98 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



Half-Blood Mare of Holsteix 



different countries amounted in round number: 

 to two hundred thousand horses at a tuta 

 value of $30,000,000. 



Horses now existing may be dividetl 

 into two great groups : the heavy, 

 cool-blooded horses of western 

 Europe, called also the horses ot 

 Armorica; and the lighter, hot- 

 blooded horses of Eastern origin. 

 This difference relates to character 

 and temperament, the Eastern horses 

 being ardent, quick, susceptible, 

 courageous, sometimes restive ; while 

 those of the West are calm, ecjuable, 

 slow, and docile. 



Russia, with her vast plains, is the 

 land par excellence of horses. In 1 886 

 the number of Kirghiz families in- 

 habiting the steppes of Siberia north 

 of Turkestan was, in round numbers, 

 three hundred thousand, the poorest 

 of whom owned from fifteen to twentv horses. 



while the rich owned many thousands. The 

 Russian horses may be divided into three 

 groups, — those of the steppes, those of the 

 peasants, and those of the stud. The first two 

 form the transition from the wild horse to the 

 civilized horse. All Russian horses of the first 

 two groups are horses of the steppes, or 

 descended from them, and in their e.xterior 

 they nearly always present the Oriental type. 

 The horses of the steppes are born there, and 

 live a free life in large herds, or else in small 

 groups of five or six. They feed during most 

 of the year on the grass of the steppes. To 

 these belong the wild horse of the region and 

 the semiwild ones belonging to the Kirghiz 



an' 



Oui; l.MTiUL'i. Friends 



Head of Horse f.orn- White (Albino) 



the Kalmucks ; also those of the Don and 

 the Caucasus. 



The peasant horses of Russia are no 

 longer reckoned among the horses of the 

 steppes, although they are descended from 

 them. All the horses that we have men- 

 tioned so far are of pure blood ; but in the 

 third grou]), those of the stud and of civil- 

 ized Europe and America, we find new 

 breeds produced under the influence of 

 man, either by crossbreeding with foreign 

 races or by modifications of life and habit. 

 The horses of the Kirghiz, which are 

 those of Asia to the northeast of the 



