THE SADDLE BREEDS OF HOBSES 143 



168. Feeding and care. Unaccustomed to much feed, 

 or regular feed, the Arab is likely to get very fat under our 

 method of feeding, so that the horse, once the picture of 

 all that is beautiful and graceful, with us may soon become 

 a fat horse. He thrives best on half of what other horses 

 require. Of all horses, the Arabian is least fit to stand idle 

 in his stall. His life for centuries has been under the 

 saddle, as a war horse, on the scantest rations any horse 

 lives on ; and to pen him up in a close stall and feed him 

 three meals a day so completely changes his life, that it 

 changes his form. 



169. Distribution. The home of the Arab horse, 

 speaking of the pure Arab, is the district that is covered by 

 the Nomad Arabs, and is confined to Arabia proper and 

 the Syrian desert. In its greatest perfection it is found 

 among the Anazeh and Shamar Bedouins, occupying the 

 territory east and west along the Euphrates river; the 

 Shamar on the eastern shore and the Anazeh west of the 

 river. The latter make a circuit of the desert annually, 

 going from the summer pastures near Aleppo, in the north, 

 to Nejd, in the south, in winter. They swing east past 

 Bagdad and Deyr on their way north, and on their journey 

 south, go west, brushing near Palmyra and Damascus. 

 Within that circuit the home of the Arabian horse may 

 be said to lie. The haunts of the pure Arabian are those 

 of the desert Bedouins, who still carry the lance. Of 

 course, specimens of pure blood can be found sometimes at 

 Beyrout, and the coast towns, but such horses have been 

 brought there by wealthy citizens. In like manner they 

 have been carried into northern Africa, Persia, Turkey, 

 Hungary, Germany, France, Russia, England and America. 



The adaptability of the Arab is noteworthy. Accus- 

 tomed naturally to the most intense heat, yet he thrives 



