Thats more of a reflection of your age and how much more horses cost now a days. People have always put a premium on color.
I am in Erope and there has been an increased fashion for black horses over about 15 years. Give people a field of foals, most are drawn to the black ones. Lucky I like chestnut mares. I am of an age to remember as a child no-one wanted mares at all - just geldings, and stallions were considered fire breathing monsters only men could handle. Thankfully things have changed 
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I have had a few oddly colored horses. Its not that I necessarily favor them, just the way it turned out. On the more common side, I have had a chestnut (sorrel) QH and a dark bay TBX. I also had a horse that had the red body of a bright bay with mane and tail with black, brown and silvery hair - odd chestnut #1. Then I had a liver chestnut that I called my “plain brown wrapper”. Now I have a sooty palomino!
I know enough when horse shopping to think twice when looking at a horse that is a color I like. Black is one that will make me pause to be sure I really like the horse regardless. Bay is pretty, but it is so common that it deosnt attract me. I tend not to like dilute colors and never thought I would have a palomino, but it helped that my guy is a deep, dappled color with sooty accents.
Black horses, like black clothing, just look more serious.
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I think the logical explanation is that once you go black, you never go back…
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:lol::lol::lol:
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Hmm my friends say that about something else. But in horses I always thought with horses that it is BLACK STALLION SYNDROME or mare or gelding. I have friends who buy black hmm I buy pinto.
I get it. Black can look super flashy, and it’s less common because you have to have a homozygous neg for Agouti. A shiny jet-black dressage horse with pristine socks decked out in white accents and a touch of bling is a thing of beauty. Unicorn-level gorgeous. But as many have pointed out, not very practical.
My last horse was a plain-jane medium bay with only a little white star and a thin mane. Even for big fancy shows, I didn’t even have to bathe him unless I wanted to. Just an extra thorough grooming with a touch of show sheen and a handful of rubber band braids, and he looked just as good as when I scrubbed him nose to tail and sewed his plaits in. I hope I never fall in love with a gray or a horse with lots of chrome. I could happily live out my days without ever buying another bottle of quiksilver or green spot remover.
I like black horses, but that black coat can be a little difficult to keep nice and dark in the summer sun. I can’t say I am drawn to black horses more than others though. I do specfically avoid grays, which is common in my breed of choice (P.R.E.) because I’ve had way too many negative melanoma experiences. I know those are just my personal odds and experiences, but it has been enough to turn me off.
I have always liked a nice chestnut with a blaze. My most recent purchase was a plain bay, and he’s the best little horse. Sure he is not so flashy, but at this point in my life, I rather ride good character than looks. One can have both, of course.
Oddly enough, I don’t know many black horses and I am acquainted with quite a few people competing at higher levels (jumping and dressage). I know a few quality breeders around here (Warmbloods), but not many black foals.
I think part of it is Black Beauty Syndrome, and maybe that a nice black horse can look dusty but never as dirty as say, a gray. I think as a society (or societies as I am including parts of Europe and North America here), we associate black with mystery, elegance, and formal or professional occasions. So then perhaps we are drawn to black horses as a result.
This is the most logical reply to the question in my opinion. I love the black myself, but I definitely get the hassle of keeping them clean.
It´s all fun with black horses until they fade to a burning orange in the sun…
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:lol:
:sigh:
I was at a Hanoverian breeding forum with Dr. Christmann years ago, and he talked about the fact that (at that time) Europeans liked chestnut horses in the dressage ring, because they thought the chestnuts stood out against the arena, and Americans liked blacks and dark bays, because they thought they stood out against the arena. Breeders in Germany would look at a dark bay or black foal, and say “that one will sell to America”. Later on in the discussion there was quite a bit of talk about how many of the Hanoverian stallions approved were chestnut, and Dr. Christmann said that Hohenstein had just been approved, and he was homozygous for black. One of the American breeders piped up, “And they let him in?” Everyone laughed so hard, they were doubled over…
Some people avoid (irregular) white marks because they fear this may distract the judges in the arena. The “dark jacket” is trendy and easier to sell. “A good horse has no colour” - breeding dark horses to please the customer is … boring and short-sighted in my opinion.
I’m guessing that you don’t breed or sell horses?
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No, but where I live (Europe) is an increasing trend, people prefer dark geldings (speaking of dressage!). You’ll find the term “dark coat” when it comes to ads. It is connected to elegance, noblesse.
Colourful horses here are more of a “special interest”. And of course I am speaking of amateur riders - a professional rider who gets horses via sponsoring cares about movement and mindset. But as Isabell presented Belantis people were talking about the colour e.g… I think, Edres posting is interesting, maybe it is also a question of “role models”.
That was the point of my post though. If black horses were desirous because of a role model situation, we would have seen far more of them far earlier than this. Sandro Hit was the 6yo champion back in 1999. Ferro was in the 2000 Olympics. Stupendous black horses are not a recent phenomena. Rubenstein was even earlier, being the reserve champion in the 6yo class in 92. (And was winning at Grand Prix by 1995.)
These stallions (and others I noted - De Niro, ex) were stupendous in sport and this carried over to their influence in breeding. And of course, many of these popular (black) sires have black offspring (approved breeding stallions among them).
Not a recent phenomenon. But the internet changed the access to pictures, videos and information. In the 90s we (the amateurs) read a monthly print magazine and owned “average” horses (with average pedigree) - not meant literally, but the demand for horses of better quality increased and according to my observations some people are preferred looking for black/dark.
Horse colors are as subject to the tides of fashion as anything else. This topic is a fun one, I think, so I had to share some favorite stories.
You know that famous portrait of Napoleon on the rearing horse? There are five versions of this painting; in 2 the horse is black tobiano, in another 2 grey, and in the last chestnut. Reading about this, the implication was that the color was changed to suit the person it was painted for, or to protect the longevity of the painting’s appeal.
Researchers in Germany color genotyped just over 100 ancient samples of horse DNA from the Pleistocene forward and identified really interesting trends. They write:
Spotted [sabino, tobiano, leopard] and diluted horses were considerably more frequent during the Bronze Age and Iron Age, whereas solid phenotypes, especially chestnut, were predominant in the Middle Ages.
The authors discuss several possible reasons for the waning popularity of spotted and light-colored horses after the Iron age:
- Light colors served to distinguish domesticated horses from wild ones, and wild horses began to go extinct, meaning that these colors were no longer as useful
- Genetic drift associated with a period of high human migration or loss of organized breeding efforts following the fall of the Roman empire
- Light-colored horses were easier targets for longbows as this technology spread
- Religious symbolism (which they describe)
Many of the samples, the authors write, came from the graves of knights and noblemen.
Article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep38548
In the U.S. a dark coat is the trend as well. Black and bay horses, being the popular choice amongst amateur riders, and white socks or stockings on any color horse seem to impress as well.
To the OP: I would not worry that the breeders of Warmblood horses are breeding for “color” rather than for performance. As Salo said, the best riders ride the best horses no matter the color. There happen to be popular stallion lines that have black horses, but the stallions were chosen for pedigree and performance reasons.
Of course the breeder must consider what will sell if they are breeding horses for the amateur market.
Salo, I believe we have your equivalent of the “special interest” in colorful horses in the U.S. However as you may know, people in the U.S. will breed horses with no performance record and,sometimes, dubious conformation and will sell the offspring because they are a flashy color. These horses, bred from a sire and dam with no inspections and often no performance record, as a rule do not become successful sport horses, however some amateur riders do buy them to ride for fun and love them.
I agree with you that breeders that are aiming for the international sport horse market are concerned with quality much more than color.
Inspections and performance records for breeding stock differentiate the Warmblood registries from the “color” breeders in the U.S.
I hadn’t thought of how unusual Belantis was, until reminded of him in your post. There really aren’t as many grey FEI Dressage horses (that are not PRE or Andalusian) as there are bay, chestnut and black.
