ARABIAN HORSES. li85 



Clays were the victims of prejudice, tlie result partly 

 of ignorance, partly of designed misrepresentation ; 

 and Mr. Huntington, like the horses that he loved, 

 was a perpetual target for ridicule and abuse. Of 

 late, however, the value of this strain has asserted 

 itself so clearly that it cannot be denied by the most 

 envious person. Mr. Huntington owns the Anazeh 

 mare Naomi, and he has established a stock company, 

 with headquarters on Long Island, for the purpose of 

 breeding a family of Clay-Arabian horses. What 

 may be the capacity of these Clay -Arabians, as they 

 are called, I do not know, but some of them are ani- 

 mals of extreme beauty and finish, as symmetrical as 

 their Oriental ancestors, and much larger. 



As an Arabo-maniac, Mr. Huntington has stood 

 almost alone in this country. He had one predeces- 

 sor, a Kentucky gentleman, a breeder of running 

 horses, who staked his fortune and his hopes upon 

 the success of his Arabian stud. Twice this man 

 visited the desert to buy horses, having become con- 

 vinced that on his first attempt he obtained none of 

 the pure breed. The enterprise was a failure, and he 

 died bankrupt and broken-hearted. 



It would be interesting to know how far the Arabo- 

 maniacs have been influenced, unwittingly of course, 

 by the halo of romance which surrounds the courser 

 of the desert. At all events, it is a generous enthusi- 

 asm which this far-away steed kindles in the breasts 

 of his few and scattered devotees among English- 

 speaking people. The passion for horseflesh is, I 

 hold, a sort of divine madness ; and Arabo-mania is 

 one form of it. Let us deal with it gently. 



