PEDIGREE OF ARABIAN HORSES 4I 



sign that the owner's wife is unfaithful to him. So in 

 speaking of a man or staUion the question is ahvays, not 

 who is his father, but who is his mother?' 



Have the horses in Russia any special value or charac- 

 teristics ? 



' The native Turcoman horses are closely allied with 

 the Arabian. They are exceedingly tougli, wild and 

 difficult to tame and teach. So obstinate are they, and 

 so wicked, that, given a good chance, they will kill their 

 rider or keeper, and, failing this, will persistently refuse 

 to eat, and thus starve to death rather than obey. Once 

 broken, however, no breed of horses is more reliable or 

 intelligent, or so susceptible to the highest training. To 

 the newly enlisted soldier is given the well-trained horse, 

 which in time trains and teaches the soldier, answering 

 to the word of command in the drill, and going through 

 its intricate evolutions with automatic precision, without 

 the aid of spur, whip or even bridle. In this way the 

 new soldier is taught. 



' But it is another matter when new horses come to 

 be trained in military tactics. Then the old soldier's 

 experience is required, and it is to him that the new 

 horse is given, to be broken to martial ways and sounds.' 



When do ordinary horses reach their prime? 



' Divide a man's age by three, and you will understand 

 his comparative relation to the horse in point of attainment.' 



Then ahorse comes of age, so to speak, when he is seven 

 years old, as a man does when he is twenty-one ? 



' Certainly, and when he is five he compares to a lad of 

 fifteen, having had such judicious training as befits his youth. 

 When he is three he knows as much as the boy of nine, 

 and only so much should be expected of him. In the 



