THE AMERICAN" RACE HORSE. 93 



Morocco, and was not an Arabian. Of the later period and com- 

 ing down to about 1860 there are twenty-five or thirty that have 

 been called "Arabians." Near the head of the list stands one 

 called "Arab Barb" or "Black Arabian Barb." He was claimed 

 to be an imported Barb from Algiers, and was seventeen hands 

 high. "and coarse in proportion." Many other so-called "im- 

 porters" were equally absurd and dishonest in their claims, but 

 there horses all passed as genuine "Arabians." Out of the 

 whole number called "Arabians" not more than five or six seem 

 to have had a shadow of right to the name, and these exceptions 

 were practically restricted to the animals imported by Mr. A. 

 Keene Richards, of Kentucky. That each and all of these ex- 

 ceptions were irredeemable failures is a fact well known to all 

 intelligent horsemen. This motley crew of "Arabian" importa- 

 tions came from all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, 

 except Arabia, were all called "Arabians," and they were all flat 

 disappointments both as race horses and as producers of race 

 horses. 



Out of this list of thirty-five or forty so-called Arabian horses, 

 there is one that requires special mention, not only because a cor- 

 rection may be made in his history, but because I have frequently 

 spoken of him as the only Arabian that had left any mark upon 

 the horse stock of the country. Lindsay's Arabian, as he was 

 called, was a grey horse and represented to be over fifteen hands . 

 high. The story is that he was a Barb and had been presented 

 to the commander of a British man-of-war, when a colt, by the 

 ruler of one of the Barbary States, as an expression of gratitude 

 to the captain for having saved the life of his son. The captain 

 sailed away for a South American port, and while lying there he 

 took his present ashore to let him have a little exercise. The 

 colt was given the free range of a lumber-yard, as the story goes, 

 and in his playfulness a pile of lumber fell upon him and broke 

 three of his legs. The British officer was greatly grieved at his 

 loss and proposed to put the colt out of misery by knocking him 

 on the head. There happened to be an American trading vessel 

 in port and the skipper "'allowed if he had that critter on his 

 vessel he could save him." The officer at once gave him to the 

 skipper and told him his history. Yankee ingenuity and thrift 

 soon got him aboard the trader and he was swung up and his 

 legs properly bandaged. The surgical treatment was good, the 

 bones knit, and in due time the vessel arrived at New London,. 



