dun ponies of two Chinese breeds, viz., those of Shanghai and Amoy; both
had the spinal stripe, and the latter an indistinct shoulder-stripe.
We thus see that in all parts of the world breeds of the horse as different
as possible, when of a dun-colour (including under this term a wide range
of tint from cream to dusty black), and rarely when almost white tinged
with yellow, grey, bay, and chestnut, have the several above-specified
stripes. Horses which are of a yellow colour with white mane and tail, and
which are sometimes called duns, I have never seen with stripes. (2/37. See
also on this point 'The Field' July 27, 1861 page 91.)
From reasons which will be apparent in the chapter on Reversion, I have
endeavoured, but with poor success, to discover whether duns, which are so
much oftener striped than other coloured horses, are ever produced from the
crossing of two horses, neither of which are duns. Most persons to whom I
have applied believe that one parent must be dun; and it is generally
asserted that, when this is the case, the dun-colour and the stripes are
strongly inherited. (2/38. 'The Field' 1861 pages 431, 493, 545.) One case,
however, has fallen under my own observation of a foal from a black mare by
a bay horse, which when fully grown was a dark fallow-dun and had a narrow
but plain spinal stripe. Hofacker (2/39. 'Ueber die Eigenschaften' etc.
1828 s. 13, 14.) gives two instances of mouse-duns (Mausrapp) being
produced from two parents of different colours and neither duns.
The stripes of all kinds are generally plainer in the foal than in the
adult horse, being commonly lost at the first shedding of the hair. (2/40.
Von Nathusius 'Vortrage uber Viehzucht' 1872 135.) Colonel Poole believes
that "the stripes in the Kattywar breed are plainest when the colt is first
foaled; they then become less and less distinct till after the first coat
is shed, when they come out as strongly as before; but certainly often fade
away as the age of the horse increases." Two other accounts confirm this
fading of the stripes in old horses in India. One writer, on the other
hand, states that colts are often born without stripes, but that they
appear as the colt grows older. Three authorities affirm that in Norway the
stripes are less plain in the foal than in the adult. In the case described
by me of the young foal which was narrowly striped over nearly all its
body, there was no doubt about the early and complete disappearance of the
stripes. Mr. W.W. Edwards examined for me twenty-two foals of race-horses,
and twelve had the spinal stripe more or less plain; this fact, and some
other accounts which I have received, lead me to believe that the spinal
stripe often disappears in the English race-horse when old. With natural
species, the young often exhibit characters which disappear at maturity.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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