In the northwest part of India the Kattywar breed of horses is so generally
striped, that, as I hear from Colonel Poole, who examined this breed for
the Indian Government, a horse without stripes is not considered as purely
bred. The spine is always striped; the legs are generally barred; and the
shoulder-stripe, which is sometimes double and sometimes treble, is common;
the side of the face, moreover, is sometimes striped. The stripes are
often plainest in the foal; and sometimes quite disappear in old horses.
Colonel Poole has seen both gray and bay Kattywar horses striped when first
foaled. I have also reason to suspect, from information given me by Mr.
W.W. Edwards, that with the English race-horse the spinal stripe is much
commoner in the foal than in the full-grown animal. I have myself recently
bred a foal from a bay mare (offspring of a Turkoman horse and a Flemish
mare) by a bay English race-horse. This foal, when a week old, was marked
on its hinder quarters and on its forehead with numerous very narrow, dark,
zebra-like bars, and its legs were feebly striped. All the stripes soon
disappeared completely. Without here entering on further details I may
state that I have collected cases of leg and shoulder stripes in horses of
very different breeds in various countries from Britain to Eastern China;
and from Norway in the north to the Malay Archipelago in the south.
Pages:
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262