334 SKIN, COLOUR, AND HAIR. 



animals of other colours. Shire horse fanciers do not like 

 greys ; for the majority of foreign buyers object to them. 

 Some of the best Shires, as What's Wanted and Rokeby 

 Fuchsia (Fig. 403), for instance, are of this hue. For my 

 own part, I am very fond of dark iron or dappled grey 

 with dark mane and tail. A comparatively large pro- 

 portion of the cleverest hunters I have seen have been 

 greys, a fact for which I can offer no explanation, unless 

 that of their having had Chanticleer blood in their veins. 

 In Leicestershire, moderate performers as a rule, are 

 averse from hunting on a grey horse, whose conspicuous 

 colour is apt to draw attention to sins of commission and 

 omission in too marked a manner to be always pleasant. 

 Blue and red roans, and dun with black points, are sup- 

 posed to be " hardy " colours. The most showy colours 

 for harness work are bright chestnut and red roan with 

 more chestnut than grey hairs, and free from white patches. 

 When there is a large admixture of white with the red, 

 the colour may be called strawberry roan, which is an 

 ugly hue, particularly if the animal that wears it has a 

 blaze and white stockings. Both piebald (black and 

 white) and skewbald (bay or chestnut and white) may 

 be suggestive of a circus, except in a team ; although 

 one of the cleverest hunters I have seen in Leicestershire 

 was a skewbald (Fig. 404). In a hunter, both piebald 

 and skewbald are even more conspicuous than grey. 

 The colours found among high-caste Arab horses are 

 practically limited to bay, brown, chestnut, and grey. 

 The same remark 'applies to our own thorough-bred 

 stock, except that we have a few roans, and a very 

 small proportion of greys, chiefly through Chanticleer. 

 The general idea that chestnuts are more impetuous 

 than horses of other colours, is one which I do not 

 think worthy of much weight. 



The Farriers' Journal, December, 1902, tells us that the 

 best and strongest hoofs '' are found in black, bay, and 

 most of the roan-coloured horses. When the foot — that 



