The Arab a Weight-carrif.r. 



31 



invaded and partially subdued by the Saracens and Turks. The Saracens were defeated in 

 the great cavalry battle of Poictiers, by Charles Martel, A.D. 732, in which their loss has been 

 variously estimated at between half a million and one hundred thousand ! At any rate, the 

 survivors retired after the battle across the Pyrenees, and they must have left behind them 

 enough Oriental horse blood to stock the country for centuries. 



"Vieille Moustache," who has seen cavalry service in Spain, in India, and the Crimea, and 

 who has had e.xperience in breeding, in breaking, and training thorough-bred horses of the first 

 class, in a correspondence in The Field does justice to the unquestionable merits of the Arab in 

 his proper place : — 



" The truth is, that great speed for a mile and a half or two miles is not the forte of Arabs. 

 The flying two-year-old races in England, or, indeed, such contests as the Derby and Leger, would 

 not suit them; they would be outpaced for such distances. Stoutness, endurance of hunger, thirst. 



TAKBES ARAB. 



and fatigue, enormous power of carrying weight far above what their size would appear to warrant, 

 fine temper and wonderful hardihood of constitution, enabling them to endure intense cold equally 

 with great heat, and to do well on the food of any country — these are the characteristics which 

 make the Arab horse so valuable. Their staying quality renders the admi.Kture of their blood 

 with that of Western-bred horses, in my opinion, most desirable, while their rare intelligence and 

 sagacity must always win the true lover of the equine race. 



" As regards the capability of the Arab to carry weight, it is difficult to convey to any man 

 who has never ridden one any idea of their power in that way. When I first went to India I 

 had an Arab horse given nie to break. My eye was then only for the large horses bred in this 

 county (Leicestershire), and my notion of a weight-carrier was intimately connected with 16 hands 

 3 inches or thereabouts. The horse I was about to ride in Bangalore was not over 14 hands 

 3 inches, but he certainly had both substance and quality, as well as length, which most Arabs are 

 deficient in. Nevertheless, I did not for a moment believe the little animal could carry me. I was 

 never so deceived in my life, for I was not fi\e minutes on his back before I found he had the 



