Add me to those who love a nice true black and a dark dappled gray. Unfortunately, the dark grays never stay that way, and the cleaning/melanoma concerns are probably enough to scare me off of buying one. Bays are fine, especially with black points. I also really like roans, especially blue roans, but since I ride H/J those are pretty much impossible to find. Not a huge chestnut fan, except for a lovely liver chestnut. I LOVE white on faces, especially funky shaped stars/stripes. Chrome on the legs isn’t enough of a plus to overshadow the work of cleaning the legs for me. Guess that means I will end up with a chestnut with a plain face and LOTS of chrome on the legs :lol:
[QUOTE=cuse;7910090]
Not a huge chestnut fan, except for a lovely liver chestnut. I LOVE white on faces, especially funky shaped stars/stripes. Chrome on the legs isn’t enough of a plus to overshadow the work of cleaning the legs for me. Guess that means I will end up with a chestnut with a plain face and LOTS of chrome on the legs :lol:[/QUOTE]
I have similar views on chestnuts and white legs. Got myself a chestnut with 4 whites. 
My first horse was a very gold colored buckskin. She was also a saint, so she left me with a definite soft spot for buckskins. I owned a chestnut that didn’t turn out so well for me, so I find it’s a color I really am not attracted to. Also, it is so common that I am just not crazy about it. My current horse (who is awesome) is a very dark gold palomino with no white in his legs but a nice wide white blaze. He’s a hunk. I don’t like a light palomino but I do love the color of my guy. Really, though, color is pretty far down on my list of concerns. My Trigger lookalike came with a really good brain, which is why I bought him. His looks are just a nice bonus.
Forgot to add blue roan. I love blue roans, just haven’t been able to find one that is built uphill, or even level…
Maybe someday I’ll have one for a trail horse.
[QUOTE=enjoytheride;7907669]
Chestnut mares with lots of chrome. Drool.[/QUOTE]
Ditto. I am a sucker for blaze faced chestnuts having owned three.
I love a bright chestnut with a definite chrome on the face - gorgeous contrast! I love the way their colour looks so pretty in a grassy field or a leafy forrest; that looks like heaven to me. I love four high whites on other people’s horses for looks, but I have not had good luck with white feet. My gorgeous chestnut has no socks and great feet. I achieve the look with white boots or polos, they are much easier to keep clean.
I like lots of other colours as well, but I find bay kind of boring. I wouldn’t turn down a fabulous horse that was bay, however.
I really admire dapple grey! It wouldn’t be my first choice of colour though because of maintenance.
No preference specifically or bad experiences but I have always wanted a solid coloured horse. Always ended up with some wild colour…
Guess that is still true. :lol:
[QUOTE=propspony;7909447]
Aside from the standardbreds ,I’ve had nothing but greys, live in the desert, and over 30 years have had 2 melanomas, the biggest of which was the size of a pea.
I’ve known three grey arabians, all of whom were related, to have mega issues but…
Seriously people?[/QUOTE]
Yes, very serious.
My oldest riding buddy has had two grey horses - one died from his melanoma and the other has a large one in her neck and cannot be ridden comfortably so has retired as a broodmare at a young age.
Another good friend of mine’s gelding died from his melanoma.
Unless I found the grey horse of my dreams, I would not want to own a grey horse because of this issue.
As far as my preferences, I am a sucker for an overo, but am not a fan of tobianos. However, I do not like a lot of white around the eye because that can cause so many other issues…
Growing up I wanted the chestnut with a blaze and four socks and I found him as an adult! Never in my wildest dreams did I realize how much of a PITA it would be to keep him clean :lol:
Dislikes - I love looking at roans, but I hate how with each little knick they get, the hair grows back dark so by the time they’re older they just look funny. Also not big on double dilutes like cremellos and perlinos.
That being said, you can’t ride color and the best riding horses I’ve been on have been bay 
My favorite is probably flaxen chestnut with silver, sooty or sabino and plenty of chrome.
I always wanted a grey, but after 10 years I’m totally over the cleaning aspect. I also always wanted a dark bay, but found that those are like mahogany furniture. They gather dust.
My next horse will be mud brown. … actually, today, my grey horse is mud brown anyway…
Wow - I’m totally in the minority and thought I would be in the majority!
Brown/bay all the way. Lots of conversation about bay/brown in another thread, so while I call mine bay, I think he’s probably brown based on that discussion, but everyone calls him bay.
So - my favorite - dark bay with black mane and tail, gorgeous chrome on face, legs that darken to black, with 3 white socks. And ermine spots. Gorgeous dapples, too. He almost looks liver colored in some photos, depending on the sun.
And that’s exactly what I got. I think he is DREAMY. Such a hunk.
First horse I ever fell in love with, a lesson horse with Linda Zang, was a buckskin or dun named Buster Brown. I loved him.
First horse I owned was a grey. Love him too. Bought him as a beautiful dark dappled boy who greyed out.
I’m afraid of black horses, seriously. I had to psych myself up recently to ride a grey, only to discover when I arrived that I had pictured the wrong horse, and she was actually a bay. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Odd.
I love Paints, and have a real flashy sorrel sabino (think Hildago) gelding. He has a bald face but with plenty of sorrel around his eyes so he has no white skin anywhere near his eyes. He has an awesome personality and plenty of talent and intelliegence. I could not ask for a better horse. I really wanted a Paint gelding when I was horse shopping but friend/bo said you buy the best horse no matter the color or sex. We all know that, but I really wanted a Paint gelding…
Deep color bodies with dark points - or rich copper chestnuts with chrome all the way for me.
I drool over buckskins. Someday.
Am a magnet for chestnuts with chrome, but don’t like bald faces.
Liver chestnuts - no chrome required.
Bright bays - love them. Had a beautiful red-mahogany bay mare once - her coat color was incredible.
Dark bays with chrome.
Not crazy about paints, apps, or palominos. I don’t even really like ‘blonde’ chestnuts.
I love the look of a steel grey with dark mane and tail - but between the high maintenance of keeping it clean - they all turn white eventually - to the melanoma potential, I have no interest in owning one.
My first horse was a chestnut Thoroughbred gelding. He was my heart horse - really great. But he was accident prone. He hurt himself all the time. I kinda think that is a TB thing though.
Now I own a palomino and he is a bit well nutty. I love his color though and he has roaning! He is so handsome.
I love flashy colors. Chestnuts with a lot of chrome. Paints, Appaloosas, palominos… etc!
I have found that, the older you get and the less you can see clearly, the more you want a light colored horse and one with plenty of white.
Darker horses tend to look like a “brown blob”, some times even hard to tell one end from the other, unless they move or at least have a spotlight in front, like a big star.
I can’t hardly see a horse’s face features, his eyes, if the face is all dark.
my favourite colours are dark liver chestnut and black bay/seal brown w/ light points. My main horse is the latter. My other horse is a regular old dark bay
I like a nice bright red bay, with deep black points, and a little white on the face, like a star or a small blaze. Gorgeous! It’s probably because most of the best horses I’ve ridden were bays, especially Tiki.
I don’t like Apps. Every single one I’ve known was a fruit loop, including my bay roan App. Sorry, but it’s true.
When I went horse shopping, I swore up and down I wouldn’t get a grey because of melanomas and maintenance. sigh
Kim
Anyone else’s color preferences change by type of horse?
I do think a bright or dark bay w/ minimal to moderate chrome looks nice on nearly any horse.
Sporthorse types, TBs, Arabs, I love a bright/darker sorrel, with or without chrome. I also think seal browns and fleabitten greys are cute.
Stock horses I much prefer in bay or buckskin over chestnuts. Probably because poorly conformed sorrel stock horses are a dime a dozen around here. Plain black or grey I find boring.
Cobs or smaller Morgan types I like in liver chestnut, minimal white… possibly because I associate that with my favorite childhood horse.
I think stocky smaller ponies/cobs are adorable in light grey (no fleabites) or light chestnut w/ flaxen mane & a big blaze.
I’ve never either really liked or really disliked the flashy colors like roan, appaloosa, pinto. I think these tend to make a really nice horse pop, but if the horse is poorly conformed or ugly the noticeable color makes it worse. I think chestnut/bay pintos can be cute on horses of medium build. I really dislike pintabian types because I associate them with conformational disasters.
Just my aesthetic preferences. I think the notion that color changes a horse’s temperament is totally superstition/anecdotal, except to the extent that certain colors occur most frequently in certain breeds. When choosing horses to ride, I care about personality and work ethic, not color.
[QUOTE=Bopper;7907585]
Any one else have issues with a certain color of horse? I guess I am just superstitious.[/QUOTE]
After a long line of bay horses with problems, I’m shopping again and have actually stated “preferably no bays” as part of my criteria. I don’t really think color is the source of the issues, but I’m just trying to go a different direction. And I won’t dismiss a horse based solely on color, but I do find myself being a bit more critical of the bays…
One white foot.
