Every bay horse I’ve owned has been sensible, brave and liked to work. I love how roans and grays look, though.
I love chestnuts. They are my preferred color. All of the ones I have ever owned, ridden, shown or galloped have been awesome. Even the ones that had horrible attitudes were great athletes, very bold, etc. If I were in the market, I would drive farther to look at a chestnut than a bay. Everybody has a bay.
DD’s pony is white, and I only bought her because we aren’t showing. No way would I want to keep a white pony clean!
[QUOTE=Miss Anne Thrope;7907779]
Gorgeous!!
Excuse my ignorance, but what is the difference between dun and buckskin? I know somebody told me this before, but I forget.[/QUOTE]
At one time, I don’t know what color genetics has to say today, a dun was a dilution of chestnut, buckskin was a dilution of bay, with the agouti gene bays carry.
The difference was the black points in buckskins, not in duns.
No matter how dark dun’s manes may be, they are not true black.
As per our vet at that time, no telling what is considered correct in today’s knowledge.
I am not sure barring and dorsal stripe are dependent on color itself, other colors like grulla have those also.
May want to ask these question in the breeder’s forum.
[QUOTE=mayfair;7907933]
Every bay horse I’ve owned has been sensible, brave and liked to work. I love how roans and grays look, though.[/QUOTE]
might be because bays were often cavalry mounts as their coloration was natural camouflage in wooden areas
We could loose our bays in the shadows of even small pastures
I believe that paint horses are the easiest to train (bad or good things, they pick up on them very quickly).
Appaloosas are stubborn as all heck (but awesome).
Greys, I also envision melanomas! And a little bit stressy/ulcery, also.
Most liver chestnuts I have known have been awesome horses (the less white, the better) very safe and cautious.
No science behind mine, just funny consistencies in my experiences!
Most of mine have been chestnuts/sorrels for no particular reason. I did have a dun misregistered as a buckskin who was sufficiently dark in summer that folks often thought he was a bay. Wonderful horse. The current two are a dun (misregistered as a red dun) and a grulla. Tha latter was admittedly a splurge buy based on color. I do like the colors on the current two, they hide dirt well and no white markings to keep clean!
Well the horses confirmation as less than ideal. I could not get the owner to send me a good confirmation picture before driving over there. I hate to sound bossy when I ask for pictures but I am about ready to give very specific instructions when I ask for a picture. I picture of the horses head and nothing else really does not help me.
Good horses don’t come in a bad color. It’s hard enough to find a sound horse that suits the job I need him to do without adding any color/marking/sex requirements to the mix.
I love chestnut mares with a lot of chrome. I currently have… a bay mare with very little chrome, but she is super sweet, talented, and honest.
Most important trait for me is that the horse have a good attitude and is a thinker. I want a horse who is trainable, but still thinks for itself. If there’s an unseen danger on a trail or if I totally screw up a distance jumping, I want the horse that takes the safe route instead of blindly listening to me.
Next is that it be conformationally correct for the job I want it to do.
If the first two conditions are met, then I don’t care what color the horse is. If I was trying to decide between two otherwise equal horses, then yes, I would choose the chestnut.
perhaps you just have bad luck with chestnuts!
i really believe that horses color affects temperament. if the chestnuts have caused accidents by being too high-strung, then i’d definitely go for a bay. bays are calmer 
you said the horses conformation is less-than-ideal… id keep looking, but keep this chestnut in mind if its not too bad
[QUOTE=Pocket Pony;7907821]
And the great thing about his coat is that for some reason it is easier to keep clean than any others and doesn’t show any dirt or poo spots! Maybe it is because it is a little coarser, I don’t know…[/QUOTE]
I have a dun as well. And you are right they are easy to clean. I actually think it’s just that they are dust colored horses and so look clean, even when they are not. Love my dust colored boy!
My favorite is a really red bay with a little white. I also like buckskins. There’s a really pretty one that belongs to one of our neighbors. Dark golden buckskin with big sooty patches–drool.
I’m not a fan of horses with blue eyes. Greys are pretty but all I see when I look at them is grooming time! I’m not drawn to cremellos or really light palominos, either. I like some contrast.
My least favorite color used to be dark bay without any white…guess what color my TB is. Then I realized he can wear any color I want and he gets super shiny when he sheds out in the spring. I have a soft spot for dark bays now!
ETA easiest color I’ve ever come across cleaning-wise was a light liver chestnut varnish appaloosa with a blanket. He was so many different colors you couldn’t see the dirt.
Said I would never buy another grey horse. What did I buy? Another grey horse. At least his legs are currently black and he is a bit of a neat freak.
I have a grey, and a chestnut mare with lots of chrome… She’s beautiful, but the stereotype about chestnut mares is very true. She’ll give you everything she’s got, jumps anything you point in her general direction, and has a great work ethic… But she also is very stubborn, loves to hold a grudge, and thinks she should be treated like royalty.
If I could have any color? Black or very dark bay, with four whites and a stipe down the face. I love the way dark horses shine, and you can tell when they’ve had some serious elbow grease!
All of my racehorses have been plain brown mares with no markings. At least my current one has a little (barely noticeable) sock.
sigh
It’s a good thing I don’t care much about color, because all of mine are borderline ugly, :lol: .
I like a chestnut, brown-not a sorrel/red, a dark chestnut…but I don’t care for sorrel too much if we’re just talking color. A dark liver chestnut with a blond mane/tail is my Holy Grail of horse colors… before I die, I will have one. hopefully shaped like a saddlebred. 
I tend to avoid paints b/c I don’t see a lot of them with super conformation and I tend to be a conformation snob. We’ve only had a couple of them and one died of cancer and the other is trying to die right now of something we haven’t diagnosed yet. Paints are starting to have a real negative connotation for me.
My favorite color is a buttermilk buckskin…or dun or ranch buckskin, no white or just a star or a snip on the nose. I just love that color, on horses or dogs, love the yellow with dark points.
I used to think I liked a black horse but after having one I didn’t like it as well for some reason… kind of odd on my part.
I love a mahogany bay, no white, unless just a star. I don’t like white on the legs unless it’s perfectly symmetrical… Yes, I’ve thought about this a lot. :lol:
Don’t like palominos, greys, whites, lighter colors unless there are strong dark points. Don’t tend to like a red dun, I like the gold/yellow/dark duns.
For picking a good horse I tend to look at sorrels, chestnuts and bays though b/c I figure nobody was breeding just for color on them! You have to really sift through the dilutes and paints to find good conformation around here.
[QUOTE=Miss Anne Thrope;7907779]
Gorgeous!!
Excuse my ignorance, but what is the difference between dun and buckskin? I know somebody told me this before, but I forget.[/QUOTE]
They are caused by two different genes.
A buckskin is a bay with one copy of the cream gene. (This also creates palomino out of chestnut and smoky black out of black. If there are two copies of the cream gene then bay becomes perlino, chestnut becomes cremello, and black becomes smoky cream.)
A dun is a bay with one or two copies of the dun gene. This also creates red/claybank dun from chestnut and grullo/grulla from black.
Both genes can also exist together, so then you end up with the even more unique colors like dunskin, dunalino, etc.
It it too cliche to say whichever one works best? I’ve currently got an adorable palomino pony gelding and a chromy sweet chestnut pony mare…
Basically I guess I’m a sucker for ponies.!
[QUOTE=Bluey;7908088]
At one time, I don’t know what color genetics has to say today, a dun was a dilution of chestnut, buckskin was a dilution of bay, with the agouti gene bays carry.
The difference was the black points in buckskins, not in duns.
No matter how dark dun’s manes may be, they are not true black.
As per our vet at that time, no telling what is considered correct in today’s knowledge.
I am not sure barring and dorsal stripe are dependent on color itself, other colors like grulla have those also.
May want to ask these question in the breeder’s forum.[/QUOTE]
Dun is it’s own dilution gene (red dun - chestnut + dun, bay dun - bay + dun, grulla - black + dun etc.). It will add the primitive markings such as the barring on the legs and shoulders and the thick stripe down the horses back (of course counter shading can mimic this).
Buckskin is a bay with one cream dilution gene (palomino is (1) cream + chestnut, smoky black is (1) cream + black etc.). Buckskin will not have the primitive markings, unless they also carry for dun.
