624 ASIATIC AND NORTH AFRICAN HORSES. 



ribs, for levelness of croup, and for beautiful carriage of 

 the tail, he is without equal among horses. He is not 

 unfrequently higher over the croup than at the withers. 

 The large development of the muscles of his fore-hand 

 and loins makes him a good weight-carrier for his size. 

 The grandly shaped barrel of the Arab plainly indicates 

 that he has clear wind, strong constitution, and is a good 

 " doer." His hocks, like those of Russian remounts (p. 

 555), are his weak points, apparently because his breeders 

 have not had a Jorrocks among their prophets to tell them 

 that, " no 'ocks, no 'unter." The only common fault in 

 the hocks of Arabs is that these joints are somewhat 

 deficient of bone, and are consequently not very strong. 

 Arabs are seldom sickle-hocked or cow-hocked. We often 

 meet Arabs which are a bit " back at the knees " (calf- 

 kneed), but I have never found this fault of conformation 

 injuriously affect the soundness of an Arab. Ali bin 

 Abdullah used to argue that the fact of a horse being 

 calf-kneed, increased his speed, because it enabled him 

 to add a few inches to each stride. 



Fig. 593 shows us Blitz, who was the best 13. i Arab 

 pony that has ever ran in India, but he was not as fast 

 as the English pony Mike (Fig. 279), who was about half 

 an inch the smaller of the two. Blitz is one of the most 

 typical high-caste Arabs I have ever seen. Magic (Fig. 

 594), whom I sold to his present owner, won for me some 

 races among his own class in India. His name is now in 

 The General Stud Book. Magistrate (Fig. 597) won many 

 pony races in India, and was subsequently exported to 

 Australia as a sire. 



Thick (bushy) hair in the tail in an Arab (Fig. 598) 

 is a well recognised indication of low caste, although the 

 under-bred possessor may be strong and useful 



North African Horses. — These animals are 

 confined chiefly to Abyssinia, Nubia (Dongola), Egypt, 

 Tripoli, Algeria and Morocco. They appear for the 



