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| Blessi takes me through fire at a police horse training clinic. |
“Oh my mare is a fiery redhead” or “My chestnut gelding is
hard to train” are comments that you’ll hear owners say about their chestnut horses. But are these statements supported by science? Interestingly researchers have found that genes
influencing melanocytes that determine coat colors are related to certain behavioral
traits in other species. For example
tortoiseshell and calico cats are really divas. But what about horses?
JL Finn et al adapted the Canine Behavioral Assessment and
Research Questionnaire (a validated dog behavior survey) contained 90
behavioral assessment questions. Over
900 responses were returned from owners of Arabians, Australian stock horses,
ponies, Warmbloods, Crossbred, Thoroughbreds, Irish Sport horses, and Quarter
Horses. The researchers used the 477 responses
returned by owners of bay and chestnut horses (stallions were excluded). The greatest influence on behavior was
gender, age, and breed.
There was basically no difference in ease of handling or
training between chestnuts and bays. Chestnuts were a bit more difficult when
their feet were picked up by strangers but the researchers felt that was due to
a sampling error. However owner
reported results seem to indicate that chestnuts are bolder than bays since
they are reported to approach new objects more readily.
“The current results suggest that chestnut horses are more
likely to approach objects and animals in their environment, regardless of
their familiarity. This is particularly worth noting as prior to domestication
and selection, the vast majority of horses expressed the bay phenotype and the
increase in coat-colour variability is widely considered a direct consequence
of domestication (Cieslak
et al., 2011, Ludwig et
al., 2009, Pruvost et
al., 2011). As a result, it is possible that selection for the chestnut
phenotype may have inadvertently involved selection for boldness as well.”
More research is of course needed to confirm these results.
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