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Chestnut or Sorrel?

3K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  Southern Grace 
#1 ·
Is this horse a chestnut or a sorrel? And whats the difference?
 

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#8 ·
Your horse looks exactly like my sorrel QH! Very coppery - I just acquired a chestnut Morgan last week, and the differences (at least with these two) are more than I imagined, seeing them together! I was always under the impression that sorrel and chestnut were more similar, but my chestnut looks by far a darker shade compared to Star :)
* The Morgan in my avatar is Laney, who is a bay - time for a new avatar!
 
#10 ·
Northern, there are variations of chestnut/sorrel, but they're the same color. You can believe otherwise, but that won't make it so.

A liver chestnut is still red, as is a bright copper penny sorrel. Same color, just different depths and richness.
I don't believe otherwise, but agree - that is what I was attempting to say, but in a round about way, I suppose :)
 
#12 ·
Oooh, so happy for you! He is a handsome boy! What I find with Star (all 3 of my mares, of course!) is that daily brushing, even if there's only time for a 'quickie', brings out those natural oils and the sheen in the sunlight is beautiful! Is Copper registered? Would be neat to find if he's related to Star....She's an Impressive grand-daughter - Sire was, 'Impressive Dandy', Dam was, 'By Far A Star'.... Congratulations, and I'll bet you can't wait! :)
 
#13 ·
I have no idea whether or not he's registered. I bought him from the ranch that i was working at, and they got Copper and a few other horses from some lady who just could afford to keep them. She basically dropped them off, said they were broke, and left!

I plan on spoiling him a little (not food wise, he obviously doesnt need that!) but daily brushing and lots of love!

Thanks, i can't wait to bring him home!
 
#15 ·
As others have said, chestnut and sorrel are genetically the same color: red.

However, some folks will use both terms to differentiate between shades of the horse. For example. around here, the lighter, more orangey horses are called sorrel but the deeper, darker horses are called chestnut.

I've actually got a perfect picture example too LOL. This is Bessie and Rafe, they are mother and son. Bessie is the lighter and I always call her sorrel. Rafe, I always call him chestnut.




Then, of course, there is the super dark chestnuts that appear to be nearly black. Those are called liver chestnuts. Anything lighter than this and darker than Rafe, I would simply call a dark chestnut LOL. Help you get more confused yet?
 
#19 · (Edited)
Only horse folks can argue the semantics of "color" and "shade". All I know is that in elementary school my little box of Crayolas had 16 colors, NOT 16 shades :)
BTW, my box of horse colors has both a sorrel and a chestnut.
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#20 · (Edited)
When I was younger, someone told me that sorrels have the lighter manes (usually with some white hairs interspersed) and chestnuts had same color or darker. I whole heartedly believed this until I got into genetics.

In genetic terms ee is chestnut (if there are no other color factors modifying it), regardless of breed. Sorrel is used by many registries as well as horse owners as a coat color, but it is not a genetic color term. Most horse color information will use them interchangeably.

I would also beg to differ on Chestnut being the most common color. A horse is only Chestnut if it has no other colors modifying it (a palomino is not a chestnut, although it is homozygous for red "ee"). As red is recessive, genetically speaking, you would have more horses black based than red based, and once you take out any creme or grey modifiers, I wouldn't think Chestnut would stand as most common horse color (though it is more common in certain breeds than others). When I lived in Ireland, chestnuts were very rare and valuable, and the Andalusian breed would have wiped out chestnut if it hadn't survived hiding under grey modifiers. Not to mention Friesians, Shires, and Clydesdales (all of which do have the red gene, but very uncommon).
 
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