Chestnut (ee) is one of the three base colors and is found in most all horse breeds. Ponies are black, chestnut, bay, or brown with other colors diluting/modifying the base color. Chestnut ponies have a red body and red mane and tail. Their skin and eyes are dark. Chestnuts are also called sorrel or red, but in Chincoteagues are more often called chestnut.
Extension and agouti form the basis of all equine color. Extension determines whether or not a pony has black or not and agouti determines where it will go. Recessive extension creates red. Chestnuts carry agouti but without the dominant form of extension producing black agouti has no effect. The agouti status of chestnuts cannot be determined visually and must be tested.
Chestnut is a recessive so a pony must have two copies of chestnut in order to be chestnut. A sire and dam that are both chestnut cannot cannot produce anything but chestnut offspring. If a foal's presumed parents are both chestnut and if the foal isn't then that stallion is not the sire.
Since chestnut is a recessive that means that a non-chestnut pony can visually not show that it carries chestnut. That's how you end up with a pair of bay or black parents producing a chestnut foal. Both non-chestnut parents must carry recessive chestnut in order for them to produce a chestnut offspring. Similarly, for a chestnut and a non-chestnut to have a chestnut foal then the non-chestnut parent must carry chestnut recessively. Most bays/blacks/buckskins carry recessive chestnut.
Flaxen chestnuts have manes and/or tails that are lighter than their body color. Other chestnuts have manes and tails that are darker than their body color and are sometimes referred to as tostado chestnuts.
Chestnut is likely an original color in Chincoteagues as it is common and the breed was originally all solid dark colors. A 1891 article in the New York City newspaper The Sun stated that the ponies "are most frequently black, gray, sorrel, or dun [buckskin]." Leonard D. Sale wrote in 1896 in The Horse Review of Chicago that, "The prevailing colors are bay, brown, chestnut and light sorrel. The Los Angeles Times in 1893 wrote that "There are many bay, sorrels, and blacks". A 1912 Baltimore Sun article stated that the ponies were sometimes "a dull mahogany red". A 1923 St. Petersburg Times article described the ponies as "bay, gray, dun [buckskin], black, and sorrel".
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Chestnut tobiano. Sire was a bay tobiano carrying chestnut and dam was a chestnut tobiano.
Misty II's Henry (Lightning of Chincoteague x Misty II) Pedigree |
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Chestnut as a foal and as an adult. Both parents were chestnut.
American Girl (Phantom Mist x Cinnamon Blaze) Pedigree |
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Solid chestnut. Sire was chestnut tobiano and dam was a bay tobiano carrying recessive chestnut.
Suzy's Sweetheart (Cherokee Chief x Voyager) Pedigree |
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Solid dark chestnut. Sire was a bay tobiano carrying recessive chestnut and dam was a chestnut tobiano.
Crack O' Dawn (Rainbow Warrior x Cloudburst) Pedigree |
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Light chestnut tobiano splashed white in summer and winter coats.
Butterfly Kisses (Courtney's Boy x Thetis) Pedigree |
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Chestnut minimal splashed white as a foal and as an adult. Both parents were bays carrying recessive chestnut.
Kayak Wave Runner (Wild Thing x Fire Star) Pedigree Adult photo courtesy of Barbara Steele. |
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Dark chestnut tobiano. Both parents were chestnut tobianos.
Archer's Gambit (North Star x Lily Pad) Pedigree |
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Chestnut Chincoteague foal in 1913.
Photo from Harper's Magazine. |
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Chestnuts on Assateague in 1913.
The Philadelphia Inquirer on July, 27, 1913. |
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Chestnut Chincoteagues in 1933.
Photo from The Baltimore Sun on July 23, 1933. |