>
>If I remember my Arabian/Bedouin horse lore correctly (I will have to dig
>out the 19th century book I read it out of), the Bedouin opinion about
>horse color was that while chestnuts had the most speed, bays had the
>most endurance. Grays and blacks were considered to be neither stayers
>nor speedsters.
>
>Of course, the Bedouins had all kinds of other superstitions about white
>and black markings, hair growth patterns, etc as indications of
>performance ability, loyalty, and good or bad luck. For instance, the
>Bedouin considered a horse with no white on it to be bad luck. And they
>also had beliefs about what colors/coat patterns etc. should be crossed
>with each other to produce .... They also considered a chestnut with a
>"flaxen mane and tail" to be an indication of impure breeding.
>
>I don't know whether these different traits were linked to the
>color/coate patterns, etc. or whether since both color and these traits
>are heritable, it is merely a case of what my statistics professor called
>"block booking" (e.g. just because tall people have bigger feet than
>short people--in general--doesn't mean that big feet causes people to be
>tall) It is the difference between correlation and causation. (The
>technical term for Sandy's comment about the chicken and the egg thing).
>
>However, if you look at thoroughbreds, there does seem to be some
>validity to the old bays are stayers and chestnut are fast (and grays are
>neither). Statistically speaking, there is a disproportionate number of
>chestnuts who are winners and a disproportionate number of grays who are
>losers. This takes nothing away from Native Dancer and Spectacular Bid,
>two absolutely fantastic grays.
>
>But it could explain why you don't see many gray thoroughbreds.
>
>It could also be because none of the main arab/barb stallions used in
>founding the throughbred (the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Barb--some
>people call him the Godolphin Arabian--and the Byerly Turk--some people
>suspect that this horse was actually an Akhal-Teke) were gray. These are
>not the only oriental horses that were used in founding the thoroughbred,
>but they were the most influential (there is another one, which actually
>had more influence than the Godolphin Arabian, but nobody's ever heard of
>him--even I can't remember his name--but he wasn't gray either).
>
>It is possible that there are so many grays in endurance today, because
>gray was a very fashionable color for arabs in the mid 80's--which would
>make them just about the right age right now. And the reason they are
>becoming less prevelant is because gray is no longer fashionable--it went
>out in the early 90's.
>
>The way I see it, there is little evidence (or too much conflicting
>eveidence) to suggest that success in endurance is in any way a function
>of color (i.e. all things being equal, one color is better than another),
>so to answer the original question...
>
>...All other things being equal, pick the one that you think is the
>prettiest color. For me, that's the chestnut, and I already explained my
>totally irrational prejudice about that.
>
>kat
>
>p.s. It has been my experience, that rarely is it ever a case of all
>other things being equal. So if I were truly reasonable, I would ignore
>color entirely.
>
>