Australian Horses. 59 



good effects of the English and Arab blood are to be traced 

 only among the native ponies. This policy of trying to 

 establish in India, a breed of horses fit for English cavalry and 

 artillery requirements is still spasmodically carried on, and 

 with the same unsatisfactory results. Contrary to what many 

 would suppose, the Arab cross in India does not, as a rule, 

 confer increased size of bone. The unfortunate Indian tax- 

 payer, who always remains unspoiled by the flattery of being 

 consulted on any such subjects, has borne a great deal of 

 provocation from costly experiments on his horses. The 

 most glaring of these stupid and ignorant failures has been 

 that of importing cart and half-bred blood to give ' bone ' to 

 the native breed. The Indian Government, made wiser by 

 the stern logic of facts, now obtains from Australia its re- 

 mounts for its English troops, and for many of its native 

 cavalry. 



At the time when I first went to the East, the Austral- 

 asian remounts were, for the most part, coarse, fiddle-headed, 

 flat-footed, three-cornered looking brutes, which contrasted 

 unfavourably with the neater, though smaller, Arabs, Persians 

 and country breds with which the Indian army was formerly 

 horsed. The cause of this lack of symmetry in the Colonials 

 was the too free use of cart blood, which was utilised with 

 the erroneous idea of quickly getting the required bone and 

 substance. The Australian breeders, however, readily recog- 

 nised the fact that 'quality' meant money, and they soon 

 discovered that their admirable climate and virgin soil, by a 

 marvellous piece of good fortune, would, with careful selection 

 among thoroughbreds, give the necessary strength without 

 their having to resort to the admixture of common strains. 

 Since then they have never ' looked back ' ; but have gone on, 

 until now they can produce for army and ordinary purposes, 

 horses at a third of the price at which they can be got, equally 

 good, in any other part of the world, with the exception, per- 

 haps, of South America. 



Arabs, which at one time were the chief racers, hacks, and 



