ARABIAN NECKS 237 



proof of the pudding is in the eating ; these natural riders 

 care little for the refinements of horsemanship, despite 

 which both cowboy and Spahi are, each in his way, 

 inimitable. 



But this nervous dread of the bit distresses me. I have 

 a photograph of a line of Spahis coming to a sharp 

 " Halt !" and every single horse in the line has his nose in 

 the air. A line of school-taught horses would, on the con- 

 trary, probably show not one whose head had not been 

 brought in quietly to the bit; still they would have 

 stopped just as short, and vastly more comfortably to 

 man and beast. In the one case the horse has no dread 

 of the bit, and the neck is supple ; in the other he fears it, 

 and his neck is generally stiff. Artists have a trick of 

 painting Arabians with the neck finely arched, but this is 

 just what the gag-bit prevents. It is the rarest thing to 

 see an Arabian carry what schoolmen call a good head. 

 His nose is uniformly in the air when his head is up ; only 

 when fretting on the bit does he arch his neck, and then 

 he gets his head way down. That nature has given him 

 a peculiarly fine neck is true ; the lines of the crest and 

 throttle are exquisite ; that he almost never arches it is 

 equally so. The three-year-old illustrated brings his head 

 in because he is being broken with a bit and bridoon. It 

 is not uncommon to see the Arabian, properly bitted by 

 a European owner, carry a perfect head. He could not 

 be made on a better model ; but the Arab's method does 

 not utilize what nature has given him. 



It does not seem to me that the method of the cowboy 

 or that of the Arab makes a good mouth. Neither bronco 

 nor Arabian, except under abnormal conditions, ever 

 pulls ; he never even tightens the rein. This is no doubt 

 better than the common run of English-broken horses on 

 a snaffle, who will take hold of you, and bore and bore 



