The Grange advance., 1875-08-18
THE COLOR OF HORSES.

THE. COLOR OF HORSES.
A: correspondence the london Field
writes: A remark of Lord Calthorpe,
written in letter which appeared in the
Times short while ago, deserves,
think, some ventilation. He mentioned
',horses Of q good color;' and the ques-
ton that arises, is, what is good color ?
The most prevailing color in England is
certainly bay why this arises, l am un.
able to say. We must, therefore. believe
that the best horses are bays, without
proof. Some time after the Peninsula
war it was customary to have the troops
of one cavalry regiment in colors; but
the bay troops so far exceeded all the
other troops, that the distinctive colors
of troops were abolished throughout the
army, and only two regiments, the
Queens Bays, and the Scot Grays, were
allowed to retain distinctive color. It
was attempted to retain the Seventh Ora.
COON Guards, as the 'sBlack Horse" but
that utterly failed. Since then, in the
days of the Crimean war, we have had
the gray and chestnut troops of horse ar
tillery. do not allude to the black
troopers of the household regiments, as
they are so we'll known to the world at
large, and arc bred, chiefly in Lincoln.
shire. especially for the purpose. The
French are fond of bays, but then they
must not have a single white hair. The
Cleveland bays are well known. They
supplied the whole Of the carriage horses
Of the nobility and leading gentry of the
last generation. They were slow, tall, but
carried themselves we'll. The dams were
the cart horses of Cleveland, a portion of
North Yorkshire, and were crossed with
the thoroughbred. If the produce was
heavy. after the dam, it reverted to her
state in the plough; if it took after the
sire it was promoted to the hunting field,
where they were wonderful! ''lopers.' y
The intermediate stage made the carriage
horse. The breed is now totally extinc:.
The late Emperor Of the French had a
great fancy for these Cleveland bays,
and finally drained the district of the
few left. The chestnut is the favorite
color of the Arabs. 1t is much liked by
the Irish, and Of course we all remember
the best horse on record (Eclipse) was a
chestnut; but it must be allowed
that chcstnuts are more subject
to infrmities of temper and
constitut on, especially in regard to their
eyes, than bays. The grays are gener.
ally underbred. ''Ces terribles gris," as
Napoleon called them, however did good
service at Waterloo. do not remember
Of gray ever winning the Derby or
''big race, nor did I ever see good
English gray in hunting field, though
singular to say, some of the best hunters
in Ireland have been grays. Grays do
fairly in harness, and consider a gray
and chestnut the prettiest match Of
any. 10 blacks there are the same oh.
jections as to chestnuts -infrmity of
temper and constitution. They are more
liable to contracted feet and navicular
than other colors, and the most vicious
horse ever saw was black, and that
was in the army. They are generally un-
derbred. for never remember seeing a
black race horse. Pray do not confound
blacks with black browns, of which latter
color was old Voltigeur and there is
stallion now in Tipperary, Blue Peter.
getting some Of the finest hunting stock
ever saw. Blacks are very good for az.
ricuItural purposes, and on all the large
farms nowadays in Yorkshire and Lin
colnshire black horses are alone
kept for use. My favorite
color is dapple.brown-suc6 color as
the Flying Dutchman was, and old Nc.
Orville, who got the best hunters in Eng
1an2, and Slinge, who did a like good
Office for "ould Ireland." In Dresden
saw some beautiful darple. browns, short
legged. good action, admirably adapted
for mail phaetons. They had also some
splendid chestnut cart horses, with no
hair about their legs. There is a stud
farm at Mauriceberg, six miles from Dres:
den. Composite.colored horses, as pie.
balds, black and white, skewbalds, chest
nut and white and greybalds, 1.-TWO shades
of gray) are always soft horses and are
only fit for Lady Scatter-carts or retired
theatrical ladies; nevertheless, remem.
Der one skewbald cob, good-bottomed
nag and good fencer; and in Come
mara. you may meet with duns, good
animals over an intricate country. Com
posite colors are cloud" and consequent
ly vulgar. Let us taboo them from our
category. The Editor of the Field,
adds: Gustavus (gray) won the Derby in
1921, and Chanticleer was good race
horse; we have only to point to Grimaldi
and Peter Simple, in the early days Of
steeple.chasing, as magnificent hunters of
that color; also To Saunterer as a first.
class black race horse.
A STORY WITH A MORAL.
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