258 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



west Spain produced a breed of horses, those of Gallaecia 

 (Galicia) and Asturia (Asturias), the former known to the 

 Romans as celdones (Galicians), the latter (which were of 

 smaller size) as asturcones (Asturians). The pace of these 

 horses was an easy amble, but we are not told their colour. 

 It has been universally held up to the present 1 that "when the 

 Saracens conquered Spain in the eighth century they brought 

 from Africa many saddle-horses of the Eastern type, which, later 

 on, were crossed with the heavier native Spanish horses." But 

 the evidence just cited renders it certain that the fine docile 

 breed of Libyan horses had been planted in Spain some ten 

 centuries before the Saracen conquest, and some three or four 

 before the Arabs ever owned a horse. 



The Barbary blood in the horses of Andalusia and Grenada 

 was largely reinforced by the Saracen conquest, for the Moors, 

 like their ancestors who served in Hannibal's army, brought 

 over with them their own native horses. 



Let us now examine the colours of the modern Spanish 

 breeds of horses. It is of course in southern Spain that the 

 Barbary blood especially prevails, and through the Middle 

 Ages down to our own times the horses of Andalusia, Grenada, 

 and Estremadura have been especially esteemed. The pre- 

 dominant colour is bay, next to which come black and grey. 

 According to a Spanish proverb, "a mulberry-black horse is 

 what everyone should wish for, though few may possess." 

 Black horses without a white mark or with only a star in 

 the forehead are especially valued. 



Early writers, such as Absyrtus, note that Libyan horses 

 "be of like goodness, and of like shape to the Spanish, save 

 that the Libyans be stronger made, longer bodied, thicker 

 ribbed, and broader breasted." This similarity was doubtless 

 due not only to the fact that Libyan horses had been imported 

 into Spain, but that later on, as certain writers tell us, Spanish 

 horses were imported into North Africa and crossed with the 



suntquos celdones vocamus, minore forma appellatos asturcones, gignunt quibus 

 non vulgaris in cursu gradus, sed mollis alterno crurum explicatu glomeratio, 

 unde equis tolutim capere incursum traditur arte. 

 1 Hayes, Points of the Horse, p. 508 (ed. 3). 



