the constitutional powers to work his large frame. A small light horse, with light and sloping shoulders, with powerful quarters and thighs, and even with great depth of chest, may also be a weed, from being deficient in barrel, flat and narrow instead of a swelling development, and faulty in the loins. These horses may have speed, they may be prepared and win a race, but they are not the horses that would have won races a hundred years ago. It may be called heresy, but it is nevertheless true, that very many of our celebrated modern racers are and have been nothing more nor less than weeds. Others have said, the Arab's weak points are his shoulders, and his paces are bad; nothing less than execrable. The paces of a horse (except the gallop) are very much what the rider makes them. Arabs have little or no trouble taken with their education. In India they are taught to walk badly, to step at a short contracted pace, by their being constantly, and sometimes for weeks together, led by their syces (grooms) at the rate of about two miles an hour. It is hardly fair to blame a horse for the very faults man has taught him. I suppose one would not be far wrong in saying that ninety out of every hundred men who ride are carried as their horses choose to go-not as their riders like. If a horse trots, his rider is content to go at a trot; if he canters, the rider concludes he cannot trot. So it is with the Arab; he has been taught a cramped action before at a walk. When his owner gets up, instead of correcting the errors that have been forced upon his horse, he contents himself by saying no Arab can walk. The horse has probably never been tried at a trot; therefore it is said he cannot trot. I affirm that the Arabian can walk, trot, and gallop. I have possessed some that would walk five miles an hour, and certainly one that could do that pace at the rate of six or more miles in the hour. The fastest trotter I ever rode, or perhaps have ever seen, unless among trained trotters, was an Arab. Even the detractors of the Arab allow that he will gallop at speed with ease and in safety over broken and rough ground. This is certain proof that his shoulders are not faulty, and a most incontestable proof that they are very perfect. Besides this, I will give two illustrations which will, I think, convince any horseman that the Arab must have good and perfect shoulders. Most must have noticed when riding on the grass by the side of roads, how constantly their horses are putting their feet into the grips, or on the edge of them, which have been cut to carry off the water, and which, it would appear, they were incapable of avoiding, jerking and shaking their own limbs, and making it unpleasant for their riders. I have known Arabs, on the contrary, either at a canter or a trot, avoid these grips and obstacles by a most nimble management of their legs either extending one shoulder and leg beyond the grip or putting one foot neatly down before concluding the usual length of pace. The other is the ability Arabs have of playing with their forefeet, even when at a tolerably smart gallop. If a bird or insect, no matter how small, suddenly flies across their path, without stopping they will make a pat at it, like a kitten playing with a ball. Such feats, I hold, cannot possibly be performed except by a horse with good shoulders and a free use of them; bad shoulders and galloping bring the legs to grief. See the amount of galloping the Arab's legs can stand. Galloping one of my own Arabs at more than threequarter speed on the race-course at Amballah, the horse put his near fore foot into a fox's or rat's hole-such holes were very numerous; this let him down in depth to his knee, but did not bring him down-it scarcely made a difference in his stride-good shoulders or bad. I will give another instance, which, I think, displays not only the high courage of the Arabian, but his wonderful power and activity. The Arab I was riding, jackal-hunting, would have been considered an old horse in England. He could not have seen less than twenty summers, had been a racer, had gone through two campaigns as a charger, but his legs were as straight and clean as a foal's. After a kill, when riding slowly homewards, we came to the bank of a nullah. Some thought the bottom looked suspicious. I pushed my horse down, and was immediately up to the hips of my horse in quicksands. I would have got off if I could, but the horse never gave me a chance; his bounds and springs can only be described as astonishing; he lifted himself straight up out of the treacherous soil over and over again, only to be again engulfed; still he did not give up, nor fall over, or succumb, and finally landed on We escaped. a sounder bit. We escaped. I could not have believed any animal could have displayed such strength; formerly on several occasions I had been bogged on Dartmoor, and have subsequently on forest lands in England, but I never found a horse behave under me like the old Arab. Five minutes afterwards there was a whimper, an indication of a find; the gallant old horse's head was up, his beautiful little ears pricked; he was dancing on his legs, anticipating another gallop. As to the action of the Arabian, it is very well described by the writer of an able article who signed himself Picador.' 'Sit easily and flexibly on him, put your hands down, and set him going, and then you will experience a sensation delightful to the man who really can ride: he will bound along with you with a stride and movement that gives you the idea of riding over india-rubber.' CHAPTER III. The boundaries of the Arab people—The Arabian horse and his habitat further discussed-Arab horses in Africa; but horses called Barbs not generally of pure Arabian blood-Confusion existing as to the Arabian horse, owing to the use of improper terms-Egypt and Turkey not the habitat of the Arabian-Different terms explained-One breed of Arabians-The several families discussed, and the tribes who possess them-Apparent discrepancies in the accounts of travellers explained. 'Who can tell where the Arab dwelleth, or who has marked out the boundaries of his people?'—Warburton. Mr. FROM Diarbekr in the north, to Hadramaut in the south, from the Euphrates and even the Tigris, to the western coast of Africa, is Arabic spoken, more or less; and every part of this vast district is traversed by the Arabs or their descendants.' But our present business is with the Arabian horse and his habitat. Layard mentions the horses of the Shammar tribe who were frequently about him during his excavations at Nineveh, and speaks with the greatest admiration of some of their mares. Sofuk, then their sheikh, was possessed of a mare of matchless beauty, and Kubleh, her dam, was still more celebrated for her speed and powers of endurance, and was known from the sources of Khabour to the end of the Arabian promontory. It must not be thought that Arabian horses are common, or to be found throughout this district, or wherever Arabic may be spoken. |