246 DOMESTIC HORSES. 



the peninsula. We have noticed the earlier history 

 of the Alfaeres, Andalus, and Ginetas, and may 

 add, that the period of their decay commenced with 

 the expulsion of the Moors, increased during the 

 Bourbon dynasty, and what was left of good horses 

 after the barbarous order of Bonaparte's marshal to 

 disable and blind the right eye of every serviceable 

 horse in Andalusia, has perished, it seems, in the 

 present civil war. Yet Spain may still restore, or, 

 as soon as public tranquillity will permit, no doubt, 

 will revive her pristine race of noble horses ; some, 

 we trust, have escaped the general ruin, enough to 

 justify an account of them in this place, and serve 

 for comparison with the South American, entirely 

 derived from the Andalusian blood. 



The Spanish race is subject to have the lower 

 jaw heavy, the head rather large, and the noso 

 Roman; the ears, often fixed low, are somewhat 

 long ; the neck fleshy, with superabundant mane ; 

 the shoulders and breast broad and full ; the croup 

 mule- like ; the body round, and the joints long ; 

 but notwithstanding small defects, the Andalusian 

 horses are flexible, graceful, and active, forming ex- 

 cellent manege or riding-school steeds, and very 

 good chargers. They vary in colour, but bays pre- 

 dominate, and next, black and greys. Of colours, 

 the Morcillo, or black without a white mark, or 

 with only a star on the forehead, are esteemed of the 

 highest breed and strongest bone, even to a proverb.* 



* " A mulberry black horse is what every one should wish 

 for, though few can possess." 



