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COLOR IN ENGLISH THOROUGHBREDS For some not clearly defined reason there exists a certain amount of prejudice to black coat color in the race horse writes Mankajo in the Knglish Sporting Chronicle Markiiam and the earlier writ rus of the sixteenth century regarded black light sorrel and unchangeable irongray horses as of no strength soft hot and delicate Later when many Heavy black draft animals were imported from Flanders and founded the English black horse or shire a black coat was regarded as indication of the heavy tribe and a sigu in the hunter of a plebeian outcrossl outcrosslBut But there was never any suggestion that the black which has always appeared from time to time in a few thoroughbreds owed its entrance to anght but a wellbred ancestor The Byerly Turk was a black and so was his son Black Hearty which got the Duke of Rutlands celebrated mare Boiiny Black Another oldtimo black was Masseys Black Barb the sire of the Massey mare and the grand sire of Old Ebony a black the ancestress of the whole of the family The Damascus Arabian 1751 which enters into Longbows pedigree was another black imported stallion and earlier King William the Third imiHirted a black Barb without a tonguo whose name is found at the foot of early pedigrees pedigreesHere Here we have quite sufficient evidence to account for the origin of the color in the thoroughbred That it is not more general is duo to the fact that It is recessive to all the colors seen in the thorough ¬ bred except chestnut In other words two factors are needed for its production viz the presence of nielahotic pigment and the absence of a factor for pattern The dark coloring is thus general anil not as in bay confined to the mane tail and limbs limbsIn In blackbrowns the pattern factor is limited to the muzzle and flank which are tan The pat ¬ tern factors here alluded to are those associated Strictly with melanism Albinistie markings on the face legs or l ody are regulated by an entirely separate set of hereditary units Thus a black like si bay a brmvn a chestnut or a gray may have anything ranging from a star to a blaze on his face and from a few white hairs ill his heels to white Blockings on his legs
