EGYPTIANS. 193 



rule, bold enough, and when taught, will hustle well. 

 Their individual power of going through deep ground 

 depends, of course, on their respective conformation. 

 In the Delta they are accustomed to travel through 

 very deep sand. Egyptian ponies may not compare 

 favourably with high-caste Arabs as regards bone, 

 shortness of legs, roundness of barrel and flatness of 

 loins ; but they have, as a rule, better shoulders. As 

 the Egyptian authorities found that the purchases of 

 the English sojourners removed out of the country 

 their best horseflesh, and enhanced the increased 

 difficulty of obtaining remounts, they issued such 

 stringent regulations respecting the export of horses, 

 that it is now very hard to get horses out of Egypt, 

 although an odd one or two may be exported by 

 judicious management. 



In the winter of 1890-91, the ordinary price for 

 Egyptians was from ^12 to ^18; and for Syrians, 

 from ^5 to ^10 more. Those which had shown any 

 racing pretensions fetched from £40 to ^60 ; but 

 prices have gone up since those days. Raw ponies 

 used to cost just as much as trained ones ; for in nine 

 cases out of ten, neither Syrian nor Egyptians gave 

 any trouble to train. In 1891, my brother officers and 

 I sent home about twenty-five ponies, not one of 

 which turned out badly. The majority of them were 

 Syrians ; but of those which I know were Egyptians, 

 the best were Spring, Magnet, Lancet and Modena. 



Spring, in 1892, unfortunately died. He was the 

 best light-w^eight Egyptian I have ever seen, and was 

 an extraordinarily good jumper. Captain Renton 

 owned and played him for two seasons at Hurling- 

 ham. 



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