uniquely colored hence my wanting a Rocky Mountain Horse. I also love dapple grays. Long story short, if it’s not bay or chestnut, I probably want it.