Why horses tend to form groups of their own colour.

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henryhorn

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www.narramorehorses.blogspot.com
We have long noticed that our horses who are retired tend to graze with their own colours in smaller groups, so a small herd may consist of greys/coloureds and chesnuts, but no bays or blacks.
Husband saw the other night on tv that in the wild, animals do the same, the reason being if one is to be attacked it tends to be the one who stands out..
I assumed it was because they "liked" their own colour but it does make sense doesn't it, if a lion is chasing agroup of ten and one is a different colour, he's more likely to choose that as it would be easier to follow.
Thankfully we don't have many lions on Dartmoor....
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It is strange. I remember studying horse behaviour and there was a study which found this. There was a group of mares and a stallion, the stallion was black and the mares were all grey!
 
Which just proves that horses aren't that bright. If i was a grey horse in a nice group of greys I would welcome a nice dark bay to the group. Bit of insurance policy.....Eat him Eat him!
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I was once told that the reason why my grey was such a huge mud monster was that greys covered themeselves in mud to camoflauge(sp) themselves. I just think Finn has a secret desire to be coloured horse
 
I was told this when i first moved to Denmark Henryhorn. My boy has always been terribly bullied and when i mentioned this, the stable manager said very matter of factly, that it was because he was grey and he was "high risk" for giving away the position of a herd also.

Hes grey and hes always been picked on really badly
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That explains why no one likes my poor lad then.

He sticks out like a sore thumb!

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What do you mean no one likes you lad?

I THINK HE LOVELY. WE HAVE A GREY BUT A LOT OLDER THAT YOURS HE NEARLY WHITE NOW.
 
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What do you mean no one likes you lad?

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The others horses silly
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Like Tierra's, he was terribly bullied when he first when out with his small band. He still has the scars to prove it............
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Funny, my grey mare was very much the alpha mare in a herd of bays and blacks. Never had a problem with being the only grey.

My bay gelding is petrified of coloured horses though. There aren't any on our yard and he tends to jump out of his skin when one comes towards him when out competing. He doesn't seem to know what they are. Odd.
 
My black mare has always seemed to prefer other blacks or bays (she seems to accept chestnuts too)...never seemed to take to greys or coloureds ie. she makes far more faces at them and has even looked in astonishment at coloureds when we have been out.
Except for when she is in season..then her absolute favourite is a big grey who she worships...until he is interested and then she couldnt care less of course!!!!
 
My pony must be screaming for a beating!! He is mates with a dun connie and a black shettie (he is liver chestnut) although he recently seems to have taken up relations with the new bay mare. He also seems to like playing with the coloured ponies
 
Dont really notice as much with the geldings on my yard as they are all dark, but in the mares fields my friends horse is bottom of the pecking order and is pretty much an "outcast" and shes grey.
 
Would that explain why my liver chestnut shettie took to trying to beat up my grey 12'2 at every opportunity? I assumned she was just jealous- the tihnks shes amazing
Mind, my coloured got shunned form the group, and then my grey, until it was just him and my bay...interesting
And that shadow shreiks every time he sees a grey pony!
 
Lmao Zoobie!
Ours do group, but since they are currently a 'herd' of one coloured and one chestnut they have no choice.....
 
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Funny, my grey mare was very much the alpha mare in a herd of bays and blacks. Never had a problem with being the only grey.

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My grey mare is also alpha in her herd which has just about every colour of horse in it. There is one other grey who is also quite dominant.
PS I liked Zoobie's theory about the mud - that explains a lot!!
 
A horse will form a closer bond with another horse that was the same colour as it's dam. I did some research on this as my own chestnut horse was absolutely dotty about grey mares, I discovered after a few years of owning him that his dam was grey. It also explained why all the coloured horses at the yard stuck together as a seperate group.
 
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One thing i have always found is if you put ponies and horses out together, they often keep to the same size groups!

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My shettie doesnt listen to that rule- 36 inches and bossed around my 14'2 , was horrible to my 12'2 and ignored her daughter. Her and the 14'2 hung out together lots though, she was just boss of them all!
 
Also, bless, my 33 inch filly, at the livery yard last year, used to run nder the electric fencing into the other paddocks to make friends with the 12'2s (roughly) spent her time hoppng along side them on her back legs- would do that if you tried lesding her ridden, hop along on her hind legs, hell when she ascaped into the field while i was haivng lessons!
Very cute though
 
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