In Norway the colour of the native horse or pony is dun, varying
from almost cream-colour to dark-mouse dun; and an animal is not
considered purely bred unless it has the spinal and
leg-stripes.[34] My son estimated that about a third of the ponies
which he saw there had striped legs; he counted seven stripes on
the fore-legs and two on the hind-legs of one pony; only a few of
them exhibited traces of shoulder stripes; but I have heard of a
cob imported from Norway which had the shoulder as well as the
other stripes well developed. Colonel H. Smith[35] alludes to
dun-horses with the spinal stripe in the Sierras of Spain; and the
horses originally derived from Spain, in some parts of South
America, are now duns. Sir W. Elliot informs me that he inspected a
herd of 300 South American horses imported into Madras, and many of
these had transverse stripes on the legs and short
shoulder-stripes; the most strongly marked individual, of which a
coloured drawing was sent me, was a mouse-dun, with the
shoulder-stripes slightly forked.
In the North-Western parts of India striped horses of more than one
breed are apparently commoner than in any other part of the world;
and I have received information respecting them from several
officers, especially from Colonel Poole, Colonel Curtis, Major
Campbell, Brigadier St. John, and others. The Kattywar horses are
often fifteen or sixteen hands in height, and are well but lightly
built. They are of all colours, but the several kinds of duns
prevail; and these are so generally striped, that a horse without
stripes is not considered pure. Colonel Poole believes that all the
duns have the spinal stripe, the leg-stripes are generally present,
and he thinks that about half the horses have the shoulder-stripe;
this stripe is sometimes double or treble on both shoulders.
Colonel Poole has often seen stripes on the cheeks and sides of the
nose. He has seen stripes on the grey and bay Kattywars when first
foaled, but they soon faded away. I have received other accounts of
cream-coloured, bay, brown, and grey Kattywar horses being striped.
Eastward of India, the Shan (north of Burmah) ponies, as I am
informed by Mr. Blyth, have spinal, leg, and shoulder stripes. Sir
W. Elliot informs me that he saw two bay Pegu ponies with
leg-stripes. Burmese and Javanese ponies are frequently
dun-coloured, and have the three kinds of stripes, “in the same
degree as in England.”[36] Mr. Swinhoe informs me that he examined
two light-dun ponies of two Chinese breeds, viz., those of Shanghai
and Amoy; both had the spinal stripe, and the latter an indistinct
shoulder-stripe.
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