126 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



get by scraping the snow with its feet, in pursuit 

 'indomitable, not to be fatigued, relentless.' 



Mr. Adye writes that it was, of course, the Arab 

 descent of the little animal so much in vogue in 

 India which accounts for its excellence ; and truly 

 wonderful were the capabilities of the little hunters 

 (some of them only 13.2) on which the re- 

 doubtable sportsman Major Shakespeare speared 

 hog, bear, and even leopards, over broken and 

 rocky ground intersected by nullahs and other 

 obstacles, which render pig-sticking in certain parts 

 of India the most difficult and exciting of all forms 

 of hunting from the horseman's point of view. This 

 corroborates what General Tweedie says, as above 

 mentioned, in referring to which I have mentioned 

 other instances of this wonderful capacity of turning 

 and twisting, which alone could render such sport 

 safe and possible. Mr. Ker, in his book ' On the 

 Road to Khiva,' says that the Khirgiz, with Eastern 

 horses, sit motionless on their saddles, aligned ' as if 

 on parade.' Suddenly the foremost darts off at full 

 gallop, and then, wheeling in mid-career, comes like 

 a thunderbolt, all in one mad whirl of flight and 

 pursuit. 



' Bruni,' in the Australasian (September 6, 1902), 

 testifies that the Indian records abound in proofs of 

 the marvellous services rendered by the small horse, 

 and notably by the Arab, and that on every hand 

 the evidence was strongly in favour of the Arab and 

 Arab cross for army purposes, and that of the value 



