What's the most common colour?

MrA

MrA

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Feb 8, 2012
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Of horse of course!

This may well of come up before but I'm quite interested to know. On our yard we have a mix, but I think bay just wins!

Ale was the only flaxen chesnut but now a slightly darker one has moved in to the stable next door!

So does anyone know what colour it is? I guess it varies from country to country.

Also which is the least common of the general colours. On our yard there is only one true black horse! Maybe come to think of it brown is the most widespread.

Anyway I will stop waffling, but if anyone knows or wants to guess feel free... :D
 
Black and chestnut.
From looking it up it says there are only two base coat colours ^^
It's the agouti gene on black coats that produces a bay, it doesn't touch chestnut.

Had I not looked it up I would have said bay.
 
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We have 2 dark bays, a bright bay, 1 dappled (but faded) grey, 1 faded blue and white and a brown sabino :)

I'd say bay is the most common colour, there are many colours around, I'd love a silver dun or grullo
 
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I'd still say chestnut or bay - I think black without the agouti gene is much less common than with. I've always wanted a bay - the nearest I've found have been two tricolours and four chestnuts (two flaxen, one liver) .
 
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I think bay is the commonest in occurrence, thought it might be chestnut. I like bays so I think I notice them more!

ETA I dream of a golden dun with 4 black zebra-striped legs with white socks!
 
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Well we have two appy's, one black, one bay, one chestnut, one chestnut flaxen and two greys, so the grey's have it.
 
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I would have instinctively gone for bay. Just done a count on our yard and there are four coloured, four bay, one black, four grey, 2 chestnut and 1 blue roan.
 
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We have 6 bay, 5 chestnut (2 flaxen) and 5 coloured so actually quite close between them!

The rest are Grey's, couple of black, a palamino and an appy.
 
lauren123 said:
I would say bay. I think of how many racehorses are bays :)
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I think that's because not many grey stallions have been good enough to pass the gene on.
Though Desert Orchid was grey, he was because he had the grey gene and was born another colour. He stood at stud didn't he?
 
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Bay and chestnut I'd say were the most common.

In the stables at the moment we've got 4 chestnuts, 5 greys, and 9 bays of various shades (I include dark bay in that).
Out in the fields there's 2 grey adults and 2 yearlings slowly greying out, 2 black adults, 1 filthy palomino in an equally filthy sweet-itch rug (guess who), and among the remaining 16 I'd say there's a fairly even balance of bays and chestnuts.

When I was a horse-mad kid who got virtually no equine contact I used to keep a checklist in the car and count how many horses of different colours I saw when we were out at the weekend (sad much?). The chestnut column was always the longest!
 
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By the way when I was little it was very unusual to see a coloured horse, and they were looked down upon ("Gypsy horses" or rudely "Pikey ponies"). Nobody would have dreamed of hunting or competing in anything with a coloured horse, though spotties were sometimes seen. I've been staggered by how overwhelming the move towards coloured horses has been in the last 20 years or so!
 
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I would say chestnut is the most common, not sure why really :)
My yard doesn't really count as its only my 2 but on our lane we have; 7 coloured's, 3 bay, 4 chestnuts, 3 duns of varying colour, 1 black, 1 grey and a donkey :)
 
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I am going to say bay too.

Jane&Ziggy said:
By the way when I was little it was very unusual to see a coloured horse, and they were looked down upon ("Gypsy horses" or rudely "Pikey ponies"). Nobody would have dreamed of hunting or competing in anything with a coloured horse, though spotties were sometimes seen. I've been staggered by how overwhelming the move towards coloured horses has been in the last 20 years or so!
Click to expand...

Yes when I was a kid too it was kind of unheard of to see a paint or pinto in any english classes.
 
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