GRAY HORSES. 317 



ants, Gray Eagle, together with his family, and many others 

 of our best horses of modern times. 



The crack regiment of the British army has always been 

 one of cavalry consisting of gray horses only. This regiment 

 of " Scot Grays " made a charge at the great battle of "Water- 

 loo in which was decided the fate of the great Napoleon, as 

 the unfortunate emperor afterwards declared. 



The French stage horses are nearly all gray. This is the 

 prevailing color of the horses of La Perche, who in that coun- 

 try are known as Percherons ; also of the horses of Normandy 

 which formed the cavalry of William the Norman, who sub- 

 dued England nine hundred years ago by the aid of these 

 magnificent war horses. 



There is an old adage to the effect that " the gray mare is 

 the better horse," and although — it is said — this has been dis- 

 torted in its meaning into an insinuation that the woman over- 

 powers the man and makes of him her slave, it is, like most 

 popular sayings, based on the result of common experiences. 



Gray horses have figured quite prominently on the Ameri- 

 can turf. Is it because Messenger, the alleged fountain-head 

 of speed at the trotting gait, was a flea-bitten gray ? Or be- 

 cause Young Bashaw, the paternal progenitor of the Bashaw 

 and Clay branches of the American Trotter, was gray ? Or 

 is it due to the fact that one of the great pillars in the con- 

 struction of the Morgan family, the Lindsey Arabian, was 

 gray ? 



One thing is sure ; the gray horses of the trotting turf have 

 been found to be among the staunchest and speediest of race- 

 horses. , 



Among these gray horses that have appeared before the 

 public, and whose names are inseparable from the American 

 trotting turf, are the following : 



Kitty Bayard, now holding the world's race record on a 

 half-mile track (2.12) and the world's pole record of 2.13i; 

 Hopeful, 2.141, with a wagon mark of 2.16J; Lucy, 2.14; 

 Alcyron, 2.15J; Alabaster, 2.15; Dandy Jim, 2.16; Phil 



