COLORS OF HORSES.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1789, 14 November 1879, Page 4

COLORS OF HORSES.

A writer in the London "‘Live Stock Journal,” in an article on the color of horses, in which ho goes over some ground, not at all interesting to our readers, has the following facta of interest everywhere In English thoroughbred horses black and grey are the two most uncommon colors ; in this respect as regards black, tho English thoroughbred resembles his Oriental ancestor. The cavalry officer who purchased 100 Syrian Arabs for our army during the Crimean war, says:—“ln my register I found only ono black, a color so rare that if I had trusted to my memory I should have said that I never saw a black horse in the desert.” And Mr Palgrave, in his account of the Wahabee Arabs, says that black and white are the least common. One of the Arab stallions presented to William IV. by the Inman of Muscat —at his death purchased by the King of Wurtenberg-was black; and until lately; Major Adrian Hope rode a black Arab stallion with one of the city rifle regiments in which he holds a commission. The only black thoroughbred sire of any reputation for many years past was Saunterer —who died just before the dispersion of the Bltham stud. Saunterer got chesnuts, bays, and browns, but rarely a black. In half-bred horses, blacks are decidedly rare, for tho best of reasons, they are difficult to sell; many purchasers in giving orders for a horse to a dealer will say any good color except a black or a grey. In cart horses black is a common color, but not as common as it was forty years ago, when the old black Lincolnshire cart horse as improved by Bakewell had a reputation, which has since fallen on the shoulders of the Shire horse, who is generally bay, often brown and gray, and not so frequently black. In the popular Clydesdale breed, brown is common, and preferred to black. In breeding superior carriage horses or any riding horse, a good bay, with black legs, is the best selling color. Greys ore out of fashion and difficult to sell._ Brown, with tan muzzle, is the most fashionable harness color. Dark chesnut is a good color in every respect, hut many purchasers object to a light chesnut; yellow hays with mealy legs are still worse to sell. It is a curious fact that thoroughbred sires, unlike pedigree bnlls, can rarely be depended on to produce their own colors in their stock. A chesnut sire will get bays and browns, as well as his own colors, Stockwell, Blair Athol, and Prince Charlie (sire, son, and grandson), were and are all chesnuts of varying shades; but although they have increased the number of chesnut racehorses, both Blair Athol and Princo Charlie have been tho sires of bay foals.

Roans are more esteemed in trotting sires, but can least of all be depended on for reproducing their own colors, which are in fact a mixture of several colors. The only roans on the turf of any repute were all of the Physalis blood, and in the hands of the late Lord Glasgow. They varied from a red or strawberry roan (the beat of all that class of colors) to a deep blue roan, the last a bad color to sell in half-breeds, and requiring, to pass muster, extraordinary action. The disfavor in which this color is now held was sh?wn on the dispersion of Lord Glasgow’s stud, when a purchaser could not be found for one of five roan stallions, even at fifty guineas. A hunter of any color with a character will find purchasers, but hacks of any staring color hang on hand. On the Continent, on the contrary, where riding horses are chiefly required as chargers, or for parade purposes grey is the favorite color. You may see more grey horses of all kinds in Paris than in all England. The cart horses are nearly all a grey-white. The Percherons were originally hay, but as the postmaster preferred grey, they became grey. If, by any fluke, a grey horse were to win the Derby or tho St. Leger, we should see a number of grey racehorses, and consequently of half-bred horses. One member only of the four-horse coaching club drives greys, hut if royalty or an eminent leader of fashion were to take to the greys, it would at_ once come into popular use, unsuited as it is for our climate and muddy roads. Some assert that the intelligence and temper of horses are affected by their color, but as the same sires get horses of different colors, this seems doubtful. Tho maxim is sound that all good, that is, clear, defined, well-shaded colors are good on a good horsa except piebald.