a trot, avoid these grips and obstacles by a most nimble management of their legs, 

 whether extending one shoulder and one leg beyond the grip or putting one foot 

 neatly down before concluding the usual length of pace. The other is the abiUty 

 Arabs have of playing with their fore feet, even when at a tolerably smart gallop. 

 If a bird or insect, no matter how small, suddenly flies across their path, without 

 stopping they will make a pat at it like a kitten playing with a ball. Such feats, 

 I hold, cannot possibly be performed except by a horse with good shoulders and 

 a free use of them — bad shoulders and galloping bring the legs to grief. See the 

 amount of galloping the Arab's legs can stand. Galloping one of my own Arabs 

 at more than three-quarter speed on the race course at Amballah, the horse put 

 his near fore foot into a fox's or rat's hole (such holes were very numerous). This 

 let him down in depth to his knee, but did not bring him down — it scarcely made a dif- 

 ference in his stride. Good shoulders or bad? I will give another instance, which 

 I think displays not only the high courage of the Arabian, but his wonderful power 

 and activity. The Arab I was riding, jackal hunting, would have been considered 

 an old horse in England. He could not have seen less than twenty summers, had 

 been a racer, had gone through two campaigns as a charger, but his legs were straight 

 and clean as a foal's. After a kill, when riding slowly homeward, we came to the bank 

 of a nullah. Some thought the bottom looked suspicious. I pushed my horse down, 

 and was immediately up to the hips of my horse in quicksands. I would have got off 

 if I could, but the horse never gave me a chance. His bounds and springs can 

 only be described as astonishing. He lifted himself straight up out of the treach- 

 erous soil over and over again, only to be again engulfed; still he did not give up, 

 nor fall over, or succumb, and finally landed on a sounder bit. We escaped. I 

 could not have believed any animal could have displayed such strength. Formerly 

 on several occasions I had been bogged on Dartmoor, and have subsequently 

 in forest lands in England, but I never found a horse behave under me like the old 

 Arab. Five minutes afterward there was a whimper, an indication of a find; the 

 gallant old horse's head was up, his beautiful little ears pricked, he was dancing on 

 his legs, anticipating another gallop. 



"As to the action of the Arabian, it is very well described by the writer of an 

 old article who signed himself 'Picador:' 'Sit easily and flexibly on him, put your 

 hands down, and set him agoing, and then you will experience a sensation delightful 

 to the man who really can ride — he will bound along with you with a stride and 

 movement that gives you the idea of riding over India rubber.' " 



General Description of the Keheilan, or Arabian Horse, as 

 Given by Major R. D. Upton in His Book, "Gleanings from 

 the Desert of Arabia," published 1881. 



"The following statements are based upon personal observation of the horses 

 of the *Anazeh, which people by general consent are considered to have the best 

 in Arabia. They will serve generally for the Arabian horse as a race, but in a marked 

 and decided degree for the horses of the Anazeh. 



"In the Keheilan, or genuine Arabian, horse (speaking in general terms from 

 seeing a number of horses and mares at one time), setting on one side what may 

 be called their great personal beauty, you are at once struck by the general appear- 

 ance of character, of blood or high breeding — which features are very conspicuous 

 — and their great general length. 'What reach, what stride these horses must 

 have; they are natural born racers!* we both exclaimed at once. One is equally 

 struck by the perfectly natural appearance of the Keheilan, He presents in his 

 form of undisturbed structure the evidence of his origin from an uncontaminated 



*The largest, richest ajid most select of all the Arabian Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Deserts 



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