Akab Horses. c> 



cheap forms, since it was first engraved in 1810 for Lawrence's " History of the Horse," is 

 the beautiful grey stallion, called " The Wellesley Arabian," painted by Marshall — a horse 

 which according to the high authority of the author and editor of the "Stud Book" was not 

 an Arab at all, but some Persian cross, and " very like an English hunter." 



After the Crimean war a great many Oriental horses, or rather ponies, were brought 

 home by our officers. These Turkish ponies had endurance and fair pace— they would canter 

 all da3^ Captain Morant, Master of the New Forest Hounds, had, in 1865, a little chestnut 

 Turk, that had won him several races in the Crimea, and proved a very good hunter in the 

 New Forest country ; but a celebrated breeder of ponies, to whom I offered him as a stallion, 

 would have nothing to say to him, because he was deficient in the points most needed in a 

 sire of hacks. The majority of the Crimean ponies were very bad hacks, and seldom fetched 

 more than ;^30 at the hammer; there is, however, reason to believe that the Turkish horses 

 imported into this country between 1616 and 1700 were animals of a very superior class. 

 During that time the Padishah was the acknowledged Sultan of the Mahomedans in Africa 

 and Arabia; he twice besieged Vienna — the second time in 1686 — and received, as "Protector 

 of the Faith," tribute in horses of the choicest breeds, from the deserts of Arabia, where 

 the Wahabees still and for a long time past, have defied the power of the Europeanised Sultan. 



One of the most celebrated of the Crimean importations was Omar Pacha, a bay horse, 

 belonging to the Turkish general of that name. This horse was said to have been ridden by 

 the messenger that brought the news of the repulse of the Russians from Silistria to Varna, 

 a distance of ninety miles, without drawing rein. The messenger died, but the horse was 

 none the worse for the journey. He was presented by Omar Pacha to General Sir Richard 

 Airey, who sold him to Earl Spencer. After standing some time at Althorpe as a stallion, 

 he was given by his lordship to Mr. J. Noble Beasley, of Pitsford House, who is a breeder of 

 the best class of hunters. He writes that " many Indian officers on seeing Omar Pacha (he 

 stood over 15 hands high) declared that he was not an Arab at all, but a ' Waler ' (an Australian 

 horse). He had very superior action, was strong for his size, heavy in his crest, with fine 

 shoulders, and good fore-legs. Plis stock are sound and enduring, but have never proved 

 valuable as either hunters, hacks, or harness-horses." 



The story of Omar Pacha's ride from Silistria to Varna may be quite true ; it is a feat 

 that has been equalled and exceeded by many English blood-horses. 



The Barb, which has had more to do with our English thorough-bred than the Arab, 

 although not so handsome, being frequently goose-rumped, is often a very good hack. The best 

 I ever saw of this sort were two bay horses, a little under 15 hands, which the Duke of Beaufort 

 imported after his visit to Gibraltar. He ran them at Goodwood, and they were nowhere ; 

 they then became the favo'arite hacks of the duchess. Her Grace exhibited them at the 

 Agricultural Hall in 1S64. They were so like English thorough-breds that only a judge of 

 horses would have marked them as foreign bred. 



Captain Parker Gillmore, writing in Laud and Water under the name of " Ubique," traces 

 the merit of the American trotters to Barb blood. He says: "During an experience in the East 

 that extended over three years, where I saw every variety of Arab, from the pure bred Nejed 

 to the Persian, I never knew one that was a good trotter, or gifted with knee-action. Their 

 paces are principally walking, galloping, and cantering ; their movements being too close to 

 the ground to e.xcel in the trot. 



"The districts where the high-caste Arab is reared is undulating, sandy, and sparsely 

 covered with vegetation ; there the cok and mare can without danger lay well down to gallop. 

 c 



