26 The Book of the Horse. 



and on one occasion General Baker saw a perfectly thorough-bred dun horse full seventeen hands 

 high. These horses always stand in the open air, carefully clothed in thick felt rugs and hoods, 

 the latter so heavy that the manes are worn away and then hogged. In the spring they are fed on 

 green food, afterwards on barley, chopped straw, and clover hay. "The horse I brought to England 

 had no mane, but since his arrival it has grown freely." 



A high-class Turcoman horse is always followed by a pony carrying his heavy clothing. The 

 Turcoman is quite as gentle as the Arab, and generally more quiet and sedate in his ways, on the 

 whole equally courageous. 



"A very high Turcoman will often fetch from £Apo to ;£^500 sterling. Why this country 

 produces such horses is indeed singular. Why on these deserts the Arab should have grown 

 into an animal more like an English race-horse than any other horse in the world, with powers 

 of endurance possesed by no other race, is beyond my comprehension." 



Having become possessed of a fine specimen of them, which he named Merv, after a city 

 important in the military history of the country, he had an opportunity of trying his powers in a 

 race for life. " We came across a troop of fourteen gourka (wild asses) on the edge of a great 

 plain. The men of our escort had been bragging how they constantly rode down the gourka. I 

 was riding Imaum, G. was on the bay horse he bought at Meshed. The wild asses halted, and we 

 got within a quarter of a mile, then tliey started at a great pace. We were gaining on them 

 steadily although slowly, it was simply a question of which could stay the longest. At length we 

 got within three hundred yards. The wild asses made for rough bushy ground near the stream, 

 and in going over gained a slight advantage. On we went for more than half an hour ; suddenly 

 they crossed the nidlah, which was deep; by the time I got over it was evident that Imaum was 

 pumped, and that it would be useless to persevere. On looking back I saw that the whole of our 

 escort was beaten off, G.'s horse nearly as much done as Imaum. We halted and dismounted. 

 *********** 



" The horse-keeper at length came up with my Dereguey (Turcoman thorough-bred) horse. I 

 mounted, and rode off unattended into the plains ; after going about two miles I espied some 

 gourka. Away I went in pursuit ; my horse went like a steam-engine, as if he would never stop ; 

 after riding about three miles, and gaining on the wild asses hand over hand, I became aware of 

 some men who were evidently stalking me! I was compelled to retrace my steps to avoid being cut 

 off. I pulled up, and having given Dereguey his wind, sent him along at a rattling pace. The 

 robbers followed for three or four miles, but, quite outpaced, gave up the pursuit." 



A reference to Captain Burnaby's ride led a correspondent, under the initials of W. T. L. 

 (.' Lyall), who had passed most of his life in Asia, to address a letter to the Field in April, 

 1877, on "Asiatic Horses," from which the following interesting and comparatively unknown 

 information is extracted : — 



" The term ponies is correctly applied to every breed of horses in Asia, including Arabs, 

 as judged by English standards, except Turcomans. 



"The Turcoman animal is about the only one that comes up to our idea of a horse, 

 averaging 15 hands, and being often nearer 16. He is a maneless, or next to maneless, horse, 

 of racing build, and capable of doing immense distances on very little sustenance. 



" He is, in fact, like all the best breeds in Asia, an animal developed by the practice of 

 plundering, for which purpose great distances have to be traversed across deserts, often for 

 several days in succession, with no feed excepc what the riders can carry with them. 



" These horses will gallop for a week or eight days together, doing one hundred to 

 one hundred and twenty, or even a huiuiicd and fifty miles a day ; being fed, or rathe 



