Chestnut Horse Breeds | The Equinest

Chestnut Breeds Chestnut coloring can be found in almost every horse breed on the planet & some cultures regard this color to be the strongest and fittest of them all.

Basic Chestnut

Although I can’t testify to the truth of the legend above, there are some breeds who are prized for fiery red coats. Chestnut is one of two base colors (the other is black) and perhaps the most common of all horse colors. Unlike the black & grey breeds, many of the chestnut breeds weren’t created by natural selection, they were created by mankind through selective breeding.

Found in a variety of shades from the lightest, softest brown to a deep, dappled liver, this is one color with a lot of stretch.

Mangalarga Paulista Horse

Chestnut Celebs

As with many of these lists, I don’t even recognize some of the names here and I’ve written about every one of them. Probably the most well known chestnuts are the sturdy Suffolk Punch and the perhaps even sturdier Belgian Draft. The fact that mankind’s imprint is so firmly slapped across most of the chestnut breeds makes it doubtful that there was a common ancestor at work in creating them.