BREEDERS AND BREEDING 97 



of a curious hue. I can call to mind a flufFy- 

 looking drab creature that developed into a good, 

 handsome bay ; but the animal which will even- 

 tually become a grey, and in time, with age, a 

 white horse, may as a foal be a rusty brown. It 

 is only when the coat of a foal is cast that an 

 opinion as to his colour can with any certainty 

 be expressed ; and so when early entries have to 

 be made a youngster is often described as *' bay 

 or brown," and we have even seen a " grey, roan, 

 or chestnut." I once bought a bay horse as a 

 yearling and found that he was described in the 

 Stud Book as a chestnut. On pointing out to his 

 owner that his colour was unmistakable, and could 

 by no means be described as chestnut, he replied 

 that when he registered the animal in the Stud 

 Book as a foal it was most distinctly as set down. 

 In looking up the early Stud Books one reads 

 of duns. I cannot recall a dun racehorse during 

 the last thirty-five years, but the dun colour was, 

 I believe, invariable in the indigenous or wild 

 horse ; and it is so in Asia now. I have seen many 

 piebald or skewbald horses, but never one in the 

 Stud Book, nor do I think that there ever has 

 been a thoroughbred of this colour. Grey horses 

 are not common on the Turf, but we do see 

 some, and if we examine their pedigrees it is 



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