Opinions: Would a grey horse put you off?

Wagtail said:
No, if the horse was a nice 'person' and was the stamp I was after, then it wouldn't put me off at all.
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Agree. I have a 17yo grey boy, owned him for 12yrs, no melanomas, one sarcoid that went of its own accord aged 7. I know of a lot of greys and in my experience, very few have had melanomas and/or sarcoids.
As much as I loathe the grey hair everywhere and all the cleaning, if it was the right horse then I would not hesitate to buy another grey.
 
yup - wouldn't look past "Grey" in an advert even!

mainly because it's hard enough keeping a brown horse clean, and ultimately I'm about the riding not the cleaning! Plus, our clay soil is yellow, and stain everything, so it would always look like a giant stable stain.
 
annagain said:
ETA I read something the other day that only homozygous greys get melanomas and flea bitten greys are all heterozygous so don't get them. My share horse is 19 and doesn't have any so I assume it's correct, but without DNA testing I suppose you wouldn't know if they're heterozygous or not. Archie's melanomas are all on black skin (he only has a bit of white skin on one pastern) so it's not a pink skin issue.
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That's intersting as my boy is fleabitten and at 17 has no melanomas. But the one grey I can remember that had them, and lots of them (around ears mostly) was also fleabitten.
 
I don't think I'd buy a grey. I prefer brown, mud coloured horses for ease of keeping them clean 😊 saying that I didn't want a chestnut and I have one of those.
 
I'm a glutton for punishment, I have two but if I ever have another horse it will be bay or chestnut as they are both filthy at the moment!! LOL I've had three previous as well and none of them ever had melanomas or sarcoids. I do know a bay with sarcoids though so you just never know. I just seem drawn to grey's so no doubt when I go on my search for my next horse i'll end up coming home with a grey again.
 
no, I lost a grey at 11 due to melanomas. I love greys, don't mind about the stains etc but won't go there again. When you lose a horse to melanomas, lost of people come out the woodwork to tell you that they also knew/owned one that died of them early on. I realise there's any number of things that can kill them relatively young but wouldn't choose to potentially put myself through that again.
 
I always said I would never own a grey. Apart from the fact it isn't my favourite colour, I have always worried about melanoma's/cancer which is quite common in grey horses here.

Then looking for a young horse last year - there was "the one" and she is grey. So now I own a grey and she is fabulous and I will make the most of her as long as I have her.
 
I have had 4 greys and would try very hard not to have another one due to the clean factor! Not too fussed about melanomas but it's the difficulty of keeping them clean that really puts me off.

Having said that, I currently own 2 coloureds who between them have as much white as a large grey horse. Bummer! :)
 
When I bought my dark grey dapple two years ago her colour was a bonus not a factor (I'd secretly always wanted a grey)! She's very clean in summer (without rugging) but is admittedly currently slightly orange/yellow due to mud. But my coloured cob (predominantly white) looks much much worse!!
 
Definately wouldn't put me off, in fact I have a soft spot for greys above all else as they've always been my "best" horses. Yes, its a bit of a pest having to wash them more than a bay but to be honest my current grey (white) mare is far cleaner than my bay!
 
Thanks for everyone's replies- for me its not just a colour/keeping them clean thing- its the melanoma's mostly.
But then I agree that all horses have to die of something, and i suppose other than a few exceptions they tend to not be bothersome until they are old. I read a scary article saying that 90% of greys will develop melanoma's at some point, and that a lot of them transition into malignant at some point.

That said- I can spend months thinking of every single reason to not buy a specific horse just incase it develops some sort of condition! So I suppose if they felt right in every other way and there were no signs of anything brewing at the time of purchase then I might go for it.
 
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Dusty85 said:
Call this a little experiment; Im after people's opinions: would you buy a grey horse?

Would a grey horse put you off/make you reluctant?

No other details on the horse, just whether it would make you hesitant or whether it wouldn't bother you at all.

(this is after _GG_ and I were talking and Im curious)


Thanks all in anticipation.
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I would if the horse was what I wanted I would not be againts a grey. I would though not buy a bay or a chesnut or black.
 
annagain ETA I read something the other day that only homozygous greys get melanomas and flea bitten greys are all heterozygous so don't get them. My share horse is 19 and doesn't have any so I assume it's correct said:
Our white pony is lightly fleabitten, also has faded dapples, and has melanomas.
Friend's horse is very fleabitten and has lots of mrlanomas. So I don't think that's right?
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I don't enjoy greys as such hard work to keep looking clean.

My 18 yr ild mate is horribly filthy and does have to be washed before any events and periodically to keep legs and tail looking half decent. Always feel slightly embarrassed meeting other riders out hacking in winter as she looks awful! Luckily no issues with melanomas or sarcoids but definitely more conscious of such things owning an older grey mare. And if all things equal I woud prefer a darker color.

My daughters pony however is also grey and he manages to stay very clean regardless and at shows etc people always say how do we keep him so clean after we literally just dragged him out of a muddy field!!! I have to say when we went to see him I said he was perfect apart from the fact he was grey!!
 
I don't mind backing them when they win. I was screaming at the TV riding Neptune Collenges home!

I didn't want a grey pony particularly but 20yrs later I've still got him. Yes, he has a tiny melanoma under his dock and now he's going whiter he looks dirtier but I love him to pieces.

We had a grey pony on loan for my son who was awful at shows. Poo everywhere! That would put me off having another tbh.
 
Haven't read all the replies - sorry but when I bought my now retired horse I was specifically wanted a grey ex racehorse. I suppose every little girl wants a pretty grey pony (do they?) so aged 40 something I got mine. He lead me into a false sense of security in that buying him in January he was fully clipped and heavily rugged so didn't take much keeping clean. Come the summer and I realised how much washing is involved to show a grey horse. That said, a prettily marked grey has such a wow factor in amongst lots of brown horses that it was well worth it. Echo though that grey hair gets everywhere. My OH normally asks if I am bringing the horse home bit by bit given how much grey hair is attached to everything, even clothes that have not gone down the yard. He probably won't look properly clean now to about June (!) and I am in awe of anyone who takes a grey horse out competing over the winter. That said, love my grey pony.
 
It definitely doesn't put me off as all 5 of mine are grey - although 2 are still iron grey, fading to dapples. I don't find them especially hard to keep clean - if I am going somewhere I just accept that I will be washing rather than grooming , but it only takes 20 mins to scrub from tip of ears to end of tail? We have 2 matching pairs of connies and my husband now has a grey ISH. It does tend to attract comments when we are all out together!

The best horse I will ever have was a grey who was still hunting at 31 and had absolutely no sign of any melanomas, and we had a fabulous little welshie for the kids who also lived to a ripe old age (despite being in a dreadful RTA at quite a young age, and then having a series of mishaps including falling through a bridge out hunting and falling in a river), but was eventually PTS after a colic episode.
 
LCH611 said:
It definitely doesn't put me off as all 5 of mine are grey - although 2 are still iron grey, fading to dapples. I don't find them especially hard to keep clean - if I am going somewhere I just accept that I will be washing rather than grooming , but it only takes 20 mins to scrub from tip of ears to end of tail? We have 2 matching pairs of connies and my husband now has a grey ISH. It does tend to attract comments when we are all out together!

The best horse I will ever have was a grey who was still hunting at 31 and had absolutely no sign of any melanomas, and we had a fabulous little welshie for the kids who also lived to a ripe old age (despite being in a dreadful RTA at quite a young age, and then having a series of mishaps including falling through a bridge out hunting and falling in a river), but was eventually PTS after a colic episode.
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And this backs up what I have always thought. There may be a high number of greys that develop melanomas, but the vast vast majority die through other causes in old age. I think you're more likely to lose a horse to a brain tumor than specifically lose a grey to melanomas.
 
Colour doesn't bother me in the slightest really, probably because I'm not that worried about how clean they look. I had a piebald who was mostly black but with white tail and legs and when I was looking, I did not really want another piebald. I have ended up with one that is most white.

He has a large occult sarcoid on his face but that's in the black part, not the white.

Melanomas do worry me but I've seen them in other colours too so, if not present at time of purchase, I would buy a grey quite happily. The two greys I have loved over the years (one fleabitten, one white) never showed any signs of them.
 
COldNag said:
Our white pony is lightly fleabitten, also has faded dapples, and has melanomas.
Friend's horse is very fleabitten and has lots of mrlanomas. So I don't think that's right?
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Typical, I can't find the article now! I was surprised by it as I know melanoma is thought to be caused by an over expression of certain genes (I've done a LOT of research) so I figured they would be present in both homo- and heterozygous greys.
 
Jinglesmells said:
And this backs up what I have always thought. There may be a high number of greys that develop melanomas, but the vast vast majority die through other causes in old age. I think you're more likely to lose a horse to a brain tumor than specifically lose a grey to melanomas.
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This is true but it's not so much the dying as the managing of it when they're still alive. Archie has to be regularly knocked out so I can clean his sheath as I can't get near it otherwise. I know that's his issue and other horses let you clean down there with no problems but it's just an ordeal for him and me and not one I want to risk going through again. Luckily, so far none of those have ulcerated, but the ones under his tail have and they look so painful, it's heartbreaking. I just don't want to have to see a horse I love go through that again. Having said that, M is totally clear at the same age, so it's not a definite, you could end up with one of the lucky ones. I'm pretty sure melanoma will get Arch before anything else due to their size and location, but when he got them at 12 I thought "let's hope I get him to 20" and he'll be 19 come the new year so hopefully that will happen.
 
I love greys. In a couple of years when I'll be ready to buy my own I will be specifically looking for a grey or chestnut mare!
The colour that I would not go to even view is any sort of bay, they're just not my thing.
 
Dusty85 said:
Call this a little experiment; Im after people's opinions: would you buy a grey horse?

Would a grey horse put you off/make you reluctant?

No other details on the horse, just whether it would make you hesitant or whether it wouldn't bother you at all.

(this is after _GG_ and I were talking and Im curious)


Thanks all in anticipation.
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No not at all - I have owned one super Grey - and known many others - no idea why it would put me off?
 
When shopping for hypothetical horses, grey puts me off; in reality, if the animal ticked all the right boxes then it wouldn't. I have an Eriskay, she's rising 19 with no hint of melanomas or sarcoids but her coat which is designed for the Outer Hebrides seems to have an odd porous quality so in the mild south east she spends all winter a rather unattractive dingy yellow defying all attempts at grooming. The only time she looks properly clean is in the snow.
 
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