COLOUR. 



333 



colour, except, indeed, in the case of cart-horses, which are 

 much admired when of that hue. The prejudice to which 

 I have just alhided is probably due to the fact of many 

 animals of this shade being " foreigners." Grey is un- 

 doubtedly an unpopular colour. Apart from any feeling 

 as regards the colour itself, it is true that it gets fainter 

 as the horse grows older, and then unmistakably and 

 perhaps unpleasantly proclaims the fact that the animal 



Photo by] 



Fig. 402. — Nubian wild ass. 



[Major J. 1'. Nott. 



has passed his first youth. Besides this, a grey coat is 

 difficult to keep clean, and is liable to contract stains which 

 are hard to remove. The extra trouble thus entailed, 

 predisposes grooms to dislike grey horses, a fact which may 

 account for the small number of grey horses in England, 

 compared with those met with in the East, where grooms 

 are not so autocratic as in this country. It is a strange 

 fact that grey horses are more liable to melanosis than 



