782 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



4tb, The roan or roan coat is composed of three kinds of hairs : 

 red, white, and black. The red and white hairs are mixed upon the 

 body, the black form the mane, the tail, and are also found on the 

 extremities. 



This coat is therefore only a bay, modified more or less by the ad- 

 mixture of white. 



According to the relative abundance and intensity of the red, this 

 coat is called — 



Light, when the white predominates. 



Ordinary, when the red and white exist in almost equal abun- 

 dance. 



Wine, blood, or strawberry, when the red predominates. 



Dark, finally, when the brownish red predominates.. 



In roan horses the members are not always black. In this respect 

 the same remarks are true as in the case of bay horses. 



With old age these horses become more white, and are then only 

 roan grays. 



§ 3. Conjugate Coats. 



We designate by this name the coats which are characterized by the 

 presence, upon the same animal, of two primitive or distinct derived 

 coats, and, more rarely, of two varieties of the same coat. 



Until the present time only two types have been described. 



1st. The piebald or pied coat is nothing more than a union, 

 and not an intermixture, of the white coat with one or other of those 

 which we have described. As a result the animal presents a singular 

 appearance : he is covered with large white patches, irregular, unequal 

 in extent, and variously situated, which are associated and conjugate, 

 so to speak, but do not blend with the colored areas, giving him a fan- 

 tastic appearance. 



In the strict sense of the word, the true piebald should consist only 

 of the white and the black, like the plumage of the bird from which 

 it borrows its name. Nevertheless, custom has decreed that the black 

 color may be replaced by any one of the others. Hence to designate 

 the coats of this type we employ a compound expression, in which the 

 word pied always refers to the white, while the other term indicates the 

 color with which the latter is associated. 



Examples : pied black, pied bay, pied roan, pied sorrel, etc. 



Besides, in order to make the des(!ription more exact, it is prefera- 

 ble to arrange the two terms of this expression in such a manner as to 

 prefix the name of the color which covers the largest area of surface. 



