Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-07-29
THE COLOR OF HORSES.

A writer in the London Field thus dis.
courses of color in horses, speculatiDg as to its
trustworthness as an indication of quality !:
"The most prevailing color in England is
certainly bay; why this arises am unable to
say. We must, therefore, believe that the
best horses are bays, without proof. Some
time after the Peninsular war, it was custom
ary to have the troops of cavalry regiment
in colors but the bay troops so far exceeded
all the other troops, and such difficulty existed
in supplying the other troops, that the
distinctive colors of troops were abolished
throughout the army, and only two regiments,
the Queens Bays and the Scots Grays, were
allowed to retain distinctive color. 1t was
attempted to retain the Seventh Dragon
Guards as the BLACK Horse, but that utterly
failed. Since then, in the days of the Cri-
mean war, we have had the gray and chest
nut troops of horse artillery. | do not allude
to the black troopers Of the household regi.
ments,as they are so we'll known to the world
at large, and are bred chiefly in Lincolnshire,
especially for the purpose. The French are
very fond of bays, but then they must not
have single white hair. The Cleveland
bays are we'll known. They supplied the
whole of the carriage horses Of the nobility
and leading gentry Of the past generation.
They were slow and tall, but carried them
selves we'll. The dams were the cart-horses
of Cleveland, portion Of North Yorkshire,
and were crossed with the thoroughbred. If
the produce was heavy, after the dam, it re-
verted to her state in the plow; if it took
after the sire, it was promoted to the hunting
field, where they were wonderful 'loopers.
The intermediate stage made the carriage
horse. The breed is now totally extinct. The
late emperor of the French had great fancy
for these Cleveland bays, and annually drain
ed the district of the few left The chestnut
is the favorte color Of the Arabs. 1t is much
liked by the Irish, and of course, we all re-
member the best horse on record, (Eclipse,)
was chestnut; but it must be remembered
that chestnut are more subject to inirmities
of temper and constitution, especially in re-
gard to their eyes, than bays. The grays are
generally underbred.
"Ces terribles girls" as Napoleon called
them, however, did good service at Waterloo.
Grays do fairly in harness, and l consider a
chestnut and a gray the prettiest match OF
any. To blacks there are the same objections
as to chestnuts-infrmity Of temper and con-
stitution. They are more liable to contract.
ed feet and navicular than other colors, and
the most vicious horse ever saw was black,
and that was in the army. Blacks are very
good for agricultural purposes, and on all the
large farms nowadays in Yorkshire and
Lincolnshire black horses are alone used.
My favorite color is dapple-brown.. In Dres-
den saw some beautiful dapple-browns, short
legged, with good action, admirably adapted
for small phetons. They had also some
splendid chestnut cart-horses; with no hair
about their legs. To this may be added the
fact that roam horses, and horses of any dark
color with an admixture of white in their
coats, are highly valued by some horsemen
for supposed qualities of endurance"