MY QUEST OF THE ARAB HORSE 



In judging his horses he is different from 

 the average man, and I think his theory is one 

 of the best. The Bedouins we met laughed 

 over the few Europeans they had seen coming 

 to buy staUions for the various European gov- 

 ernments. These men, they said, instead of 

 looking at the horse's head, looked first at his 

 feet and ankles. They could not understand 

 that. If they were going to trust me with 

 their purses and, what was more, their life, 

 they declared they would look first, for twen- 

 ty minutes, in my face and eyes and not pay 

 so much attention to my feet. While it was, 

 of course, understood that a horse's legs and 

 feet should be perfect, still a horse showed 

 even what his legs were made of by his head 

 and no horse was ever better or worse than 

 what his head showed. They defied me to pick 

 out one of the distinguished war mares that 

 did not show her distinctive characteristics 

 more plainly in her head than in the rest of 

 her makeup. And I found they were right. 



Horseflesh and horse-lore are the same the 

 world over, after all. After returning to this 

 country I told Mr. James R. Keene, the great- 

 est of our turfmen, of the Bedouin method and 



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