84 GOOD SPORT 



Some one made the remark when riding in Leices- 

 tershire : "What a number of grey horses are out 

 to-day ! " " Yes," repUed a cynic, who never rides 

 anything but chestnuts, " they are the only horses 

 left in the country. The foreigners buy up all the 

 good horses of every colour except grey, and the 

 South African War took anything with four legs, 

 so long as it was any colour but grey." 



A trite saying, that " a good horse is never a 

 bad colour," is little less than an evasion of the 

 question, for there is literally more in colour than 

 at first meets the eye. Colour often is a matter of 

 climate, though this is not a hard-and-fast rule ; but 

 in Arabia there is a prevalence of white or grey horses, 

 in Russia black, in England, Germany, and France 

 bay is the colour most often seen. Some three 

 centuries ago the colour of a horse was supposed 

 to be influenced by the four elements, earth, air, 

 fire, and water. Horses that were black, dun, or 

 russet were said to have more of the earth in their 

 disposition, and were credited with being heavy 

 and faint-hearted. Even to-day the opinion of the 

 racing fraternity is that there never was a good 

 black mare on the turf, though we know of some in 

 the hunting field. The brown bay has always been 

 held in estimation, and experienced judges say that 

 there are more good horses of this shade than any 

 other, being pleasant and nimble, suggestive of the 

 air. Chestnuts are representative of fire, generally 

 being high-couraged horses, hot-headed, and ex- 

 citable in temperament, " ready to go until they 

 drop," as the saying is. White and the paler shades 

 were supposed to be influenced by the watery 

 element, and even to-day horses of these colours 

 or with white markings are altogether avoided by 

 foreign buyers. x\t the Berlin Horse Show in the 



