Are horses colour-ist?

MrsElle

MrsElle

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Just a random musing, but I have noticed that my three gingers tend to stick together, and my bay is almost always by herself.

A neighbour has three piebalds and a black, the black is always by himself.....

Is this just coincidence, or if one horse is a different colour to the majority do the other horses 'know' and tend to stick with the horses the same colour as themselves?
 
No idea! But in my little herd the 2 coloureds tend to groom each other, the 2 bays pair up, & the dun tends to pair up with me. I keep thinking of buying her a dun buddy so she isn't left out, but the rest of the time they all mingle together. Think with my lot its more to do with herd hierarchy though, as the bays are at the bottom, coloured in middle, & dun shares top spot with me!
 
This made me smile, one of my palominos when out likes and shouts to palominos and greys, he unfortunately seems to dislike (teeth and back end proven!) certain colour combinations! A friend has a grey that doesn't like chestnuts! (not really sure why?)
 
my tb used to spook at colored horses! life on a racing yard i guess he never saw them! but he is now great friends with a tiny colored Shetland.
 
This is interesting!

A little bit off topic, but i used to keep discus fish and they hang out with fish of the same colour usually :)
 
We have a black Fell gelding that goes mad over black mares. Totally in lurve and quite an embarrassment at his venerable age. None of the others have any preferences.
 
Perhaps it's something to do with the dam's colour?

Not sure why they would dislike certain colours although I know of a stallion who would not cover grey mares and I was asked to move my leopard spot appy to a different warm up arena at a show because someone's bay had an absolute nervous breakdown at the sight of him.
 
I'm glad it's not just mine :D

The gingers aren't nasty to the bay, she just seems to be happy to graze well away from them. Before I got the shetland I was told she was a loner, happy by herself, but she is joined at the hip to the 17hh, and grooms the other chestnut happily - perhaps the Shetland was the odd one out colourwise in her previous home!
 
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Er, no, they're not - that's just silly. But I did have an otherwise sensible cob who had a nervous meltdown at the sight of a miniature.........
 
Cortez said:
Er, no, they're not - that's just silly. But I did have an otherwise sensible cob who had a nervous meltdown at the sight of a miniature.........
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Omg me too! When I moved to my new yard my cob used to snort at the miniature! Even after seeing him hundreds of times in the last few months, he looks at him like he's an alien! Haha
 
My (light bay) ISH gelding has a preference for black mares. He has shared his field with various mares over the years, but his three favourites have been black. They seem to like him too. His current "lead mare" just arrived 4 weeks ago and it was love at first sight. I often wonder if his dam was black.

He's fine with any colour of gelding pal, just seems to have this instant attraction to black mares.
 
My mare is coloured and was a brood mare before being backed. At a show last year we entered the brood mare class and another mare had a coloured foal at foot. Mine clearly thought it was hers, kept calling to it and trying to get to it! She also seems to be attracted to other coloured horses.
 
My mare is grey - she hates other light coloured horses! Is indifferent to blacks/bays but loves chestnuts/duns!

Don't get me wrong she can go in the field with other greys but she wont graze near them etc, and she squares up to full blown fights when tied up next to my yard owners few spot appaloosa - they absolutely hate each other!
 
My old mare was terrified of coloureds, she was fine with them if they had full neck rugs on, take them off and she would freak and run away, but she was also terrified of cows and bright coloured things. So I put it down to the fact they are 2 contrasting colours.
 
My pony dislikes chestnuts that she doesn't know getting too close when being ridden! Fine with chestnuts she knows and any other colour can be almost on top of her and she takes no notice, but if it's a chestnut she will kick!
 
Mine was obsessed with chestnut geldings for a while, as she was in loooooove with my friends. She would bounce about, squeal, snort you name it until she could go up and investigate the horse and see who it was. After my friends boy kicked her though, she now hates chestnuts with a passion:eek:
 
My piebald cob has only taken a dislike to 2 ponies in 16 yrs. Both were coloured, one bay and white and one piebald but I think that is just coincidence and on both occasions it was just him asserting himself and he soon got over it although the initial reaction was quite extreme for him.
He'll happily accept my miniature into the group unlike my tb who initially wanted to kill him :D
I'm not convinced colour is an issue as such but maybe they are just instinctively attracted to similar looking animals
 
Years ago when I worked at a large riding school and hunting yard, we could never put a grey or coloured in with the main herd as they would kill it.
 
Cortez said:
That's very interesting!
Click to expand...

I find it fascinating too. They can't see red (so chestnuts wont look 'chestnut' to them) so in a way they have traded better colour vision for more black and white vision (having fewer cones means they can have more rods). Therefore that they can see better in low light. Plus they have tapetums (like cats) that reflects what little light there is back, thus improving low light vision even more.

I once read about a night time SJ competition - the horses apparently jumped really well, but the poor riders found it really frightening! ;)
 
Neither of mine seem to mind or prefer a certain colour but, my TB does make a play for tall, dark coloured geldings when she's in season - but they have to be well bred - TB or Warmblood type - wouldn't look at hairy boys :)
 
They can't see red but as Criso said they can still differentiate as red will be greenish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equine_vision

I have a strong suspicion that preferences are based on the dam's color. Lots of chestnut geldings are in love with my chestnut mare. She generally doesn't care much but likes bay geldings and her dam was bay. She can also recognize individual horses she hasn't seen for a year.
 
I had a brown/bay mare that hated palominos and would try to kick them if at a show, and that happened on several occasions so it wasn't just one horse that upset her. If I was in a collecting ring with one she would edge closer and closer until within firing range. After the first time I had to be aware of this and make sure she didn't get close enough to try. (Luckily there was no contact as I realised what was happening and moved her away, although it naturally upset the horse's rider). She was OK with other horses although nervous of any coming towards her. She was OK with grey and coloured horses though.
 
I haven't noticed any particular colour preference wrt Kal, but at a previous yard there was a lovely horse (big, black shire cross) who really liked the three greys (who were all in a field together) and would hang over the fence to groom them, etc. despite having two others (both bay) in with him.

P
 
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