28 



over 400 years ago. Marshall* says that before Queen 

 Anne's reign (1702-1714) the farmers of the county used 

 an active breed of horses which could not only trot but 

 gallop ; and the curious team races this writer describes 

 prove that the Norfolk breed of the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries was surefooted as well as active.. 



The Darley Arabian was a bay, but examination of the 

 volumes of the Hackney Stud Book shows that this 

 colour is not the most common among the best bred 

 Hackneys of the present day. There' is not much to 

 choose between the chestnuts, bays and browns in point 

 of number. 



Grey Hackneys 



Grey was never a common colour among Hackneys — 

 greys were always much fewer in number than chestnuts, 

 ba}s or browns — but they were more numerous a few 

 years ago than they are now, for reasons that will be 

 suggested. In the first sixteen volumes of the Stud Book, 

 the names of 116 greys occur among the 6,942 stallions 

 therein registered — about two in every 300. Yet in the 

 last seven volumes, covering the period 1900 - 1906, the 

 names of only eight gre}s occur among the 2,573 stallions 

 registered, or about two in every 650. In other words, 

 there are not nearh- half as many greys as there used to 

 be. A noteworthy point in connection with these eight 

 grey stallions is that all the foals got by them have been 

 chestnuts. 



The small number of greys is to be accounted for in 

 many ways. In the first place, the demand for Hackneys 

 of this colour is less than that for Hackneys of any other 

 colour, and by consequence breeders do not attempt to 



f Rural Economy of Norfolk. By Wm. AIarshall. 1795. 



