"Typical Chestnut Mare"

To me it means nothing. A horse is a horse regardless of its colour.
They are supposedly meant to be a bit more fiery, but i feel that is because some people stereotype and you get back from a horse what you put in. Treat as hot headed, you get just that!
 
Tends to mean something a bit more moody, temperamental or fiery, like NF said - just like the red-headed woman stereotype. Stereotypes exist for a reason, but I think any experiences of temperamental chestnut mares arise from the gender rather than the coat colour!
 
Lots of phrases in the horse world most are stereotypical and are more than often an excuse for not ironing out perceived issues that the horse may have. Its like saying all Scotsmen are overly aggressive or all Germans are disciplined.
 
I have a chesnut mare and am a chesnut mare myself. We get on brilliantly, she would do anything for me.
 
I was warned off buying a chestnut horse once by YO - think that was more to do with my inexperience tho - and the breed of the horse. He was too big and fast for me!
 
Some would have you believe they are more sensitive, like red headed humans feel pain more acutely etc I don't know much about that... but wikipedia has a bit on it, and I guess the same could be true for horses or other species if that is the case...

Two studies have demonstrated that people with red hair have different sensitivity to pain compared to people with other hair colors. One study found that people with red hair are more sensitive to thermal pain (associated with naturally occurring low vitamin K levels),[36] while another study concluded that redheads are less sensitive to pain from multiple modalities, including noxious stimuli such as electrically induced pain.[37][38][39]

Researchers have found that people with red hair require greater amounts of anesthetic.[40] Other research publications have concluded that women with naturally red hair require less of the painkiller pentazocine than do either women of other hair colors or men of any hair color. A study showed women with red hair had a greater analgesic response to that particular pain medication than men.[41] A follow-up study by the same group showed that men and women with red hair had a greater analgesic response to morphine-6-glucuronide.[39]

The unexpected relationship of hair color to pain tolerance appears to be because redheads have a mutation in a hormone receptor that can apparently respond to at least two hormones: the skin pigmentation hormone melanocyte-stimulating hormone, and the pain relieving hormone known as endorphins. (These hormones are both derived from the same precursor molecule, POMC, and are structurally similar.) Specifically, redheads have a mutated MC1R gene, which produces a mutated MC1R receptor, also known as the melanocortin-1 receptor.[42] Melanocytes, which are cells that produce pigment in skin and hair, use the MC1R receptor to recognize and respond to melanocyte-stimulating hormone from the anterior pituitary gland. Melanocyte-stimulating hormone normally stimulates melanocytes to make black eumelanin, but if the melanocytes have a mutated MC1R receptor, they will make reddish pheomelanin instead. The MC1R receptor also occurs in the brain, where it is one of a large set of POMC-related receptors that are apparently involved not only in responding to MSH, but also in responses to endorphins and possibly other POMC-derived hormones.[42] Though the details are not clearly understood, it appears that there is some "cross talk" between the POMC hormones that may explain the link between red hair and pain tolerance.

There is little or no evidence to support the belief that people with red hair have a higher chance than people with other hair colors to hemorrhage or suffer other bleeding complications.[43][44] One study, however, reports a link between red hair and a higher rate of bruising.[

But I do believe the old saying 'a good horse is never a bad colour' ...and I myself had never had an issue with any chesnut mare, thoroughbred or else.

If you look through literary history the chestnut mares are always the 'wild' ones, flicka, ginger from black beauty etc....
 
Interesting. I only have 3 horses and have had them all for at least 6 years so It's a little late to fall for a stereotype sort of thing.
But here's what I see:
Bixby is a chestnut and Minnie is a buckskin. They are both mares.
Bixby seems very thin skinned. She prefers to be brushed on her whole body with a face bush. Scraping off mud really makes her mad. She tends to be girthy. Flies love her!
If Bixby and Minnie both stand in the same stall, flies will eat Bixby up so bad she will have blood running down her legs while they barely bother Minnie

Minnie loves the rubber curry. The more noticeable scratches she gets the better.

So I do believe the thing about skin sensitivity.

Bixby can be very opinionated but I just put it down to her having more life experience than Minnie.
 
But this could apply to any skin colour or breed. They are all individual.
The cob is thick skinned, really enjoys me going to town with the brushes, when she grooms me however i realise that i still produce a feeble attempt.
She isn't girthy and although very opinionated, she is also gentle.

She is a cob, so i get people say typical cob more than typical mare. Or for a cob she is very flexible, jumps well. The joke is that the Welsh bit broke the gate.

Eta-there was a thinking that white hooves were weaker, my trimmer disagrees with that. But the skin surrounding it is more likely to get mud fever because it has less pigment.
 
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The description is just s sheer joy as I own a chestnut (arab) mare I rehabilitated as a nervous wreck. Live a cliche?

No- after years of work she is so trusting and as brave a lioness with me- it was not due toher colour but abuse. She is a pleasure to be near but she is blase, or at worse defensive. around strangers.
 
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I did a study of this subject for my degree dissertation, the only significant difference I found with genetically chestnut based horses were they were more likely to be difficult to clip (possibly due to more sensitive skin), other than that temperamentally they were no different to genetically black based horses.
 
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