COLOR. 413 



Horses may be found of almost every imaginable shade of 

 color, but there are a few general types of color, to some one 

 of which every horse may be regarded as belonging. These 

 I shall now consider. 



The White Horse. — There are but few originally white 

 horses. Light-gray colts, that have but little dark mixture 

 about the joints, generally begin to become white before they 

 are full grown, and from them we have one stock of white 

 horses. White horses are, genercilly, very teachable and of 

 good disposition. They are of good size and well made, but 

 are not the best for standing hard labor. Their hoofs, being 

 white, are, of course, tender and liable to contraction. They 

 do not command the highest prices in market, unless for some 

 particularly good quality. 



The Gray Horse. — There are several kinds of grays, the 

 silver-gray, the iron-gray, and the dapple-gray being the 

 principal. They are large and strongly built, and many of 

 them are lofty and quite handsome. They are good carriage- 

 horses. Their defect is their feet, which are liable to con- 

 traction. 



The Roan may be said to be only a medium horse in size, 

 strength, action, and endurance, though many of them, in 

 Kentucky and the North-west, having something of the French 

 type, excel in all these qualities except size. 



The Chestnut. — The lighter varieties are usually rather 

 lightly built, of good spirit, but deficient in endurance. The 

 dark chestnut is truly a noble animal, of great strength, spirit, 

 and endurance, and almost a stranger to disease. He will sell 

 in any market readily. 



The Bay is the richest and most beautiful of all the different 

 colors of the horse. The bright bay, with no white, and black 

 from the knees down, with black mane and tail, is the most 

 durable, the best-spirited, ar.d the soundest of all colors. 



