Morning journal and courier., 1889-08-20
THE COLOR OF HORSES.
Evidence That 1t Has Nothing TO Dc
with Their Constitutions.

with Their Constitutions.
From the Pittsburg Chronicle-Te!egraph.l
There is more in color or likeness in breed
ing all animals than most people imagine,
says an exchange. In large herds OF ami
mails In their wild state colors vary little.
There is often, so travellers have said, an
odd co!ored stallion or two In wild herds
of horses, and 1t is not uncommon to find an
odd colored stallion apparently the master of
the troop. It is quite certain that this stall
lion does not get his own color as the herd
remains in its own originality
1t has been said that the original color to
horses Is chestnut, and there Is evidence to
supposed to be the original blood-the color
that lasted the longest is chestnut, and that
which has lasted least is gray. The earliest
numbers of the "Epglish Stud Book" gives
more grays than almost any other color, but
they have become searcer and scaroer until
now among stations there Is scarcely gray
horse in service in England.
For long time prejudice attached to 3
white horse on account of the fabulous tra-
dition that they could not stand the cold,
because white was non-conductor of heat,
hypothesis at once controverted by the fact
that the polar bear, which exists alone in the
region Of eternal cold, and are happy nos
where else, are white. The same prejudice
existed at one time against black horses on
the other extreme-as black was conductor
of heat, a black horse would succumb to the
enervating heat of summer.
In this age of the world it is needless tc
say that the color of horse has nothiDg tc
do with his constitution. Frances Alexan
der, a coal black stallion, trotted one of the
most exhausting and prolonged races agains,
a field of six others on one of the hottest
| DAYS in midsummer and won it. Jay Eye
See is black, and there is no horse on the
| American turf superior to him in courage
| and endurance. Hopeful Is gray.
| During his turf career he was the foremos
horse on the trotting turf. He pulled a wag
| on and placed to his credit record for tha
| way of going which has never been equalled
Charlie Ford is another gray horse that wa
| fret in thirty eight races and seventy-sever
heats below 2:30. These two examples ex
plode the theory that horses of light colo
are usually of O weak constitution.
Hermit, the great English Thoroughbred
sire. is chestnut, while his sire was a ba.
of particularly marked bay family. On
of score of sons and daughters of Hermi
which have made their mark the majority
are chestnuts. This same popularity mark
the produce of Hambletonian Prince
Those of his get that have made their mari
are of one color-namely, Billy Button, He
lene, Happy Traveller, Peralto. Although
among trotters there are large number O.
fast horses of various colors, the majority o
distinguished horses are bays. The tastes
herses among which that color is predomi
nant are legion.
| The diversity and universally of color II
| horses is q provision of nature, and tn
cause of it cannot be explained by fnit
minds Why there should be more ba
horses than brown, more brown than gray
more gray than black, is a problem wnic
the human mind cannot solve. No mor
can it be explained why the union of blac
sire with gray dam may result in bay
chestnut, brown, black or gray offspring, {
why the union of the same colors may prt
duce the opposite color-one is as likely
follow as the other. This is the most nott
BILE thing in the economy of nature.
From union with a black mare, Sorcel
er, the English thoroughbred, himself
black, produced eight black colts out of thi
teen, and then being bred to a chestnt
/, mare the color was bay or brown, and ne,
or black or chestnut
As the predominant color among hors
two centuries ago appears to have been grs
? it would not be without precedent If with
| the period Of two hundred years to come
would become the ruling color. Messenge
the reputed founder of the trotting family
8 America, was flea bitten gray, and at d
! tant two hundred years from the founta
head the vast proportion of speed transm
tad from him is concentrated in bays.
:. Suppose that in three generations to COZ
r the great trotting element OF the count
should DE represented in horses of gray G.
or, 1t would be remarkable. But not me
70 80 than 1t is now represented In horses OF