So8 CONTINENTAL HORSES. 



Tarbes, originated from the fact that the best representa- 

 tives of this equine variety, were bred (as they now are) 

 in the plain which surrounds the city of that name. Fossil 

 remains show us that horses inhabited the country of the 

 Pyrenees during the Stone Age. 



Ill-advised crossing has done much to spoil these 

 hardy and serviceable horses, which have good bone and 

 feet, nice paces, and are quiet, plucky and enduring. 

 They vary in height from 14.2 to 15 hands, and make 

 excellent light cavalry horses, trappers and hacks. They 

 are largely used in the French cavalry. Their colour is 

 generally dark, and only a few of them have grey coats. 

 In their country, there are two Government depots for 

 stallions, one at Tarbes, the other at Pau, in both of which, 

 the stallions are Arabs, or Anglo-Arabs that have more 

 Arab than EngHsh blood. 



The Anglo- Arab (Fig. 511) is a popular cross (Thorough- 

 bred and Arab) in France. 



Spanish and Portuguese Horses. — We read in de 

 Simonoff and de Moerder's Races Chevalines, 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. This crossing produced the famous 

 Spanish horses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

 These animals had Roman noses, arched necks, goose 

 rumps, long manes and tails, extravagant action, and were 

 ideal horses of the ancient high school, from which the 

 " Spanish walk " and " Spanish trot " have emanated. 

 Descendants of this most highly-fashionable breed are 

 still preserved in the Austrian Imperial Stud at Kladrub 

 (p. 526). 



Spanish horses of the present day are in a very degene- 

 rate condition, although the Andalusian (Fig. 512) still 

 maintains a small remnant of his former high reputation. 

 In Spain, donkeys and mules are about four times more 



1 



