What's the big hype about grey's(and not the show)

[Tuffsport]

Like every horse person, while not in the market for a horse I still look. What has caught my eye lately is all the ISO adds. It gives a description then states the horse needs to be grey?

It draws my attention because I had a friend looking for a horse a few years ago. She narrowed it down to 2 horses same price. But totally different. Beautiful bay TB going novice no jumping penalties, finishes on his dressage score-ridden by young rider. Typical TB build & attitude.
Second was a huge grey warmblood looking TB. Trying to go beginner novice but usually eliminated on cross country and lots of stadium penalties. Being ridden by a 2* rider.
Well you can guess which horse she went with-said she was willing to do lower levels for a few years to work through his issues. 2 years later she is still stuck barely competing BN, the grey figured out if his rider dismounts on cross country he doesn’t have to finish! And the bay is rocking around 1*'s. Is the color that important?

[pheasantknoll]

Everybody wants to be Becky Holder rocking around with Courageous Comet. I don’t like grays myself, although I think I am buying one because I like him.

[PaintedHunter]

I love the look of greys- and have one. But damn if I would buy one again, all other things being equal between two horses! Keeping them clean-looking is a bitch and a half, and we have had a fibrosarcoma and a sarcoid so far. And he’s only 11.

[gr8fulrider]

I love grays (and own one) but I feel like the Dapple Goggles are the equestrian equivalent of Beer Goggles.

Sober up and picture the horse in your least favorite color before you write that check.

[Ibex]

After watching a lovely mare struggle with melanomas and eventually have to be put down, I wouldn’t own one.

[Heliodoro]

While I think they are lovely, I also know that I will get the one that manages to smash his face into a manure pile the night of a big event! Plus I also watched my friend’s horse suffer from severe melanomas before he was put down for other issues, I don’t think the horse was that close to 20 years old.

If it’s got the talent and I like to ride it, I will consider them, but for me it’s almost a turnoff.

…says the person who has owned 2 minimally white TBs.

[Blugal]

I love the colour of a dark dappled bay, especially if it has a dark mane.

But all that cleaning… I can do without. However, being grey or not grey has never been a factor in my buying decisions. It could be for a breeding decision, though.

My first horse was a grey and got melanomas but was still packing kids and doing riding for the disabled into her mid-twenties. She was retired for a year or two and died at 27.

[IrishHunter]

I must say I am partly guilty of this myself. While I would never pick a gray strictly for color over a better performing horse, I was quite enthused to find the perfect baby who will (probably) be a gray when she grows up. She is still a bay now at 8 months, but with 2 gray parents its very likely.

I am not so worried about the cleanliness factor but the melanoma does scare me a bit. But 70% of the horses at my barn are gray and none have it due to the BO turning out mostly at night and having them in during the sunniest parts of the day.

[LookinSouth]

I think dapple greys are beautiful, but, the dapples rarely last and I have NO desire to own a white or flea bitten horse. I think once the dapples are gone they don’t look any nicer than a bay or chestnut and they are a heck of alot harder to keep clean! Also, a well fed/cared for bay can have dapples :). I prefer a bay, black or chestnut with some chrome and nice tail to most greys. And a good mind, conformation, soundness and work ethic always comes before color!!

[Mosey_2003]

And see, you couldn’t give me a gray. But switch out palomino for gray in your example…and I’d probably cave and buy the lower quality horse for the color :lol: People are funny about colors.

[Foxtrot_s]

I’ve had a string of greys. I’ve loved them all. I have a very clean paddock, she is kept blanketed and no bother at all to keep clean…well, very little over a brown horse. She is a beautiful milk white mare and stands out in a crowd.
She is so sweet, willing, bold, kind, gentle, I’m proud to have her, and her mother, and her grandmother.

Not to mention that there seems to be an unlimited number of “C” horses that can jump the moon.

[Vesper_Sparrow]

My grey gelding actually keeps himself cleaner most of the time than my chestnut mare does and than my old bay mare did. He’s quite vain, while they are/were pigs. What’s getting to me these days is lots of chrome on the leg–always stains there and prone to scratches. I’m swearing I’ll never have another horse with lots of chrome.

[Foxtrot_s]

A very good coat helps shed dirt - oil in feed. Greys don’t typically shine, but the condition will help.

[PaintedHunter]

[QUOTE=Vesper Sparrow;7391338]
My grey gelding actually keeps himself cleaner most of the time than my chestnut mare does and than my old bay mare did. He’s quite vain, while they are/were pigs. What’s getting to me these days is lots of chrome on the leg–always stains there and prone to scratches. I’m swearing I’ll never have another horse with lots of chrome.[/QUOTE]

Oh man, I envy you- I wish my grey kept himself clean. Instead, his favorite pasttime is laying down to sleep in a giant pool of pee. Always on his left side. I also often go get him and he has poop all over his fave or even ON HIS EYEBALL. he’s disgusting.

[GoForAGallop]

I have a big handsome grey QH, and I’m not going to lie, his color did make him more appealing. I was also 13 at the time, so cut a girl some slack.

He is mostly flea-bitten now, but I still love him, 12 years later. Of course, you don’t know what’s going on internally, but we have had no issues with melanomas. My vet says the QHs don’t seem to get them the way that TBs/other breeds do.

My friend just put down her young (12) grey TB mare because an internal tumor grew near her throatlatch and started affecting her breathing. Had it removed (to the tune of many thousands) but it was back a few short years later, and horse was uncomfortable. After that heartbreak, I’m not sure you could talk me into a grey TB. I’m very, very happy with my dark bay w/chrome mare.

[GotSpots]

Hmm, my last five were all bay or dark bay TBs with a little bit of chrome – after five years with a lovely but very manure-stain prone tobiano, I am DONE with greys or pinto unless the horse is perfect-perfect. There’s only so much of my life I want to devote to de-poopifying. I don’t honestly think color is all that important to most eventers, though a pretty face or some flash will garner attention. At least, when selling horses, I’ve never had anyway say “Gosh, another bay? Pity about the color.”

[Jealoushe]

Every one of my friends is grey obsessed…I myself am not a fan at all so I don’t get it!

One of my friends ended up with a wildy inappropriate horse because of this…grey goggles totally. She has been injured badly a few times with this horse…all she saw was grey. It’s really too bad.

[yellowbritches]

My grey was a stunner…and bat crap crazy. I’ll take my little bay tbs every day.

[FatCatFarm]

It’s the whole shining white horse romance thing. Think about it, every movie almost, the heroine and often the hero, rides a shining white horse. And I’ll admit that I do find them stunning; love them in heavy dapples and pure white but flea bitten no so much. Yes, when clean, I think they are fabulous. Have owned a few myself and without a doubt, all have been quirky. I am currently fostering a little pearlie white rescue Arabian mare who looks absolutely angelic. shrugs Shoot me. I have seen greys succomb prematurely to melanoma but have also known others who lived deep into their 20s. They are definitely easier to sell as riding horses.

[Shagyas_Rock]

Everyone’s got their preferences - that’s what makes the world go round I guess, but I’ve had three greys; one died of old age at 30, and I have two greys currently. I don’t bother trying to keep them clean. Unless we are going to a show/lesson/clinic of course. And they get a bath or hot toweling or whatever is appropriate for the weather, which of course, takes no more energy than if they were any other color. My bay mare is just as hard to keep clean . . . if she has taken a bath in the dust, a curry just creates great big huge smudges. . . needs a vaccum. So - if a person can relax not worry about it they are no more difficult to care for.