The good thing about my favorite colour is that it is easily one of the single most common colours for a horse ON THE PLANET. The bad thing is... I can't ever seem to GET ONE!!!! And what colour DO I get? One of my absolute least favorite colours.
Now don't get me wrong, I think "The Wrong Colour" is lovely. A lot of people like it, and I do think it is pretty. I just don't really find it appealing and I have had so many ponies in that colour that I am really really sick of it. Yes, it is flashy, eye catching... down right beautiful. But I am done with it!
You see, my favorite horse colour is bay. Plain old boring bay. With or without white (a bay and white paint is pure pure bliss) but even a solid bay makes my heart skip a beat. The deep (or bright, since it can come in any wide range of shades) red of the body, the midnight black of the points and mane and tail... It's just beautiful to me. I love it. Beyond love it.
So what colour do I end up with instead? SILVER bay! There are people out there who seek out silver bay, and can not believe I am so sick of it. You see, silver bay is common in mini horses and ponies. It is genetically bay with a silver modifier. Which means that every part of the horse that would have been black is diluted down to some lighter colour.
Here is an example of a silver bay, my late Shetland sweetheart, Jamie, mowing the dog run:
and here is a picture of him and his mother, Lilly:
and HERE is a picture of Sparrow:
Are you seeing a theme here?
So.... you know I am working towards buying my dream horse. My dream horse is actually a black and white tobiano marked horse... but my back up plan if I absolutely can't get the money together to buy him is to find a Haflinger... and if that doesn't work out then to look into a grade draft type pony/small horse or a Standardbred. And guess what colour Haflingers are? Well genetically they are not silver bay, but they might as well be because visually they look just about the same.
To see what I mean check out this farm and their lovely Haflingers:
http://www.shadygrovehaflingers.com/
Maybe I should just invest in some hair dye, hehe.
I think the "favorite horse colors" is one of the first lists we all make as children (and some adults) when we are hit by the horse bug. My number 1 has always been a black horse. I was lucky enough to own a black horse and I can't begin to tell you what an attention getter a black horse is. Even on days when she was at her worst, I still had people telling me how pretty she was. I learned a valuable lesson about, "handsome is as handsome does".
ReplyDeleteNow I own a gray. Also a lovely color to look at but has issues that would make me never want to own another one. Namely the incidence of melanomas. I've owned a chestnut, sorrel, black and gray. I often joke the next one will have to be a bay. Unless I get the Friesian of my dreams...
Fun post!
I don't know why it is is, but I have a very difficult time with favorites. . .
ReplyDeleteI swear it depends on the day, my mood, the shifting of planetary balances in the cosmos-
I dunno, I just can't make up my mind.
No favorite horse color,
No favorite color in general,
I'm sorta partial to them all. . . .
I must admit though, that any color of horse looks awesome all shedded out and sleekly summer-fat- I love SHINY horses!
Also liver chestnuts, blood bays, paints with intricate patterns, copper-penny palominos, duns with primitive markings, buckskin paints, blinding white (okay, fine. . . gray.)Lately been partial to grullas, and I love dapples, on any color. . .
Geez, I like them all!
Colour... I don't so mind colour. I would like some forelock though. My Bonnie just doesn't have any. Well not exactly none - but very little. Not enough to braid and be pretty. Doesn't even reach the brow band of her dressage bridle.
ReplyDeletePony, could you send me some of that flaxen? It won't match the rest of her chestnut self, but she can blonde for a bit?
JeniQ said...
ReplyDelete"Pony, could you send me some of that flaxen? It won't match the rest of her chestnut self, but she can blonde for a bit?"
I could probably actually do that, hahaha!!!
I know.. I know.. I could pull some from her tail and do those little tiny extension braids and give her one heck of a forelock!
ReplyDelete