TYPES OF ARABIAN HORSES 49 



the flaws which are shown to have existed in his ancestor, 

 and often, alas, a multiplication of them. This is the case 

 with the most carefully bred. What, then, can be said of 

 those of much mixed pedigrees, where strains are numerous 

 and derived through inferior animals ? ' 



And do imperfections continue to descend ? 



'Inferior horses used in the stud most certainly hand 

 down the stain immediately derived from their dam, in 

 addition to former ones. In these later days every con- 

 sideration has been sacrificed to the development of speed 

 alone, all the science and sound principles of breeding 

 which our ancestors established being very greatly dis- 

 regarded. Since the days of King James the First the 

 racer has been the product of careful selection for racing 

 purposes only.' 



Have the English always been celebrated for their 

 horses ? 



' It was immediately after the introduction of Eastern 

 blood, not before, and within the last two hundred years, 

 that the English reputation for owning and breeding fine 

 horses began, and it was not until 1808 that the first 

 volume of the stud-book, in which every thoroughbred 

 horse was registered, was issued. If one should look back 

 to the days of Queen Anne and trace the pedigrees given 

 of some horses in her day, it will be seen that nothing 

 but Eastern blood can be found. No better Arabians 

 have ever appeared in England than the black and bay 

 stallions presented by Imaun Seyeed of Muscat to His 

 Majesty William the Fourth. These horses came from 

 the purest strain of the desert, the Nedj. It is, however, 

 believed they were never used as sires with thoroughbred 

 mares, or even with an Arabian mare sent with them.' 



D 



