INTRODUCTION 13 



Arabians have always preferred mares to horses. 

 They have been found to endure hunger and thirst, 

 and all other privations, better ; and although in our 

 climate horses are seldom put to the test in this respect, 

 yet, when travelling between the tropics in a desert, 

 it must be a most valuable consideration. In a race, 

 it is true, mares are put upon a par with geldings ; 

 but it must be admitted that they are more perfect 

 in their nature, and, with the exception of the period 

 of genial desire, I conceive them to be more than equal 

 to them in any kind of exertion on the road or in the 

 field. 



By the Spanish proverb, " He that will have a mule 

 without a fault must keep none." Perfection is 

 seldom found in any living being ; but certain it is 

 that, of all animals in which perfection, or as near to 

 it as their nature will admit, is required, it is in a horse 

 to carry a man or a woman on the road ; and were 

 I requested by a friend to purchase a good hack for 

 him, I should consider him to have given me a com- 

 mission ten times more difficult than if he had re- 

 quested me to purchase half a dozen hunters ; and 

 for the following reasons : In the first place, the 

 price offered for a hack is seldom sufficiently great 

 to induce the owner to part with him if he is really a 

 good one ; and to be a good one, he must not only 

 be a hunter in miniature, but he must be possessed 

 of many good qualities that may be dispensed with in 

 a hunter. A horse may have twisted fore-legs, fleshy 

 feet, thrushes, or corns ; may be startlish, fretful, 

 and awkward in his slow paces, and yet be a brilliant 



