SUPERIORITY OF THE THOROUGHBRED. 27 



how they could obey such an order with reasonable 

 celerity. 



The Arabian stories, as to the performances of Arab 

 horses and their owners, must be received with consider- 

 able hesitation, for the horse is one of the subjects on 

 which Orientals love to found their poetical fireside 

 stories. This is certain, that the Arab horse being 

 highly bred, is very intelligent, being reared from its 

 birth in the family of its master, extremely docile, and, 

 being always in the open air and fed on a moderate 

 quantity of dry food, very hardy. 



If we lived with our horses, as we do with our dogs, 

 they would be equally affectionate and tractable. 



In Norway, in consequence of the severity of the 

 climate, the ponies are all housed during the winter, 

 and thus become so familiar with their owner that there 

 is scarcely any difficulty hi putting them into harness, 

 even the first time. 



English thoroughbred horses, when once acclimatized 

 and bred in the open air on the dry pastures of Austra- 

 lia and South Africa, are found, if not put to work too 

 early, as enduring as the Arab. Experiments in the 

 Indian artillery have proved that the Australian horse 

 and the Cape * horse, which has also been improved by 



* The Cape horse has recently come into notice, in consequence of 

 the publication of " Papers relating to the Purchase of Horses at the 

 Cape for the Army of India." It seems that not less than 3300 

 have been purchased for that purpose ; that Cape horses purchased 

 by Colonel Havelock arrived from India in the Crimea in better con- 

 dition than any other horses in the regiment ; and that in the Caffre 

 War Cape horses condemned by the martinets of a Remount Com- 

 mittee, carried the 7th Dragoons, averaging, in marching order, over 

 nineteen stone, and no privation or fatigue could make General Cath- 

 cart's horses succumb. These horses are bred between the Arabs in- 

 troduced by the Dutch and the English thoroughbred. I confess I 



