282 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



or by breeding from the best of our own horses ; and 

 this is a problem which nothing short of experiment 

 can solve. It must be remembered that no serious 

 attempt on a large scale has ever been made in this 

 country to raise horses with a view to beauty, intelli- 

 gence, courage, and soundness ; and these are the 

 respects in which the Arabians excel. 



Moreover, the perfectly natural way in which they 

 take to jumping, an exercise of which they have not 

 the slightest experience in the desert, shows that the 

 Arabian horses are entirely harmonious in all their 

 parts, and therefore adaptable to any use that might 

 be required of them. Lady Anne Blunt relates: 

 " The mare I rode on the journey carried me over 

 the raised watercourses by the Euphrates in the 

 cleverest way in the world \ off and on, without the 

 least hanging or hesitation, and always with a foot 

 ready to bring down in case of need." One of the 

 mares brought home by Mr. Blunt was let loose in 

 his park on the night of her arrival, and forthwith 

 she jumped the fence, five feet and six inches high. 

 The lower rails were then pulled down, and she was 

 walked back under the top one, a thick, oaken bar, 

 several inches higher than her withers. 



Few Arabian horses have been imported to this 

 country, especially of late years ; but it is a striking 

 fact that, when one hears of some extraordinary feat 

 performed by an American horse, it is not infrequent- 

 ly added that his dam or grandam, or some more re- 

 mote ancestor, was " said to be Arabian." I saw not 

 long ago, for instance, in a Maine pasture, a little 

 roan mare, not otherwise remarkable in appearance, 

 but of a distinctly Arabian cast of countenance. She 



