21 8 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



for his ill-starred son, the Prince Imperial, the fate- 

 ful moment of Zululand would not have found him 

 struggling with his charger.' 



In ' A Subaltern's Letters to his Wife ' (Longmans, 

 Green and Co., 1901), after enumerating eight or 

 ten types of horses used during the Transvaal 

 War, the author says : ' There is not a shadow of 

 doubt that, other things being equal, a small horse 

 is the best in warfare. The country-bred horse of 

 South Africa is the best animal of his inches in 

 the world. He is marvellously hardy, easy in 

 his pace, clever as a cat over holes and bad 

 ground, generally fast, and up to a surprising 

 amount of weight. He is, besides, generally of 

 excellent temper, without vice or tricks, trained to 

 stand for hours in the same place by himself, and 

 wonderfully good-looking, and he adds that there 

 can be no doubt that, for military operations in any 

 part of the world, the Cape or Orange River Colony 

 horses are unsurpassable ; they possess almost every 

 qualification required in a charger.' 



Sir Walter Gilbey, without denying the theory 

 that some of the English ponies descended from 

 Spanish horses (themselves Barbs), puts it as more 

 likely that it is to be traced to the introduction into 

 Connemara of the Barb or Arab blood, in about 

 ^^33- Whichever it was, it was Eastern. Even 

 after the breed had greatly deteriorated, when the 

 influence of the Barb or Arab blood was dying 

 out, Mr. John Purdon, quoted by Sir Walter, says 



