FOREIGN HORSES 27 



likenesses of small thoroughbreds, especially in the manner 

 of carrying the tail, which is not held in the pronounced 

 arch so characteristic of the Arabian. In the point of 

 endurance the Barb is little inferior to the other, if, indeed, 

 it is not the equal ; but in point of racing ability as a rule 

 there is a considerable difference, the ordinary allowance 

 the Barb receives being 14 lbs. But in one important 

 respect it certainly is superior, being a capital hack, rarely 

 stumbling, an advantage which, unfortunately, cannot be 

 claimed for its rival. This no doubt is the result of the 

 different conditions prevailing in the respective countries, for 

 Morocco is a rough, mountainous one, where the paces 

 chiefly required are the trot and the walk. The Arabian, 

 on the contrary, is not called upon to trot, only to walk, 

 canter, and gallop, and long centuries have developed the 

 special paces which are most desired. 



The purest Barbs are found in the western portion of 

 Morocco ; for the invasion of Sidi-Okba into Africa, and still 

 later the invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries after 

 the Hegira, must have caused much mingling of blood in 

 the eastern part of the country, through the Arabian 

 horses the invaders brought with them. The Western 

 Barbs have little or no trace of Arabian blood in their 

 appearance or general characteristics.* 



In the neighbourhood of Algiers the Barbs are much 

 intermingled with Arabian blood, introduced by the French ; 

 and the dwellers in the desert also possess some good 

 Arabian strains. Throughout Morocco, however, a vitia- 

 ting influence has long been at work, and has made great 

 inroads into the purity of the breed in recent years — the 

 pernicious practice of almost universal mule-breeding. 



* "A prevailing drawback to the improvement of the breed is men- 

 tioned by Kaid Sir Harry Maclean as follows : ' There is an old 

 custom all over Morocco, except in Tafelet, that Governors can seize 

 all exceptional good horses for the Sultan, and this is greatly the reason 

 that the breed has deteriorated so much. Only Moors who have 

 Foreign protection are able to breed good horses, and most of them 

 have a good deal of English and French blood. In Tafelet the 

 Governors have not the same power, and the tribes there would not 

 submit to this.' " (Drimnin House, Tangier, October 8, 1911.) 



