Horses - how much extra would you pay for a certain colour?

JT - this is the pony for you. :D

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I do like a good chestnut. :) Plus with all the silly chestnut mare negativity, you can sometimes get alot of horse for your money.

Never understood that. I set out to breed one from my gorgeous chestnut mare. When she was born, I got a call from the stud, which started 'you're one of the few mare owners I know who'd be pleased to hear this but you have a chestnut filly'. I had guessed the foal would be chestnut as the father was chestnut. The filly bit was a bonus. :)
 
For me... no.

I know that chestnut and isabel command higher prices in PRE because they are fairly rare genes, but personally I wouldn't pay extra for them ;)

btw, chestnut (fox) friesians do exist, because the colour black has been selectively bred, not all horses are homozygous for black, consequently chestnuts do pop up occasionally ;)

quick google search

My Mérens is black because that is the only colour allowed in the stud book. they re allowed a small star, but no other markings (of course mine has to have a small snip too - but I'm hoping it will shed out with his foal coat :eek: )
 
yes, if its what I like. It would still have to have good confirmation and be able to do what I wanted it to do. I wouldn't buy one just cos it was a pretty colour, but I would be prepared to pay more to get one that was a pretty colour and ticked all the other boxes. But I include a nice bright bay in my list of pretty colours along with duns and spots pass on coloured, chestnuts, greys dark bays, and blacks (show the dust too much). Think horses are just like everything else - we all like different things and put a value to what its worth.
 
As a breeder I can sell a palomino more easily than I can a chestnut or bay of similar breeding, therefore I would price the solid chestnut/bay etc lower than market price to sell.

I am expecting a chestnut (or chestnut Paint) this year from my Paint mare, purely because statistically I am due one. It will be a full sibling to the palomino colts but I won't get the interest, or the money for it if it is a solid chestnut purely because solid chestnuts are two a penny, although if it has a big white face and high whites then it will attract more enquiries than a solid chestnut with a boring old star, regardless of conformation and breeding - to the ordinary man on the street.
A chestnut Paint, if it is well marked will sell as well as a palomino, and a palomino Paint will sell better than any of them, can you really blame me if I mark the price up a bit? We all try to get the best price we can when selling if we are honest.

When I am buying? I am only interested in dilutes or Paints of certain bloodlines if I want a certain mare then I'll pay for her.
 
We have had a variety of funny coloured horses and none were more expensive than the others!!

Milo is an apricot dun, which I've never ever seen before! He was tuppence at market!!!
Emma, his mother, was golden dun and she was cheap as chips!
Dorey was grey with blood marks, added nothing to her worth (the fact she was hogged added a lot though!)
We also now have River who is a bay Sabino (would love to know what colour Dorey had under her grey!!!!)... but she's priceless, so no amount of colour will add to her worth!
 
Mine is an unusual colour but I wouldn't use that as his selling point!

Couldn't care less what colour they were if they did the job I wanted, so no wouldn't pay more!
 
I prefer certain colours (chestnut, roan, dun, buckskin, tricoloureds and black) but wouldn't pay more. I think fashionble colours do sell more easily though.

I'm not keen on dark bays with no white on them, palominos's, piebalds or grey's, however if the horse does the job I want it for then I wouldn't necessarily turn it down due to it's colour either.

But colour is something I do factor in when buying to a limited extent.
 
I must be boring as owner of 4 Cleveland bays.. No guessing my preference!

Also owner of a grey, a mostly dun with a splash of white on her shoulders with stockings and this.... (no idea what to categorise his pattern as other than Appaloosa, doesn't seem classically blanket - any suggestions?)

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I wouldn't pay more personally for colour, but people do. My grandfather used to buy and sell and the roans/appaloosas/palomino's etc always sold well.
 
You might all not pay more for a specific colour, but there are a LOT of people who will. I sold a nice dun (buckskin) horse last summer - no world beater but a smart, safe horse nonetheless. The phone rang off the hook for him, and the number of people who 'only wanted a dun' was unreal! I priced him at what I considered was top whack for a 6yo that had done a bit but was still green (though bombproof to hack!), and did not travel alone. I could have sold him ten times over, and he went within 3 days to the first person who came to see him, and she traveled 5 hours.

If I had space/money, I'd get a dun again to sell on, it was much easier than trying to sell my novice event horse who had N points and will take anyone half decent round a N track. I still have him..... :rolleyes:
 
You might all not pay more for a specific colour, but there are a LOT of people who will. I sold a nice dun (buckskin) horse last summer - no world beater but a smart, safe horse nonetheless. The phone rang off the hook for him, and the number of people who 'only wanted a dun' was unreal! I priced him at what I considered was top whack for a 6yo that had done a bit but was still green (though bombproof to hack!), and did not travel alone. I could have sold him ten times over, and he went within 3 days to the first person who came to see him, and she traveled 5 hours.

If I had space/money, I'd get a dun again to sell on, it was much easier than trying to sell my novice event horse who had N points and will take anyone half decent round a N track. I still have him..... :rolleyes:

I do find it slightly amusing that people are so keen to say they won't pay extra for a specific colour.

I'm more than happy to be honest and say that more than likely I would pay a premium for colour/markings that I find attractive. For me that is a good deep rich solid dark colour (liver, black, v dark bay) and with some attractive, even but not excessive white markings.

Ironically I would run a mile from spotties, roans, couloured etc
 
I must admit I do like coloureds and spotties, but I have never purposely gone out to buy them they seem to find me. Since I only hack out and do the odd funride I look for safe types, then I have my field ornament ponies who are here because they fell out of the sky into my fields (not sure if my hubby has discovered I do lie a bit).
When I decided to breed from the best hacking mare I have ever owned, I sent her to an appiano. When I went looking for stallions I obviously looked at confo and temprement, and looked at alsorts of colours. I did hope that between the two of them I would have a coloured foal since they were both coloured parents and also spots on the stallion. I got a chestnut filly !...although she has spotted out and roaning.
Was I disapointed that my filly appeared at birth to be a solid chestnut, no I was just happy I got a filly as I do prefer mares. When she started to spot out that was just an added bonus.
 
I do find it slightly amusing that people are so keen to say they won't pay extra for a specific colour.

I'm more than happy to be honest and say that more than likely I would pay a premium for colour/markings that I find attractive. For me that is a good deep rich solid dark colour (liver, black, v dark bay) and with some attractive, even but not excessive white markings.

Ironically I would run a mile from spotties, roans, couloured etc

See, while I prefer dark colours with minimal white markings, I would not turn my nose up at a fancy coloured horse if it was right for me in every way and the right price, I just wouldn't go out looking for a fancy colour and I certainly wouldn't pay extra for colour, 'cause there are many far more important things about a horse. In addtion to that, my horse buying budget has never been generous, so I couldn't pay a premium for the 'right' colour even if I wanted to. But, it is quite obvious that there are many people out there who will set out to buy a horse of a particular colour and are quite happy to pay for it.
 
I'd never pay over the odds or put one horse above another because of its colour/markings/eye colour ect. I have preferences in colours but i would always put personality/ability over colour. I do know people especially people who show that will go way over price and give huge offers for horses purely because of their colour or markings though.
 
A seller once tried to imply to me that there was a premium on a dun horse as it was such a practical colour as it didn't show the dirt! I had to laugh as the horse was rather overpriced already.

I do love the funky colours...had a fjord x who was basically a NF with a fjord's colouring (very cute) and now I have a varnish roan appaloosa. But they are both very nice ponies to handle and ride, beyond the colour!
 
It is a very difficult job as a breeder when you breed beautiful horses that dont come out in the colour that your potential buyers want, we had this happen last year two stunning fillies born chesnut not coloured and we sold them for a great deal less then they would have sold for had they been born coloured we had 3 buyers waiting for coloured foals we missed out badly.
We also bred Homozygous for Tobiano we sold one as a foal for a good fair price 13 months later he re sells for a five figure sum! because he was Homozygous for Tobano and Black and his bloodlines were very rare only three in the world, Its hard on breeders at the moment so you have to try to produce outstanding horses that are different from everyones elses, we are lucky we breed colour in to the TB its new exciting and different and Fun! and I have seen a coloured yearlng by I was framed go for £11 Guineas and another yearling same stallion go for £2 Guineas now that tells you what the market want!
 
I never used to like coloureds but I went to see a horse for loan to with view to buy,which was a part arab x cob with spindly legs,definatly was not for me then I saw this beautiful coloured horse in the field,woman said he wasnt for sale,Guess what. I bought him off her.lol Hes a peibald but has some spots around his patches lol

I find coloureds expensive.I also have a grey section A mare.
 
Conformation and Character ahead of Colour, any day.
That being said, I'd pay over the odds for a jet-black Arab mare.... had one as a kid, and she was that sort of black that is almost blue (and a gorgeous personality, too).
(goes back to daydreaming about owning Arabs again....:)
 
I do find it slightly amusing that people are so keen to say they won't pay extra for a specific colour.

Why? Some people just want horses for allrounders, so it doesn't matter a hoot whether they are beautifully marked or an 'unusual' colour... Temperament, conformation, soundness... I'm afraid colour isn't even on the list for me :D
 
Hmmm, interesting. I must admit I used a heterozygous coloured last year and was secretly disappointed not to get a coloured (of course I'd never breed for colour).

BUT I have never met/ridden a bad Dun and I might pay extra for that (just like I'd never, ever buy another chestnut as have defo got 3 T-shirts on that one). If there was any way of producing a palo from my injured but georgeous broody, I'd probably pay a premium for semen for that too.

Horses for courses I suppose :)
 
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