I hate "i hate chestnuts"

[XxhorzezxX]

I really dont understand these people who wont breed horses from chestnut horses and are dissapointed when a chestnut foal is born it just buggs me .its racism!!!does any one agree???

 

[tinkandlily]

Oh yes, it bugs me to, i love chestnuts.
Most horses i see nowadays are bay, so i'd have thought people would be more disapointed with getting a bay foal.

It'll be interesting to see others opinions.

 

[Hen]

I agree - but then I am completely addicted to my orangies . It's just a colour. I'm much more interested in pedigree, mind and heart.

 

[3DE]

It has actually been proven that the ginger gene causes neuroses in animals. Particularly horses and dogs - think red setters.

 

[Chestnuttymare]

I have a chestnut mare and i love the colour, she is irridescent in the sunshine. Nothing shines like a chestnut. No idea why people wouldn't want one.

 

[SkyBlue]

I personally don't care what colour my horse is. I have a coloured and know many people who don't like them. As long as my horse is the right horse for me then what does it matter what colour it is? And I agree there are so many bays out there, my last boy was a bay and when looking across the big field it was difficult to spot which one was him! What's wrong with chestnuts?

 

[Echo Bravo]

Have had 4 chestnuts in my life 3 mares, mother and 2 daughters and 1 gelding and I've also had 1 skewbald, 2 deep liver chestnuts, 1 dark brown and 1 light bay and 1 bay roan and 1 black and they've been as differant as chalk and cheese, so colour means nothing temperment wise and I'm talking over a 40 year period.

 

[LadyRascasse]

the colour of the horse doesn't dictate its personality, i love gingers but i would rather have a nice personality than a specific colour any day

 

[Hen]

It has actually been proven that the ginger gene causes neuroses in animals. Particularly horses and dogs - think red setters.

Sorry, I realise that I am remarkably non-scientific but I find that hilarious - how can a colour gene 'cause' neurosis - I agree that it can be present but to be the cause is a bit of a stretch?? I can't think singularly of red setters because I haven't got a breed of blonde setters or brunettes to compare them against. And if that is the case, how come the dominant colour of one of the most trainable and least neurotic equine breeds in the world, the Quarter Horse, is sorrel - or red?

But maybe I'm biased, I'm a ginger after all )

 

[GeeGeeboy]

Gingers rule!!!

 

[polopony]

I can honestly say that i'd be happy to have any colour horse, naturally we all have favourites, but i don't understand how someone can dislike a particular colour.
P.s chestnuts ftw

 

[SusannaF]

Yes, goodness! Just LOOK at this neurotic chestnut mare...

 

[DipseyDeb]

Chestnuts rule!!!

 

[3DE]

Sorry, I realise that I am remarkably non-scientific but I find that hilarious - how can a colour gene 'cause' neurosis - I agree that it can be present but to be the cause is a bit of a stretch?? I can't think singularly of red setters because I haven't got a breed of blonde setters or brunettes to compare them against. And if that is the case, how come the dominant colour of one of the most trainable and least neurotic equine breeds in the world, the Quarter Horse, is sorrel - or red?

But maybe I'm biased, I'm a ginger after all )

It's linked to a lower pain tolerance due to naturally lower levels of vitamin K. I can't find the exact article now but there is a little in wiki about it...

"The unexpected relationship of hair color to pain tolerance appears to be because redheads have a mutation in a hormone receptor that can apparently respond to at least two different hormones: the skin pigmentation hormone melanocyte-stimulating hormone, and the pain relieving hormone known as endorphins. (These hormones are both derived from the same precursor molecule, POMC, and are structurally similar.) Specifically, redheads have a mutated MC1R gene, which produces a mutated MC1R receptor, also known as the melanocortin-1 receptor.[42] Melanocytes, which are cells that produce pigment in skin and hair, use the MC1R receptor to recognize and respond to melanocyte-stimulating hormone from the anterior pituitary gland. Melanocyte-stimulating hormone normally stimulates melanocytes to make black eumelanin, but if the melanocytes have a mutated MC1R receptor, they will make reddish pheomelanin instead. The MC1R receptor also occurs in the brain, where it is one of a large set of POMC-related receptors that are apparently involved not only in responding to MSH, but also in responses to endorphins and possibly other POMC-derived hormones.[42] Though the details are not clearly understood, it appears that there is some "cross talk" between the POMC hormones that may explain the link between red hair and pain tolerance."

Genes can make us 'predisposed' to something. It doesn't mean it will definitely happen, but it will happen more often than in someone without the gene...

 

[Pebbles]

I too love chestnuts and really hope my new horse will turn out to be another chestnut but would only ever buy according to temperament, but cannot imagine how anyone could not love a shiny chestnut coat with white markings!!!

 

[flying solo]

It has actually been proven that the ginger gene causes neuroses in animals. Particularly horses and dogs - think red setters.

This would explain my ex OH and 3YO daughter

 

[showqa]

One of my horses is a 6 year old, Wetherby's registered TB, chestnut mare - all the "nos" of buying a horse. She is utterly gorgeous and hasn't put a foot wrong, with the sweetest temperament I've encountered in a mare. She can be a little feisty at times, but only to an extent that gives her some character and potential. She came to me in poor condition one way and another, but I can tell you that every week her beauty shines out even more. I'm utterly smitten with her!

 

[Gemmasfa]

This would explain my ex OH and 3YO daughter

ha ha was just going to say the same!

 

[Hen]

It's linked to a lower pain tolerance due to naturally lower levels of vitamin K. I can't find the exact article now but there is a little in wiki about it...

"Though the details are not clearly understood, it appears that there is some "cross talk" between the POMC hormones that may explain the link between red hair and pain tolerance."

Genes can make us 'predisposed' to something. It doesn't mean it will definitely happen, but it will happen more often than in someone without the gene...

That's very interesting - thanks for posting that, I wasn't aware of the vitamin K/pain tolerance equation. Worth investigating! I agree that genes can make us and all creatures predisposed to things and totally agree with your view that certain genes can raise the probability stakes, it's a fascinating area.

But such a shame that it leads to 'catch-all' labelling. But such is life I suppose!!

 

[3DE]

That's very interesting - thanks for posting that, I wasn't aware of the vitamin K/pain tolerance equation. Worth investigating! I agree that genes can make us and all creatures predisposed to things and totally agree with your view that certain genes can raise the probability stakes, it's a fascinating area.

But such a shame that it leads to 'catch-all' labelling. But such is life I suppose!!

Red heads also show susceptability to Warfarin (and anticoagulant) as the antidote to overdose is vitamin K, low natural levels will mean that it works easier. There's also supposed to be a predisposition to bleeding and bruising.

So do any of the redheads on here have particularly spectacular bruises?

 

[natalia]

Lol, I've never ever ever really "clicked" with a bright chestnut horse! And I must have ridden thousands by now! The only proper chestnut (and by this I don't mean any liver chestnut or those with flaxen mane and tail) I can ever say I've actually really enjoyed riding was a little chestnut hackney gelding who was a real feisty super star and would jump anything. I do think that the bright orange ones are a bit more neurotic than other colours and we certainly have several on the yard who def are, they seem to be much more stressy, prone to accidents, colic etc. than the other colours so maybe the low pain threshold thing is right.

 

[rhino]

So do any of the redheads on here have particularly spectacular bruises?

Yes, I bruise very easily and quite spectacularly! Being so pale (a true Scottish redhead) means they show up even more too!

However, neither the ginger pony or I are stressy in any way (both v.v. laid back) and we both have stupidly high pain thresholds...

 

[TallyHo123]

I agree. I love my ginger boy

 

[Hen]

Yes, I bruise very easily and quite spectacularly! Being so pale (a true Scottish redhead) means they show up even more too!

However, neither the ginger pony or I are stressy in any way (both v.v. laid back) and we both have stupidly high pain thresholds...

Ha ha I have to agree with this, I am of a similar disposition - sounds very familiar! And both I and hoss also have relatively laid-back attitudes and high pain thresholds!! With regard to the propensity towards bruising, I'd always put that down to steering failure, an excessive gravitational pull and a taste for the grape rather than a genetic failure, but I may reassess that assumption now

 

[alesea]

I'm a redhead (lots of 'viking' blood in my family I think- it makes sense- we've not shifted from Yorkshire in... ever) and I bruise easily . However as I'm dyspraxic and have the habit of bumping into everything and anything, the red-headedness may not be the only factor involved...

I couldn't comment on the pain threshold thing since I don't know what everyone else feels! Oh, and I've always been on the best of terms with chestnut horses and ponies.

 

[PapaFrita]

I really dont understand these people who wont breed horses from chestnut horses and are dissapointed when a chestnut foal is born it just buggs me .its racism!!!does any one agree???

Given a choice I would always have a bay. I don't particularly dislike chestnuts, in fact Antifaz is as orange as they get, but bay is just prettier and there are loads of fabulous bay stallions for PF, so why should I go for a chestnut?
Are you being bay-ist?

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I also hate, 'I hate chestnuts' people, especially the, 'I hate all chestnut mares' variety.

I was once out hacking and a car stopped right next to us, just so the driver (snobby woman) could slag my horse off, purely because of her colour. I would like to point out that said horse was behaving perfectly at the time and I'd never met the woman before, so she hadn't ever seen the horse misbehave in any way. Yes, she can be spooky but I don't think that a lower pain thresh-hold would cause her to spook at flappy plastic, alpacas and pheasants.


To top it all off, I have used my mare as a hacking companion/confidence booster/nanny to a horse that was hit by a car and also with a freshly backed horse. Both of those horses came on no end with my mare's help.

What about genetically chestnut horses with a modifier gene (eg palomino, red dun or chesnut based greys) or horses with one black gene and one chestnut gene? What does having one copy of the chestnut gene do as opposed to having two copies?

 

[horsecrazy25]

I have a Chestnut Miniature Shetland, love his colour

 

[rhino]

Pretty girly

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Pretty girly

Thank you, I'll let her know that you think that!