34 



by Mr. H. R. Phillips as " the best stallion in England " 

 when three years old. About 1838 Mr. Phillips bought 

 Phenomenon to go to Yorkshire, where he did invaluable 

 service in improving the local stock. Later, he was sent 

 to Scotland, and died in Edinburgh when thirty years old. 

 Phenomenon was not less remarkable for his symmetry 

 than for his action, which Mr. Phillips described to me 

 as " wonderfully all-round true." When over twenty 

 years old this horse made the astonishing trotting record 

 of two miles in six minutes. 



Another famous horse, in his day, was Baxter's red 

 roan Performer (foaled 1850). "The Druid" mentions* 

 this Performer as one of the "four or five very good 

 Hackney sires" to be found in Norfolk at the time he 

 wrote — about 1856. 



It is difficult to suggest any satisfactory reason for 

 the decrease in the number of roan Hackneys. The 

 colour, whether of the red or blue variety, is not 

 unpopular, and either can be produced with some degree 

 of certainty ; a roan mare which has been mated with a 

 roan stallion throws a roan foal in the majority of cases. 



The colour of the foal depending so largely on the 

 prepotency of one parent or the other, it is never possible, 

 without previous knowledge of the prepotency of both 

 parents, to predict with any approach to certainty what 

 colour will be bestowed on the foal of a mixed mating — • 

 mixed as regards colour ; but a roan mare, mated with 

 a stallion of other colour, may throw a roan foal, but 

 with much less certainty than she would do to a roan sire. 



The roan foal is so frequent a result of roan and roan 

 mating that, in course of years, a strain of roans could, 

 without doubt, be established. The process would entail 



* Post and Paddoch. By " The Druid " (H. H. Dixon). Vinton & Co., 

 London. 



