xc colors on chestnuts

Ding, ding, ding! I checked out the social media and definitely is her with those very distinctive colors - especially the breast collar. After seeing more pics, I still think the colors look smashing with chestnut - and are memorable regardless of horse color.

Thanks!

When you look at the colors that chestnuts come in, and then at the color wheel, you can see what colors work best.

Color theory shows that there are various ways to create pleasing color combos, among them:

  1. Analogous colors: this means choosing colors that are either side of the main color on the color wheel. So, for a chestnut, which is basically a darkish toned (brownish) orange, you’d use golden yellow or burgundy red as analogous colors. Bright red is a lighter tonal value than brownish orange, which is why it’s less pleasing than burgundy.

  2. Complementary colors: these are colors that are opposite the main color on the color wheel. Opposite orange is blue, blue-green and green for a red chestnut.

  3. Neutrals: black and white look good with all colors, in the right amount.

If you want to make a really sharp combo, adding a little bit of a bright color (neutral, analagous or complementary) to your main color scheme really sets things off. A bit of neutral white piping, or complementary gold. Main color royal blue, secondary color analogous lighter blue (same blue, just whiter), or complementary yellow or orange.

Navy blue is a safe bet for almost all horses though

Try this for fun combos: http://paletton.com - there are other tools like this out there.

I’m going to go with others on here and say I am not a fan of red on red. Bright red or maroon or anything in between on a chestnut has never been my favorite… or on a bay for that matter. I’m sure some rider/horse combos pull it off fine, but it isn’t for me. Then again, I have fushia boots for my bright bay gelding because it was all they had in stock to fit him at the time and they are perfectly good boots so I’m not planning on changing. I’m like an awful rainbow when I go schooling :wink:

Thanks for that link, I love things like that.

I currently use hunter and gold. https://photos.app.goo.gl/fNYjBYjg9jzvcgTg8
I’ve done navy and gold, too.

I currently use hunter and gold.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fNYjBYjg9jzvcgTg8

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I went to the paint store and got paint chip cards to see if could match my red chestnut Paint. The surprise was that she has far more yellow and brown in her coat and is a lot darker than I thought. Beside a bright bay horse that is quite obvious. The bright bays are much redder.

The paint chip card that matches her has the usual + white dilutions, and shows a pretty nice palomino and cremello color too!

My hands down favorite color on her is hunter green, but that’s actually not super common these days. I also like Navy blue.

I think olive and earth tones would look fantastic but that’s more a Western color scheme.

My coach rode her low level cross country a couple of times in sky blue, yellow, and bright green. It looked good and very visible! She went with basic black and white for dressage.

I have black leather dressage tack and don’t love it on her.

I really dislike anything in the red pink purple maroon burgundy family on any horse except a grey, black, or very dark bay. And i know one grulla dun that looks good in old rose or dusty pink.

I actually don’t like pink or purple on any horse unless the rider is under 10 years old :slight_smile: but red and maroon or burgundy are OK traditional horse colors, just not on chestnuts!

The red pink purple family of colors are the best however for me as tops. But I don’t want to wear them on my chestnut.

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I LOVE hunter green on a chestnut!!!

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My chestnut also goes in sky blue.

You beat me to it! Lol I guessed that was Sunny and albertaeventer by the description.

P.

That is very pretty!

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I’ve seen royal purple with grey on Chestnuts and it looks stunning, with gold accents.

Same colors you’d put on a redheaded person. Anything but orange, red, purple, or pink.

Best colors IMO – most shades of green, navy or royal or peacock blue, turquoise, teal, baby blue, warmer shades of yellow, and warmer shades of brown. Combined, or any of those shades with white.

I always rode my mare with a royal saddle pad and my vest matched. The rest was white. She had a big blaze and 4 white socks so we looked sharp around the course. Navy also looked nice on her but the royal really popped. [ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“data-attachmentid”:10200093}[/ATTACH]

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@albertaeventer did you see that you were mentioned upthread? A few years back a friend of mine posted a pic of you at Rebecca Farm, and I was much struck by your colors!

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Avoid red and orange. Yellow needs to be a complementary shade. Pink is best left for accents. You will never go wrong with shades of blue, green, or purple. My first horse is the only non dark bay mare I have owned, and I rode in hunter green and white. I added pink to the hunter with my current horse.

My old horse SirKnowzalot was a chestnut and our colors were green and navy.

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Royal blue

I love a chestnut in a nice emerald green. My chestnut’s colours are green and navy.

@Groom&Taxi I did! A friend directed me
to this thread so I thought I’d come comment :slight_smile: So glad you noticed us! That was our last event together before Sunny passed, so always cool to have it come up and have a blast from the past! <3