Bay or Brown.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2099, 19 December 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Bay or Brown.

Tnn question of what ia a bay and vthat is a blown, when the shades closely assimilate, has often puzzled harsemeD, one man often inniating en calling his hora« a bay when another Vras ready to swear it was a brown. When chestnut was declared by Clydesdalo men to be an unfashionable colour, chestnut foala b*gan to be described by sorno as bright b&ra or red bay*, for other cautious breeders wtU knew that foreign dealers would not c»re about having a foal of a chestnut or unfashionable colour. A curious case has arisen, howovrr, in cencection with tho Cleveland itoy Stud beok, which isltkely to exercise the minds of stud-book authorities. A Cleveland Day more of undoubted pedigree has turned out to be a cLcstnut, and has, on -this account, been dipqual'fled for the Stud-book. It ifl hard to see how this can be. unless it can be proved that tho Clevelai"d has been an uncontaminated or unadulterated breed for many years, which, we arc afraid, cannot. Tho little chestnut in the Clydesdale is believed to have been brought in a hundred jp*rs ago with the introduction of a few Suffolk stallions, and it crop /■out every now and then in a long lino of bays in ft most provoking manner. No doubt the particular Cleveland Bay chestnut owes her colour to some ancestor long forgotten, and when people were less particular as to oolour ; and, if the pedigree 13 right, she should not be rfjcc'ed, more especially when it is oonsidercd that the Cleveland Stud-book is in its infancy. Mr Scarth Dixon has writ'™ a letter on the subject, for which we are unfortunatoly not able to find space thia week. — Exchange,