The Vicious Color Cycle

The horse industry has a love/hate relationship with color. It certainly draws the eye, making a horse stand out in a herd of plain browns, but it also is sneered down upon by many aspects of the industry. It means that in some ways, a colored horse has MORE value to the market than an equivalent (or even better) plain colored horse. But, because of stigma surrounding color horses, competing in rings dominated by quarter horses, TBs, and WBs, a colored horse not only has to be better than his competition, but has to be absolutely the top horse by a large margin to win- and sometimes, he still won't.

So where does the stigma arise? A few places, in fact. The first is one not a lot of people want to hear, but in established color breeds, a lot of fault goes to the breeders themselves. By striving for color over any other trait, low quality horses often flood the market. Some breeders even go so far as to cull solids from their bloodlines- even excellent quality ones, rather keeping a poorly made leopard than a good using solid to breed forward. When this happens, color blind buyers purchase these lower quality horses, which end up performing poorly against their non-color-bred counterparts. This feeds the idea that color horses are inferior as a whole, that ALL color breed horses are low quality. And as a result, many people who grow up on this adage will not purchase one, even if it is ultimately a better animal for the job they want.

The second place stigma comes in is 'Tradition'. Tradition in a lot of realms of competition calls for solid colors of bay, black, chestnut and grey and anything beyond that is viewed as less fitting for the job on color alone. Even a blue eye can knock you down a few placings if the judge is a stickler. But, we must call into question tradition. Tradition for whom? There's a whole wide world out there. Is it tradition for a dressage horse to only be solid? Tell that to the Spanish Riding School, often touted as the end all be all of dressage, where loudly leopard and blanketed horses once were, before the fad for greys only arose. Spotted horses were once synonymous with wealth and status among many cultures. Tradition in the horse world is a narrow avenue, and mostly kept in check by a few elitists who would rather not broaden their own horizons.

We've dealt with it plenty. People will come to our farm and proudly tell us they hate Appaloosas. Okay, then leave! We've heard judges make snide remarks about our spotted horses, noticeably scoring them lower than equivalent, or worse, competitors. Judges like this keep the uniquely patterned horse in a self-fulfilling cycle, where they have a hard time being taken seriously except in a group of their own peers. Biased judges place a colored horse unfairly, then that animal is devalued by their loss, then the solid-preference market has proof that colored horses are lower quality by default. Because if the best colored horse on the market places under your average chestnut plodder, that means every other colored horse is worth even LESS. Even showing in your own color breed shows is not always the best judge of quality or skill, as judges with backgrounds in non-color breeds bring their bias into color-breed show rings.

The only thing you can do is simply keep going. Keep putting high quality horses out there. Strive to separate your horses from color only programs. Get acclaim in arenas where color can't effect your score. Get your stock in jobs where ribbons don't matter, but a hard working and high caliber animal is worth their weight in gold. Get your solid and minimal foals into top arenas and boggle a few minds when you say, "No- he's actually a...." after walking out with a blue ribbon. Eventually, you'll get someplace, even if you have to work hard to overcome breed stereotypes and breed biases.

And the best way to make change: don't contribute to stereotypes by breeding for color first! You can always add color in one generation of breeding to the right horse, but undoing poor conformation, attitude, and genetic faults can take many generations, and sometimes those poor traits stick like glue. Better to start with a high quality solid than a poor quality horse of any color or pattern! The second best way is to throw your hat into the ring and become a judge, a competitor, a journalist, or someone else that helps spotlight less popular breeds when they deserve to win.

Help promote the idea that the best horse for the job can't be a bad color!


Copyrighted
Bron Stark
2019
Trinity Appaloosa Farm