Whatever Happened to a Nice Bay Horse?

Circa 1990, nerdy glasses and all - me and my old chestnut horse!

Now it's all about COLOR. What do you think?

Many years ago, all you saw in the model horse show ring among customized horse models were plain Janes - bays, browns, chestnuts, blacks. If someone had a nice palomino we'd ooh and ah. A nice Appaloosa? The painter was a genius.  Don't even talk to me about dappled grays. I saw so many blobs and circles of paint passing for dappled grays back in the 1970s it would make your head spin.

As I recall, it was that way in the real horse world too - although dappled grays looked a tad nicer! Whatever barns I rode at during the 1980s and 1990s on Long Island, you saw lots of chestnuts and bays, the occasional gray, and rarely, a paint, Appaloosa or palomino.

I knew two roans in all my riding days back on Long Island. My friend Janet's horse, a Quarter Horse named Pumpkin, was a beautiful sorrel roan that looked like a pumpkin color.  Gentleman Jack was a fantastic, comfortable cantering couch kind of school horse I leased and rode who was a most unusual bay roan. 

Now today everywhere I look, model horse people crave color.  It seems to be the fad and trend among real horses, too!  Roans, rabicanos, dilute creams, etc etc etc - I don't even know what half of these colors mean.

I rode English, and English riders are conservative. The big palomino horse I rode in the early 1990s into equitation classes always attracted tons of attention (and compliments - he was spooky as spooky could be, but boy was he big, bold and beautiful).  Maybe that's why people are gravitating towards color?

But I have to laugh.  I contacted a painting artist about prices to paint some of my resins, and she was quick to try to upsell me on a roan. Or perhaps a nice tobiano? No thanks, I said, I just want a beautiful chestnut color. She seemed so disappointed. Maybe that's because the tricky colors are more fun to paint?

What do you think about the craze on customized horses for color?  Do you love the colorful model horses - the paints, the Appy, the rabicanos and what not - or do like the traditional colors?