The Difference between Bay and Chestnut
I’ve noticed there tends to be a bit of confusion over the difference between ‘bay’ and ‘chestnut’, so I hope this might help to clear it up a bit.
Bay and Chestnut are 2 distinct coat colours. Some people think that horses with a brown coat are bay, and horses with an orange coat are chestnut. This is incorrect, and this is the reason that I’ve used the same coat colour for each pair of horses in the picture.
Essentially, the big difference between bay and chestnut is the points. By this, I mean the mane, tail and lower legs.
A bay horse generally has black points. A chestnut does not.
A bay’s mane and tail can range from dark grey to jet black. Sometimes the edges will bleach to brown, but the main area of the hair will be black. For the sake of simplicity, I’m not considering diluting or affecting genes here. Sometimes you might find a bay horse that has very short black stockings on its legs or seemingly no black stockings at all. This is called a ‘wild bay’, and has nothing to do with whether the horse is wild or domestic.
Chestnut’s will have manes and tails that range in colour from pale blonde to dark brown. You may sometimes find that a chestnut’s lower legs are a darker brown/orange than its main body.
The easiest way to tell the difference is this: if the horse has black on it, either on its lower legs or mane and tail, or both, it’s a bay. If it doesn’t have black hairs on its body, mane or tail, it’s a chestnut.
Render © me
These pictures are NOT for free use or adoptables. I've added a watermark so they don't get stolen, so please don't use them without my permission
Bay and Chestnut are 2 distinct coat colours. Some people think that horses with a brown coat are bay, and horses with an orange coat are chestnut. This is incorrect, and this is the reason that I’ve used the same coat colour for each pair of horses in the picture.
Essentially, the big difference between bay and chestnut is the points. By this, I mean the mane, tail and lower legs.
A bay horse generally has black points. A chestnut does not.
A bay’s mane and tail can range from dark grey to jet black. Sometimes the edges will bleach to brown, but the main area of the hair will be black. For the sake of simplicity, I’m not considering diluting or affecting genes here. Sometimes you might find a bay horse that has very short black stockings on its legs or seemingly no black stockings at all. This is called a ‘wild bay’, and has nothing to do with whether the horse is wild or domestic.
Chestnut’s will have manes and tails that range in colour from pale blonde to dark brown. You may sometimes find that a chestnut’s lower legs are a darker brown/orange than its main body.
The easiest way to tell the difference is this: if the horse has black on it, either on its lower legs or mane and tail, or both, it’s a bay. If it doesn’t have black hairs on its body, mane or tail, it’s a chestnut.
Render © me
These pictures are NOT for free use or adoptables. I've added a watermark so they don't get stolen, so please don't use them without my permission
 Previous |
Return to blackhorsebeth's gallery |
 Next |
This image was created by blackhorsebeth and shouldn't be used without permission!
Please respect the artists!
Please respect the artists!
Comments
13734 visits
Report this image 
Last comments
| April 07, 2013 | ||
Site Booster, Site Builder (Content), Si...  | ||
| DID SOMEONE SAY DRACO MALFOY |
the frist bay looks more buckskin the other diffrence is the genes bay is on black (EE) chesnut IS red (ee), ee's range is your colours like chesnut,so pali's are eeCrcr , red dun or chesnut dun is red with dun gene this is also where red/strawberry roans come from, they are on red with the roan gene the bay and blue roan are on black (EEaa or Eeaa is black ,EEAA or EeAa is bay) |
Return
That's very true. Again, like I said, I tried to keep this guide simple, so I didn't go into modifying genes like roan or cream dilutes.