340 COLOUR. 



few pcrfecily white horses now remaining. The snow-white jjalfrey, with 

 its round carcass and barb head, originally from Spain, or perhaps from 

 Barbary, and rarely exceeding the size of a Gralloway, is nearly extinct. 

 They are of good constitution, and pleasant in their paces. The majority 

 of white horses are those that have become so. Light-grey colts begin to 

 grow white before they are five years old, especially if they have not 

 much dark mixture about the joints. 



Grey horses are of different shades, from the lightest silver to a dark iron- 

 grey. The silver-grey reminds the observer of the palfrey, improved by an 

 admixture of Ai-ab blood. He does not often exceed fourteen hands and a 

 half in height, and is round-carcassed — thin-legged — "svith oblique pas- 

 terns, calculated for a light carriage, or for a lady's riding— seldom subject 

 to disease — but not very fleet, or capable of hard work. 



The iron-grey is usually a larger horse ; higher in the withers, deeper 

 and thinner in the carcass, more angular in all his proportions, and in 

 many cases a little too long in the legs. Some of these greys make good 

 hackneys and hunters, and especially the Irish horses ; but they are prin- 

 cipally used for the carriage. They have more endurance than the flatness 

 of their chest would promise ; but their principal defect is their feet, which 

 are liable to contraction, and yet that contraction not so often accompanied 

 by lameness as in many other horses. 



The dappled grey is generally a handsomer and a better horse. All the 

 angular points of the iron grey are filled up, and -with that which not only 

 adds to symmetry, but to use. "Whether as a hackney, or, the larger 

 variety, a carriage horse, there are few better, especially since his form 

 has been so materially improved, and so much of his heaviness got rid of, 

 by the free use of foreign blood. There are not, however, so many dappled 

 greys as there iised to be, since the bays have been bred with so much 

 care. The dappled grey, if dark at first, generally retains his coloui' to 

 old age. 



Some of the greys approach to a nutmeg, or even bay colour. Many of 

 these are handsome, and most of them are hardy. 



The roans, of every variety of colour and form, are composed of white 

 mixed with bay, or red, or black. In some it seems to be a natural mix- 

 ture of the colours ; in others it appears as if one colour was powdered or 

 sprinkled over another. They are pretty horses for ladies or light car- 

 riages, and many of them easy in their paces, but they do not usually dis- 

 play much blood, nor are they celebrated for endurance. 



The strawberry horse is a mixture of sorrel with Avhite ; usually hand- 

 some and pleasant, but more celebrated for these qualities than for strength 

 and endurance. 



The pied horse is one that has distinct spots or patches of different 

 colonics, but generally of Avhite Avith some other colour. When the white 

 is mixed with black it is called ' pie-bald,' with bay the name of ' skew- 

 bald ' is given to it. They are not liked as hackneys, on account of their 

 pecuharity of colour, nor in teams of horses ; but they look well when 

 tolerably matched in a phaeton or light carriage. Theii' value must depend 

 on their breed. 



The dun, of the Galloway size, and with considerable blood, is often 

 attached to the curricle or the phaeton. The larger variety is a true 

 farmer's or miller's horse, with no great speed or extraordinary strength, 

 yet a good-tempered, good-feeding, good-constitutioned, useful horse enough. 

 Varieties of the dun, shaded with a darker colour, or dappled, and Avith 

 some breeding, and not standing too high, are beautiful animals, and much 

 sought after for light carriages. 



The cream-colour, of Hanoverian extraction, with his white iris and 



