"Painting horses" Topic

Anyone got any tips for painting horses?

Of course, the best way to get an idea what they look like is to go out and find some. It's natural to want to paint variations on our cavalry – white flecks on their noses, white socks or that wonderful colouring when horses with white uppers have darker lower parts and white spots in the transition. Or the fact most horses have much darker hair and shins, although their hooves often remain lighter.

This is a useful description:
"Bay horses have a brown body with black points (mane, tail, and lower legs), while chestnuts and sorrels have a brown or reddish body, mane, and tail. Seal brown is a specific dark brown with lighter areas around the eyes and muzzle".

But:
Colonels do like a nice turn-out and if they can get their troops fielding the same colour horses, they will. Which necessarily means less variations, less flecks than you see in a typical stable or horse race nowadays.

Americans probably realise that piebald horses are far less common in the Old World where they are generally looked down upon by cavalrymen, being associated with gypsies and the poor.

Well-bred horses are a symbol of wealth; a sign of good breeding being a single coat-colour. So, another thing I found out is that despite the artistic licence afforded modern uniform illustrators, the more wealthy a regiment, the more likely they are to have single-colour horses without white flecks or socks. That's why the best sources we have for the colour of horses is contemporary battle-paintings, as these paintings immediately had to pass the scrutiny of participants.

Single-colour horses are especially deriguour in Spain, where breeding standard have all but bred variations out of the stud population.

For French horses, I found this:
Light Cavalry (e.g., Hussars): Often brown.
Heavy Cavalry: Often black.
Special Units (e.g., trumpeters): Often white or grey to stand out.
Officers: Used privately purchased horses, which varied in color. Officers in elite guard regiments might use black or white horses.

Ironically, you're asking for help and providing lots of good thoughts in advance.

Thanks so much for your insights.

I have always heard that the attempt was to match horse colors by squadron.

indeed quite far from a monochromatic vision, one colour per squadron, but it is more complicated :

Coat colors per squadron?
TMP link

Napoleonic cavalry horse colours?
TMP link

Also this issue has been raised by Cacadoress at TMP link You need to cross-post when posting a new topic to avoid having to repeat yourself & ending up with unconnected comments!

Prince of Essling,
Ha! I have trouble cross-posting at all: on my tablet the b*****y adverts obscure the title and I can't see what I'm posting or if it went through at all. It's all guesswork, mate.

Col Durnford
"I have always heard that the attempt was to match horse colors by squadron"

Thanks. That's very useful information. Made me enquire (see Austria).

There seemed to be a general rule that heavy cavalry regiments preferred darker horses and consequently lighter cavalry were left with lighter colours. Could be some natural correlation to strength.

All-black was a prestige colour, and sometimes, the far less common white. Includes for infantry officers.

White flecks (socks, face markings etc) lowered the prestige, therefore more common for chasseurs. And for dragoons that tended to need replacements more often.

I found these suggestions for the

~ British:

Black horses favoured for guard, heavy cavalry and the R.H.A. White flecks avoided.

Lighter colours for musicians. White unusual. For

~ French:

Darker browns for heavy cavalry regiments.

Black horses favoured but not uniform for prestigious units like the Grenadiers à Cheval and Carabiniers. Guard Artillery pretty consistently used black, especially at Waterloo.

White horses slightly more common for Mamelukes.

Lighter colours for light cavalry units like hussars.

Grey horses for musicians.

Piebalds sometimes used to carry drummers.

~ Austria: as above, including a strong tendency to keep squadron colours the same.

~ Spain: as French, avoidance of white flecks, but in addition one of their prestigious breeds, the Pura Raza Española, comes in various colours, like bay, chestnut, and dun.

~ Prussian functional bias meant that colour was never a deciding factor. Black still a prestige colour, just a mild tendency to see darker colours like brown for heavier cavalry, and lighter colours for hussars.

~ Portugal: no preference. Black and bay horses are more common.

~ Russia: no preference. Pure breeds like the Don breed appeared as bay, black, gray, or chestnut.

~ Poland: Slight tendency: darker horses for heavier cavalry and greys for trumpeters.

~ Dutch: Black, bay, brown, and chestnut variations, more white flecks; tendancy for darker horses for heavier regiments. Greys for musicians.

This is thought-provoking, especially for paint tips:
link

For Napoleonic horses, this PDF link is informative regarding colours. It lists horses being sold off as surplus from British regiments in 1814 (when the wars were thought to be over) and 1815.
On the whole, the heavier the cavalry, the darker the colour with the Household cavalry mostly on blacks and the Hussars on a mix of colours including chestnuts and roans. The 'Scots Greys' are obviously an exception.

TMP link has another old TMP discussion where the preferred colours for French squadrons is given.
As mentioned in that discussion, losses in campaigns could result in the ideal mix of colours not being achieved. However, some campaigns were quite short. I've also read of heavy cavalry regiments being allowed to take horses from lighter regiments (though that may have been in a roughly period fiction). Part of the reason for the preference for dark colours in heavy regiments was that there was supposed to be a link between colour and whether a horse was 'hot-blooded' or 'cold-blooded'. Part of this definition was to do with build but it is a lot easy to tell someone to collect dark horses than it was to get them to assess new acquisitions by their build.

Sometime after the Napoleonic wars, the Russian hussars were ordered to have these colours
In the first regiments of each division (Sumy, Izyum, and Akhtyrka) — sorrels.
In the second regiments (Olviopol, Pavlograd, and Aleksandriya) —blacks.
In the third regiments (Klyastitsy — renamed from the Grodno, Yelisavetgrad, and Mariupol) — grey.
In the fourth regiments (Lubny, Irkutsk, and Prince of Orange's) — chestnuts

For my 6mm Russians I was anachronistic and used these colours. That meant that the Aleksandriya had black dolmans, black pelisses, black shabraques, black shakos and rode black horses. The Akhtyrka had a similar effect in the lightish browns. Looked rather nice imho.

As mentioned above, the French guard artillery had black horses and this was considered to be so important that some of the other prestigious units had to give theirs up and make do with other colours.

There was also an assumption that the more white socks etc. a horse had, the weaker they were (either weaker hooves or just generally weaker). While untrue, this was popularly believed at the time.

Swanpster,

"There was also an assumption that the more white socks etc. a horse had, the weaker they were (either weaker hooves or just generally weaker). While untrue, this was popularly believed at the time."

Still widely believed. While a regimental colonel may only want to procure strong, fast horses and not care what breed they are, they have no way to test every horse. So instead, they can only specify the strongest and fastest breed. Which comes with breed standards defined by, among other things, shape (including the face) and colour.

I asked my best friend, who's a relatively famous jockey and he says the sign of a Thoroughbred riding horse is absence of white flecks. The two breeds he rides were preferred for English cavalry. The other is the Cleveland Bay and the two were crossed to make a lighter horse with good speed. Flecks are considered impurities for both breeds although a white forehead star is considered okay for a Cleveland.

The French primarily used Anglo-Normans and although you do see some of them with white flecks, you can also see in an array of photos that there was and is a conscious desire to breed the flecks out.

I guess you can look them up, and see if absence of flecks is a sign of good breeding.

___________

Most common
NAPOLEONIC CAVALRY MOUNTS:

Great Britain
Thoroughbred – dark: bay, black, chestnut, and gray
Cleveland – brown-to-reddish body with a black mane, tail, and legs. Small forehead star permitted. Crosses of these two.

France
Anglo-normand – chestnut and bay, some black.

Austria
Österreichisches Halbblut was a special cavalry horse composed of three breeds which were themselves coloured either dark bay and black or chestnut (light chestnut or black hair).
Some Shagya Arabian: grey, but can also be bay, chestnut, or black.

Prussia
Trakehner – bay, black, gray, and chestnut

Spain
Pura Raza Española – black, bay, chestnut

Portugal
Luciano – grey, bay, or chestnut

Russia
Русская донская лошадь – golden-red shades, as well as red, bay, dun and black

Dutch
Friesian – black.

Poland
Podolia and Volhynia – chestnut or dun.

A note on painting horses. Hoof color related to leg color.
Light hoofs are found on legs with white markings, if the leg is all dark the hook will be as well. This is one of those subtleties