Col URS — A ctiokt. i 9 5 



warranty. Ih conformity with this principle, Lord Ellenborough laid it down many years ago 

 that it was not necessary that the disorder should be permanent or incurable. ' While a horse 

 has a cough,' he remarked, ' I say he is unsound, although that may be either temporary, or 

 ultimately prove fatal.' And in a later case, Mr. Baron Parke, in summing up, said, ' I have 

 always considered that a man who buys a horse warranted sound must be taken as buying 

 for immediate use, and has a right ta e.xpect one capable of that use, and of being imme- 

 diately put to any fair work the owner chooses.' Still more recently the judges in the Court 

 of Exchequer, after a full previous consideration, arrived at a precisely similar conclusion." 



The best form of warranty is — " Received from A B the sum of £ for a chestnut 



horse, warranted sound (quiet in harness or to ride), six years old, and free from vice." 



Where a horse does not answer the warranty, the purchaser has no right to return it 

 unless the power to do so was part of his bargain ; his only course is an action for damages. 

 "As soon as a breach of warranty is discovered, the purchaser should immediately tender the 

 horse to the seller, and if he refuse to take him back, sell him as soon as possible for what 

 he will fetch." The purchaser is also entitled to charge against the seller as damage the 

 expenses incurred in keeping the horse for a reasonable time, until he can be properly dis- 

 posed of. " I can conceive no case," observes Lord Denman, " where a purchaser returns a 

 horse, in which the seller may not be answerable for some keep." 



COLOURS. 



The trite proverb that every good horse is of a good colour, like a good many other 

 familiar quotations, is not true. There are colours that diminish the value of an otherwise 

 excellent horse in a very annoying manner for the breeder. Li England many object to ride 

 a light-grey horse, although it is a favourite colour on the Continent, and one of the most 

 common colours in the East. 



On the other hand, foreigners object to English horses, when either bay, chestnut, or black, 

 with white marks, which would be no detriment to their value in our markets, either as 

 harness-horses or hunters, or even as hacks, if their action was satisfactory. 



For harness all distinct colours are good, even piebalds, but bays, browns, and dark chest- 

 nuts are most in favour : greys are not fashionable ; but those who fancy a pair of good greys, 

 whether mottled or iron-grey, have to pay an extra price for them. In 1872 there were only 

 two grey thoroughbred stallions advertised in the annual list. Where horses are to be ridden 

 by men any extraordinary colour is objectionable. If a lady rides a piebald or a white horse 

 it ought to be unexceptionable in form and action. Red or strawberry roan is a fashionable 

 harness colour. 



ACTION. 



In horses, as Demosthenes said of Greek oratory (the maxim does not apply to English), 

 action is the first qualification. Fine and appropriate action will counterbalance many defects 

 in form. Harness action is of two kinds, safe and not too high, esteemed in roadsters and 

 phaeton pairs, or dog-cart horses required for country use, and high " up to the curb-chain," 

 esteemed for the Park, the parade, and in the Champs Elysees. 



In fact, action may be safe and slow or safe and fast without any brilliancy, or it may 

 be brilliant and slow or brilliant and fast. When a horse can do six miles and fourteen 

 miles an hour with equal grandeur, moving all round, that is perfection. 



A portrait of Mr. Charles liayncs's Columbine, which took the first prize in the single- 



