What makes a good coloured?

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Jazzy B

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As the title really, a member of my family has purchased herself a coloured cob, she has a completely white body with just a brown patch on her neck, my gut instinct is that this isn't particularly well marked, but having never owned a coloured I don't really know what's good and what's not, can someone enlighten me, what makes a good coloured?
 
Personally I prefer more dark patches than white, but each to their own. From a judges point of view I'd imagine conformation, paces, temperament and type come in to it too?
 
It's personal preference at the end of the day - I prefer more dark than white as I think it looks better.

But under the colour should have good confo, personality and ability :)
 
A good horse is a good horse regardless of the colour :)

I do understand your question though, some markings are unfortunate and can make a horse look lacking in the conformation department. Half coloured rumps/quarters always put me off personally - which wipes out 50% of the tobiano population.:(
 
A good coloured should be evenly marked and in a way which improves the horses overall look, not white making it look poorly put together when it isn at all. That is for showing though, wouldn't really bother me for what I do!
 
HeavyHorseHugger said:
I like them 50/50 or favouring dark. I think technically they are "supposed" to be evenly marked :-)
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and this \/

Luci07 said:
A good coloured should be evenly marked and in a way which improves the horses overall look, not white making it look poorly put together when it isn at all. That is for showing though, wouldn't really bother me for what I do!
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I love coloureds and always thought my late mare's daughter (who is owned by a lovely lady on here actually), was beautifully marked, she has more dark than light and is very symmetrical :)
I know I was and possibly am biased but I always thought she had great markings for a piebald/coloured
Her as a foal
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And age 17/18 pic from her current owner
66009_445439887716_606217716_5381347_5187911_n.jpg
 
Really, markings should be down the list of important stuff. Conformation is of far more importance. Lynn Russell said that a good coloured should do just as well if it were bay. Markings are not considered when judging a coloured class, unless it is a colour and markings class.
A coloured should be 50:50, mine is more 60:40 with the dominant colour being black.
Make sure that the markings don't detract from the conformation.
 
One good tip I had from a friend who successfully shows coloureds is this...judges prefer a coloured with a solid coloured or pure white shoulder, as opposed to the shoulder being split black/white or brown/white. I think it's because the judge can see the movement of the shoulder better.
 
I have been told many a time by judge or riding instructor how good my coloureds conformation is, inc judges who admit to not being a coloureds fan. I did not choose him for his conformation though so am not an expert! Hopefully u can see in my signature what is deemed as good coloured conformation. I am sure some will disagree which is fine!
 
Good conformation, expressive paces, bold yet willing attitude.

Not being sarcastic though. I own a coloured (my second) and he's evenly marked but I couldn't care less what colour or markings he has. I bought him because his mother was stunning and even as a 6 week old foal you could see he just "had it". I think being a coloured horse must be a bit like being a blonde woman - you are judged primarily on your appearance by many and everything else comes second. It's a shame. Especially given the vast numbers of badly bred, misshapen cob types you see everywhere whose only reason for existence can surely be their colour. Having said that, many of them are also marked quite unfortunately, with maybe only a small patch or two of colour, so I guess markings can make a bad job look even worse :(
 
It's not 'supposed' to matter but you will never see a horse in a HOYS coloured class line up that is more white than coloured. They will also generally have a dark head/neck/front and even (not too big) white blaze.
 
Coloureds aren't judged on their markings but on their conformation, way of going, manners, turnout and presentation just as any other showing class. Being coloured is simply what allows them to be entered into a coloured class so it shouldn't make any difference how much or how little colour they have on them, how the colour is distributed, etc.

Having said that though there are always some judges who bring their own "personal preference" into their judging particularly at local level - you see this at shows where a judge may favour the fine horses over the cobs and vice versa.

The most appealing coloured for most people is one that is 50% coloured, 50% white evenly distributed in patches (as opposed to a coloured front end and a white back end) - this isn't what they are judged on but is what most people consider to be a "nice looking pattern".

So what makes a "good coloured" is the same for any horse - conformation, way of going, manners - what makes it "pretty" is in the eye of the beholder and personal preference. Personally I have a soft spot for the "odd" patterned ones and fell in love with one a few years back that was all white except for one patch over his eye and one on his bum, and he had 2 wall eyes as well - not everyone's cup of tea, but I thought he was lovely and if I could have had another horse I would have snapped him up.
 
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I think personally more dark than light, BUT I wouldn't turn a horse down if it had more white or the typical "cow" like patches.

I saw a beautiful filly for sale once and she was white all over apart from she had a brown head. It looked amazing. I do like the more unique markings too like long white stockings and full white faces (American Paint fan!)
I also love wall eyes!!
 
My boy doesn't have a lot of black- he has a black head with white snip and half neck , black on one shoulder and then black on either stifle. He does however have one blue eye and one half blue half brown eye and his tail is white with black running through it which Isnt that common. Usually all black tails!
 
Daughters new coloured mare arrived christmas eve. She is too white for my liking but does have quite nice markings. She has a brown head with a blaze that is too wide ( currently nicknamed daisy as a cross between a gypsy pony and a dairy cow !!) But she is lovely natured , moves well and jumps like a stag so we went for it . (See previous post about price at auction ) I just need advice now on how to get the white bits white , plenty of blue shampoo me thinks .
Her tail is a mix of light and dark but our other coloured has a dark tail.
 
Although my cob is unusual with her colouring, and gets lots and lots of compliments when we go out - I don't think she is very well marked from a showing point of view ;)
I don't care though - I didn't buy her for her colouring :)
 
You can see mine on my sight- she is mostly white and coloured judges don't seem to like her. However, she is well put together and moves beautifully, which is why we bought her, so we don't really care. Also nice that her grandsire was a GP dressage horse and daddy is now in Switzerland show jumping, so maybe she'll do similar ish!
 
I have a coloured cob, not bought for his colour at all but for his temperament and I'm so glad I did :) funniest thing was when my husband's aunt (who is rather upper class about her horses shall we say!) came to see him, the only positive thing she could think to say about him was that he was"evenly marked so could do ok in the show ring" I'm not bothered about showing at all but my boy does a decent dressage test, works through properly and on both the occasions I've taken him out he's come 2nd in a class of more than 10 other horses, so I guess she was right but since we've only been out twice in over ten years I guess it doesn't matter! For what it's worth same aunt liked my stroppy chestnut mare far better than my coloured boy so maybe it's just down to personal preference! ;)
 
So what I was getting at ( if my phone would allow!) was that perhaps the judges should try and see more past the colour, but in reality that seems v hard for th to do if the horse is not evenly marked .
 
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