COLOUR. Ill 



IS always a chestnut (hence the uniformity of colour in 

 Suffolk cart-horses) , and that a grey is produced only when 

 one or both of the parents are grey. There is a certain 

 uniformity, which is by no means absolute, in breeding 

 respectively from bays and browns, as we may see among 

 Cleveland bays and brown Exmoors. Mr. Patteson informs 

 me that two greys may produce a bay foal. 



The colour of the skin itself is either black, pink (free 

 from pigment), or it may be partly black and partly pink in 

 patches Although the large majority of grey and white 

 horses have black skins ; pink skin will invariably produce 

 white hair, and will secrete (at the coronets) white hoofs. 

 Black skin will form dark-coloured horn, even when the coat 

 is white Although, as I have just said, white horses may 

 have black skins , we shall find that the skin of white 

 markings (stars, blazes, reaches, snips, stockings, etc) on 

 dark-coloured horses is, as a rule, pink. In fact, I venture 

 to say that the skin of white stockings is always pink, and 

 consequently the hoofs of these legs will be white ; provided, 

 of course, that the white hair is continued down to the 

 coronet. In the East we may not infrequently see pink- 

 skinned horses, which, of course, are white, and which, 

 according to my experience, are much ** softer " in constitu- 

 tion than animals with dark skins. This fact is, I think, 

 chiefly owing to the greater effect the rays of the sun have 

 on skins which are free from pigment, than on dark-coloured 

 skins. Besides, as human albinos are generally inferior, 

 intellectually and physically, to their fellows, we may suppose 

 that the same rule holds good with respect to these equine 

 albinos. Experiments show that dark-coloured hair is 

 capable of sustaining greater tension than blonde hair. 

 Hence we have reason to assume that the protective cuticle 

 and horn (both of which, like hair, consist of epithelium), 

 secreted by dark-coloured skin, are stronger than those 

 formed by pink skin. 



Enpflish stable-men who make a practice of washing: horses' 

 feet, Ihtly consider that the anLals under their' charge 



