EGYPTIAN AND ARABIAN HORSES. 4H7 



'' A horse Avitli whitr on his lips and mouth will run faster than the 

 Avind. 



" A horse whose white I'aci' stops on its nose will rear contiinially 

 and throw the best of riders. 



" If the ujiper lij) is white underneath near the ij^unis it is a favor- 

 able sign; if it is black it is unfavoral)le. 



" A Avhite mark on each side of the chest, back of the stirrup, indi- 

 cates speed and safety ; they are caUed ' the wings.' 



" The liorse Avith long white stockings is a dangerous In-ute. If 

 th(> white runs higher on the right side than the left, sell him or pre- 

 pare your burial garment. 



'"■ The horse Avith the chest of a lion, the hind quarters of a AA'olf, and 

 the legs of a gazelle, long may he live.'' 



These maxims shoAV, if any sucli proof is needed, the great care the 

 Arabs display in keeping pure the blood of their royal animal. 



The preceding indicates sufficiently the superiority Avhich the Ara- 

 bian charger has had, and still has, over other races. It is hardly 

 true — as many of our English trained horsemen insist — that the 

 English horse is only the Arabian increased in stature and endoAved 

 Avith other ({ualities suited to the varied exigencies of ciAdlization. 

 With its groAvth in size, the English horse has lost its long Avind, its 

 courage, its sobriety, its endurance, and the su})pleness of articula- 

 tion; all of Avhich are characteristic of the Oriental horse. The 

 Arabian horse runs as Avell as the English, and if, as they say in 

 England, the Arabian is perfected in that country, it is only by sacri- 

 licing all the solid (|ualities of the thoroughbred Arab to an exaggera- 

 tion to a single one — speed — a ({uality Avhich nature has not seen fit to 

 giA^e him as liberally as to more timid animals. 



The horse, it has been said, is the expression of society; railroads, 

 the automobiles, bicycles, telegraph and telephone, everything man 

 has iuA'ented to dcA^our space, though they tend to diminish the 

 necessity for the horse, Avill never cause him to disappear. In spite 

 of all our progress he Avill ahvaj's remain an indispensable utility, 

 and, if only for the use of the Army, Ave should endeaA^or to preserve 

 the thoroughbred Arabian, the " regenerator " of all other races. 



