1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



U5 



stitioiis fear, which is stnkinirly Pxemplified in pas- 

 fsiiii? alonu narrow jjioomy lanes anndst the darK'- 

 nefis ef ni<j;lil; on which occapsions, they will i>tnn 

 at shadows:, snort, and testily s3-m[)toms oC a su- 

 pernatural dread, in a manner too evident, to be 

 mistaken. 



Some horses are inclined to lie down, when rid- 

 den into water, lor the prevention of^which the iul- 

 luwinir methods are recommended by some of 

 tliose sapient iipntlemen who have written on the 

 subject, and amonixst the rest, by Berrinijer, who 

 very seriously tells ns, that the rider should be 

 provided with a flask of water, and ai the mo- 

 ment tiie horse is about to lie down, the flask 

 should be broken on his head, that the water may 

 run into his eyes! Or the rider may provide him- 

 self with two bullets, with a hole drilled throu<2"h 

 each to suspend them by a piece of twine, when 

 the horse atlempts to lie down, to drop the bullets 

 into his ears ! ! ! It is retdly astonisliinfrhow such 

 outrageous nonsense coukl enter the head of any 

 human beinfi; but, indeed, aller what has appear- 

 ed from the pen of that ine^;h;!ustib!e scriuliler, 

 Mr., John Lawrence, upon the subject of liorse- 

 manship and horses, we ought to be surprised at 

 no absurdity whatever. To remedy lor the jtro- 

 pensity in question, what can be so eflfectual and 

 so obvious as the Avhip or the spur or both? — 

 Moreover, if I suspected a horse would play such 

 a trick, I would hold his head well up, and apply 

 the spur if necessary. 



in riding down a hill, let it be recollected that 

 the horse should assume a corresponding decli- 

 vity, and lor that purpose he should be allowed 

 the use of his head to the necessary extent, or he 

 cannot accomplish the object. I am aware that, 

 in such a position, the horse's hefid will appear at 

 a great distance, acircumstance which miclit alarm 

 a timid rider, from an idea that the horse was 

 about to (all: he therefore pulls up the horse's 

 head as high as he can, and, in consequence, the 

 horse is rendered incapable of placinij his lore feet 

 firmly on the ground, and is therelbre very liable 

 to lall. The horse should have his head fi-eely in 

 going down hill (as well as upon level ground) by 

 which he will take a corresponding declivit}', the 

 rider's body being perpendicular; and, if any sus- 

 picion be entertained of the safety ot the horse's 

 goinii;. a waichiul or ready hand may be kept 

 upon him. 



A friend, a few weeks atro, asked me what was 

 meant by the word condition, as applied to the 

 horse? And my replj' was, that the condition 

 must be understood according to circumstances, 

 since a horse may be sufFiciently in condition for 

 slow work, but yet not able to maintain the pace. 

 Leaving the condition of the racer out of the ques- 

 tion (many of which are overtrained,) a hunter, to 

 be in perfect condition, should have as much mus- 

 cle as possible placed on his hones by good keep, 

 which muscle should be quite divested of fat, and 

 rendered elastic, firm, and hard, by exercise and 

 fi-iction; or, in other words, b_y good grooming. 

 This being the state of the muscle, the tendon can- 

 not be wrong: on the muscle and tendon mainly 

 depend the speed and strength of the horse. 



ft can scarcely have escaped the notice of those 

 familiar with the subject, that the thorough- bred 

 horse, after bavins; experienced several removes 

 from the original Arabian, loses that light, elastic, 

 deer-like action for which the latter is so remark- 



able, and which indeed renders his mode of goino 

 so extremely beautiful. It will be very percepti- 

 ble in the immediate descendants oi" the Arabian; 

 but, in a ftiw removes, it becomes extinct, and in 

 its i^lace is substituted a tremendous length of 

 stride, vv'hich raises the Eniiiish thorougfi-bred 

 horse far superior to every competitor. If with 

 this lenmh of stride, the true Arabian action could 

 be preserved, the En<rlish courser might be regard- 

 ed as the very perfection of the horse. The Ara- 

 bian horses which havehitlterto made their appear- 

 ance in this country have been small, and tliere- 

 fbre in order to reiich the stride of the English ra- 

 cer, several removes have generally been found 

 necessary before the requisite sizes and length 

 could be obtained, and in this process, as 1 have 

 already observed, the true Arabian action has 

 been lost. 



Let us hear what Eruce, the celebrated Abys- 

 sinian traveller, says upon the subject: — 



"At Halliiia (says he) begins that noble race of 

 horses justly celebrated all over the world. They 

 are the breed that was introduced here at the Sa- 

 racen conquest, and have been preserved unmixed 

 to this day. They seem to be a distinct animal 

 from the Arabian horse, such as I have seen in 

 the plains of Arabia Deserta, south of Palmryra 

 and Damascus, where I take the most excellent 

 of the Arabian breed to be, in the tribes of Mo- 

 walli and Armecy, which is about latitude So*^; 

 whilst Dongoia, and tiie dry country near it, 

 seem to be the centre of excellency lor this no- 

 bler animal. 



"What figure the Nubian breed of horses 

 would make in point of fieetness, is very doubtful, 

 their make being so entirely riifl'erent from that of 

 the Arabian; but if beautilLil and symmetrical 

 parts, great size and strength, the most agile, 

 nervous, and elastic movements, great endurance 

 of fatigue, docility of temper, and seeming attach- 

 ment to man beyond any other flomeslic animal, 

 can promise anything for a stallion, the Nubian is, 

 above all comparison, the most eliL''ible in the 

 world. Few men have seen more horses, or more 

 of the difierent places where they are excellent, 

 than I have, and no one ever more delighted in 

 them, as far as the manly exercise went. What 

 these may produce for the titrf is what I cannot so 

 much as guess; as there is not, I believe in the 

 world, one more indifferent to, or ignorant of that 

 amusement than I am. The experiment would 

 be worth trj'ing in any point of view; the expense 

 would not be great. 



"All noble horses in Nubia are said to be de- 

 scended from one of the five upon which iMa- 

 homet and his four immediate successors fled from 

 Mecca to Medina on the right of the HeLrii''!. 

 The horses of Ilalfiiiaand Gherriare rather smal- 

 ler than those of Dougola, tt-.w of which are less 

 than sixteen hands."' 



All the Arabians which have fallen under my 

 observatiin have been little horsep, and that this 

 is general! V the case with those imported into this 

 cotmtry is beyond all question: and in consequence, 

 whenever the pure orirrtnal blood has been re-in- 

 troduced, it has requireil several removes before 

 that length of stride could be produced for which our 

 racers are so very remarkable. Hence we clearly 

 perceive the reason why the immediate produce 

 of the little Arab and an English mare cannot 

 compete with his long-striding rivalj and on this 



