ARABIAN POLO-PONIES, CAIRO 



bians. The so-called Godolphin Arabian, one of the 

 progenitors of the English thorough - bred, was really a 

 Barb, and his pictures show this low round croup and 

 tail. He could not have come from the Syrian desert. 

 The tail dates back many hundred equine generations. 

 In his day an " Arabian " or a " Turk " meant any Ori- 

 ental horse. 



A low-carried tail is sometimes climatic. I have been 

 told by horse-breeders on our Western plains that if for 

 tAvo or three generations the horses have been compelled 

 to turn their backs to the winter blizzards and hug their 

 tails from cold the best of natural tails will droop. As 

 a rule, a severe climate produces a low tail, a hot climate 

 a high one. But this does not quite meet the case of the 

 Barb. Perhaps the Arabian sires which w^ent originally 

 from the Syrian desert to the Barbary States were too few 

 to eradicate in the native race they impregnated the low 

 tail it had, and which most ''horses of the country" have ; 

 they were unable radically to change horses for which as 

 a race nothing had been done in the way of breeding, 



