Superstition gives horses with chestnut coats a fiery temperament to match and even today there are some that avoid the color. Obviously that’s a myth, but the color can be so bold and brash that we understand why people might make that assumption.
Updated Colors
We’ve been giving our colors section a major overhaul, to make the information more accurate and provide better images. Equine color genetics are incredibly complex and some of it still remains a mystery, even for geneticists. We think that is part of the fun.
Electric Chestnut
In equines the red factor determines whether an animal will be chestnut, bay, brown or black. There are both dominant and recessive alleles that create the lovely auburn colors, so some shades have slight genetic differences. The genotype for red factor determines whether an animal will produce black or brown pigment and basically overrides effects of the agouti gene (responsible for the other three base colors).
The Range
There is an incredibly wide range of chestnut colors, which are roughly broken into categories by shade. However such a common color has many different local names in many different places, so categories are loose and more to provide the phenomenal range of red factor. Chestnut animals have no true black hairs, although can be dark enough to trick the eye into thinking they do. Coat color ranges from a pale sandy ginger to a rich, reddish brown. Mane and tail hair also ranges, independently of the coat and of each other.
Liver Chestnut
Red Chestnut
Standard Chestnut
Sandy ChestnutChestnut Breeds
Perhaps the most common color, chestnut is found in almost all breeds of equine and is (partly) responsible for fan favorites like palomino. Red hairs can also be affected by most of the dilutions or modifiers to widen the range even further. There are a few breeds bred specifically for their fiery red coat.
Colorful World
The world of horse colors is truly a spectacular one and we will continue to share updated color (and breed) pages, with all of their spectacular images. We’ve been working on some quick color cheat sheets for all of the horse color lovers out there. Click the image below for a larger version.
