The South Dakota Cowgirl

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A Horse of Every Color, Part 1

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I realize that a lot of people who read my blog don’t know the difference between sorrel and chestnut, or brown and bay- a horse is just a horse to them. So I figured, since we have a horse of just about every color here on the ranch, this is a great excuse to show off some of our pretty horses, and educate my readers on some horse terminology too! Bang! Two birds, with one stone! Ok. Maybe I am just a little too excited about this!

First, the American Quarter Horse Association, which is the breed registry that most of our horses belong to, officially recognizes 17 colors. Bay, Black, Brown, Sorrel, Chestnut, Dun, Buckskin, Red Dun, Grullo, Palomino, Gray, Red Roan, Blue Roan, Bay Roan, Cremello, Perlino, White. Of the colors listed, the three that we don’t currently have here on the ranch, are Cremello, Perlino and White.

We’ll start first with Bay. It’s an easily distinguishable color, as the base color is red based while the legs, mane and tail are black.

This is one of our 4 studs, Chachi. Three of our 4 studs are bays.

Chachi

Next is Black- quite self explanatory, though it’s often confused with brown. The difference is, that a black horse has black points- and while they may fade in the sun, their nose will always be black, whereas a brown horse will have lighter points- at the nose, the flank, and often the ears.

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Notice how black these colts noses are? There is some sun fade through their flanks, but these are some BLACK colts.

Now, a good picture of a brown horse, one of our stud prospects, DX Tabasco Tivio, aka Cisco; I’m sure you’ll be able to see the difference straightaway!

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You can see that he’s not really red enough to be considered bay, and he’s not black enough to be black. So he’s brown.

Sorrel is a simple color to distinguish. People often call a sorrel horse, a red horse. There are several shades of sorrel. This and bay are the most common horse colors.

Here is DX Toots Zee Pop, aka Gidget.

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The last color we’ll cover in this post is Chestnut. Genetically it’s the exact same as sorrel, but it manifests itself in a different way. Both my horse Gump and his little brother, Dino are Chestnuts. Next to black, it’s my favorite horse color!

DX Jurassic Classic, aka Dino:

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And because I can’t leave him out:

Dx Gump

In the next color installment, we’ll cover the following colors:

Dun, Buckskin, Red Dun, Grullo, Palomino.

Happy Thursday!

XO

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About ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Jenn Zeller is the creative mind and boss lady behind The South Dakota Cowgirl. She is an aspiring horsewoman, photographer, brilliant social media strategist and lover of all things western.

After a brief career in the investment world to support her horse habit (and satisfy her mother, who told her she had to have a “real” job after graduating college), she finally took the leap and stepped away from a regular income; trading the business suit once and for all for cowgirl boots, a hat, and jeans. She has not looked back.

When Jenn first moved to The DX Ranch on the South Dakota plains, she never imagined she’d find herself behind a camera lens capturing an authentic perspective of ranching, and sharing it with others. Jenn has always been called to artistry, and uses music, writing, images, home improvement, and her first true love of horses to express her ranching passion.

Horses are the constant thread and much of her work centers around using her unique style of writing to share her horsemanship journey with others in publications such as CavvySavvy, the AQHA Ranching Blog, the West River Eagle, the family ranch website, and her own website.

Using photography to illustrate her stories has created other opportunities -- Jenn’s brand “The South Dakota Cowgirl” has grown to the level of social media “Influencer”. This notoriety has led to work with Duluth Trading Company, Budweiser, Wyoming Tourism, Vice, Circle Z Ranch and Art of the Cowgirl, to name a few. She also serves as a brand ambassador for Woodchuck USA, Arenus Equine Health, Triple Crown Feed and Just Strong fitness apparel. Her photography has been featured by Instagram, Apple, TIME Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Oprah Magazine. Jenn’s work has been published internationally, has been seen in several books and has graced the covers of several magazines.

Jenn became a social media influencer by accident when she started to explore Instagram as a way to share her life on the ranch with folks that don’t get to experience it. It’s grown into an incredible platform that she uses to empower women, create an environment for self improvement and share life on the ranch.

When she’s not working, she loves to drink coffee, play with her naughty border collie named Copper, start ranch colts, and run about the country chasing cans. Her mother still thinks she doesn’t have a “real” job.

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Comments

  1. Kimberley says

    We have similar tastes! My favorite color is black and chestnut is a close second! Of course I never pick a horse for its color but I will always have soft spot for blacks!

    Reply

  4. Heather says

    I love this post and very educational. Even hubby was reading it. He knows a little about horses from waaaaay back and he didn’t know there are 17 colors.

    Can’t wait to read more, going to have to bookmark this post for future reference.

    Reply

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