loo THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



Looking back to my stock-keeping days, I used 

 to marvel at the wonderful manner in which my old 

 half-Arab stock-horse used to turn when I was after 

 a bullock, cutting him out or driving him. The old 

 chap was quicker than I was, and quite as quick 

 as the quickest bullock, far quicker than he could 

 possibly have been if he had had to depend upon 

 his rider. He enjoyed the fun, and seemed to 

 watch and anticipate the bullock's movements as a 

 good fencer watches and anticipates the thrusts 

 of his opponent. I believe, indeed, that he en- 

 joyed the fun as much or more than I did, and 

 he seemed to take pride in not being ' hum- 

 bugged ' by the bullock or into overshooting his 

 quarry. 



The reader will notice how this turning and 

 twisting would be useful in a polo pony, and the 

 Arab has been spoken of as a ' gentleman ' by many 

 critics. General Tweedie then shows how the life 

 of the Arab people tends to stamp their stock with 

 the characteristics proper to a saddle-horse ; that 

 everywhere under the sweltering Eastern sun — in 

 Egypt, Arabia, and India — where fast work in saddle 

 or harness is exacted by the masses of the people 

 from their horses, it surprises Europeans how very 

 much better to go than to look at the commonest 

 hacks are. He fortifies the wisdom of the desert 

 as to the advantage and necessity of a horse with 

 endurance by citing Captain Nolan's book on 

 cavalry, in which the Captain quotes Cromwell as 



