Horse only likes certain colour horses

puli

puli

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hi,

My mare only likes bay horses, if another horse of another colour goes anywhere near her she will kick and is just horrid to them. Even when she is in season she will only flirt with the geldings that are bay and if another gelding that's is not bay comes near her when she is season she kicks off, and she really hates coloured horses.

I have never ever heard of another horse doing this before has anyone else?
 
I have, a friends horse he was liver chestnut and would eat a coloured for dinner! Was fine with all others..
 
OHs horse was fine with all colours, until one day a grey ran into him in the collecting ring. Was worried about other grey horses forever more, although he was good enough to still get on with his job.
 
My horses like horses that are the same colour as their fieldmates . I have a coloured and my other horses will neigh at and pull towards other coloured horses when out at shows. I had a youngster who fell in love with my coloured, I took him and my coloured out to a hunter trial once and I was jumping pairs with another rider on a coloured horse. When my youngster saw two colours next to each other he started shaking he was that excited! My coloured loves my buckskin mare, and he is fond of any other buckskin he sees. They don't hate other colours though.
 
Mine likes other horses generally but when it comes to mares he has a definite preference for blondes and redheads, at one yard he was obsessed with a palomino mare and used to gaze after her longingly wherever she went.
 
There is some limited evidence to suggest that stallions show a preference for mares that are the same colour as their mother but it is outdated.

I'd be very surprised if this is a genuine effect and not something you are perceiving because you have become accustomed to the idea. There is absolutely no reason a horse would use colour as a defining feature. The ancestors of horses were all the same colour and we don't know what features horses use to recognise other individuals (though they definitely do use SOMETHING) besides voice. We know for sure that a horse can match a voice to a body/face but no more than that. For all we know they are using each other's belly, ears or hoof shape... Also horses do not see colours like we do. They will be able to see black/white but browns will likely look greenish to them and who knows how distinct a bay is to a chestnut for them. They may not think of manes as distinct features like we do and think of muzzles as more distinct (most horses have black muzzles - but some have pink - maybe that's what interests a horse more).

So I wouldn't assume that this is what's going on... I've heard of many stories like this but I always put it down to owners seeing things that aren't there. Horses have excellent memories and recognise individuals... This would be akin to you disliking all people with blue eyes because you had a bad experience with one... And while both humans and horses are capable of generalisations to a point, horses (and most other animals for that matter because it is an"advanced" cognitive ability) are much less inclined to do it than people (think of how a horse will be happy jumping one way but will refuse over the same jump going in the opposite direction!).

So I suggest this is sheer coincidence.
 
My mare wickers at anything coloured. Don't know if she'll do it now her coloured friend sadly died but she used to always do it when away from him. :( :)
 
The colour she hates the most or coloureds but I read somewhere that horses don't like coloured horses because they look different. She also hates horses that are wearing fly masks and if on a hack she will not walk past a horse wearing one. You might be right I always said she dislikes certain colour horses because of a past experince
 
My grey mare definately only likes other greys. She instantly likes them, even if they don't like her. She trusts them completely,. She is very wary and untrusting of all other colours. God help them if they walk too close to her stable. Happens every time we've moved or had a new horse arrive. She knows what she likes.
 
We have a Fell pony gelding that doesn't bother about other mares but behaves like a stallion if there is a black mare in the field with him. He should know better at his age, he's 26. Dirty old man.
 
My first pony used to go mad squealing and striking out if a coloured horse came anywhere near him, but would approach/follow any grey or palomino in a friendly manner. He has mellowed now in his old age but is still not keen on coloured horses and won't allow them straight into his space if he doesn't know them well, but doesn't mind other colours.
 
Barnacle said:
There is some limited evidence to suggest that stallions show a preference for mares that are the same colour as their mother but it is outdated.

I'd be very surprised if this is a genuine effect and not something you are perceiving because you have become accustomed to the idea. There is absolutely no reason a horse would use colour as a defining feature. The ancestors of horses were all the same colour and we don't know what features horses use to recognise other individuals (though they definitely do use SOMETHING) besides voice. We know for sure that a horse can match a voice to a body/face but no more than that. For all we know they are using each other's belly, ears or hoof shape... Also horses do not see colours like we do. They will be able to see black/white but browns will likely look greenish to them and who knows how distinct a bay is to a chestnut for them. They may not think of manes as distinct features like we do and think of muzzles as more distinct (most horses have black muzzles - but some have pink - maybe that's what interests a horse more).

So I wouldn't assume that this is what's going on... I've heard of many stories like this but I always put it down to owners seeing things that aren't there. Horses have excellent memories and recognise individuals... This would be akin to you disliking all people with blue eyes because you had a bad experience with one... And while both humans and horses are capable of generalisations to a point, horses (and most other animals for that matter because it is an"advanced" cognitive ability) are much less inclined to do it than people (think of how a horse will be happy jumping one way but will refuse over the same jump going in the opposite direction!).

So I suggest this is sheer coincidence.
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I would agree, and think it were due to the rider, but with Charlie he had a mishap in a collecting ring with a grey horse while I was riding him. We were passing left to left with another horse, that went silly, turned into us and knocked Charlie into the fence. He had always been fine with other horses, and I did not think he would be any different.

I did tell OH about it, and so I guess if he had done it with me or OH you could think it was us worrying about it, even though we did not expect any reaction (Charles was very steady and reliable). BUT, we did not tell our friend who also sometimes competed him, and he happened to be the next person in a collecting ring with Charlie, and the dratted horse was silly at 2 grey horses, which were not the same one as had crashed into him. So, not recognising bellies or hooves or whatever. The poor man could not fathom it, as Charles had always been Beginner safe, and the man was a novice rider.

After that we had to take him ourselves, just a few outings to empress upon him that, grey horse or not, he had to comply. Charles was obedient, and complied, but never was 100% with grey horses, just obedient.

So, as the person commonly took him to collecting rings, and did not even know there had been a problem, and was astonished at the unusual aversion to grey horses..... I don't think it was the rider's influence.

The same horse was also 100% in traffic, until one day an artic steered it's cab round him, sadly the trailer did not go round him exactly, and he ended up scrabbling UNDER the trailer while it was moving. It was only crawling, and Charlie was not injured, but he remembered. He was never 100% again with BIG vehicles, but was obedient and once he was informed that skeddadling on the road was not allowed he would merely squeeze his nostrils and put his ears back. I guess he was discriminating on vehicles too, as vans, cars, tractors etc were still fine.
 
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My previous horse - an Anglo Arab, HATED Appaloosas. I have no idea why, but he was hateful to the one he shared a field with and they had to be separated. The owners of the Appy, also had a Dalmatian who once tried to steal his food and he really went for him and bit him between the shoulder blades. I felt quite bad, but the dog never went near him again! He was always very good with dogs and had a great relationship with ours, but he obviously hates spotted things!!
 
My mare was bullied by a chestnut in the paddock. The chestnut used to trap the other horses into the corner and kick and bite them. Since then she has been very nervous around chestnuts. This hasn't been helped by another chestnut that ran into us in a collecting ring.
It is not down to the rider as she gets anxious and tight when other people ride her and there are chestnuts around.
 
My very temperamental grey mare does seem to have a "type" when it comes to other horses. She is the sort that has been known to absolutely hate other horses, to the point that she can't go in the field with them as she will chase them out! She seems to favour grey mares (I don't know if that's because she herself is grey) and chestnut geldings. It's very odd, and actually very noticeable! She instantly adored a chestnut Arab gelding that she was turned out with several years ago, and my sister's chestnut gelding very quickly became her favourite thing in the world when she first met him. They were stabled next to each other, and normally she hates horses in the stable next to each other (she will attack the side of the stable if she can see a horse through contact bars etc). Yet she immediately loved this horse. With other mares, she usually keeps herself to herself but formed very close bonds with two different grey Arab mares that she was turned out with. I'm not sure if that was because they were grey or Arab or both (as a grey Arab mare herself, I wonder if she just likes the familiar).
 
My mare took an instant dislike to a new horse on the yard, which was totally out of character for her as she would actually go up to new field buddies, greet them and show them around then graze with them until they had settled. But this one, it was ears back and horrible faces at every opportunity and I don't know why as he was a nice older chap who was very easy going. I did wonder if it was his markings - he had a good dose of heavy in him and had a broad white blaze. Interestingly though, one time for Comic Relief I dressed up as Miss Whiplash which included a very long black wig and some of the fathers at the yard asked me to stay in costume and they would give me a donation. I whistled to my mare in the field as I got out of my car and it was clear that she was utterly perplexed that this person who didn't look like her mum should call her in our special way and she was actually quite wary of me until I took the wig off (I had short blonde hair at the time). I also used to ride a canny little pony who could definitely tell the difference between jeans and jods and used this to dictate how easy he was going to be to catch!
 
When I was young I used to work at a riding school which had around 30 horses. I always used to wonder why there were never any greys or coloureds. One day I asked the owner and she told me that the herd would round on and kill any new horse if it was grey or coloured. I think one or two of them must obviously have been very racist!
 
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