44 



The Book of the Horse. 



in them as good horsemen are to employ each horse in that which Nature designed him for, 

 kings would be better served than they are, and we should not see confusion that passes 

 Babel happen in States through the incapacity of persons entrusted. He that is qualified to be 



a bishop is not fit to command an army, &c But leaving kings to choose their 



officers as they please, let us follow Nature in what concerns horses. 



****** 



"'What nation produces the most beautiful horse.'' To which I answered that I could 

 not decide till I knew for what the horse was intended. 



" I have heard Neapolitan horses commended, but these were ill-shaped, though strong and 

 vigorous. I have seen Spanish horses, and have had them in my own possession, which were 

 proper to be painted, or fit for a king to mount on a public occasion ; for they are not so tender 

 as the Barbs, nor so ill-shaped as the Neapolitans, but between both. Genets have a lofty, fine 

 air, trot and gallop well, but are seldom strong, though when well chosen they bear a good 

 character. The best breed of horses is in Andalusia, especially that of the King of Spain's, 

 at Cordova. 



SPECIMENS OF BRANDS OF ITALIAN BREEDERS OF HORSES. 



'' With regard to the Barbary horses, I freely confess they are my favourites, and I allow 

 them the preference as to shape, strength, natural genteel air, and docility. I confess they have 

 not so genteel a trot or gallop as the genets, but no horses in the world have a better movement 

 in general, when they are well chosen and well instructed ; though I have been informed in France, 

 by an old officer of the army in Henry IV.'s time, that he had often seen a Barb beat down 

 by the superior strength of a Flemish horse.* I have experienced this difierence between 

 the bone of the leg of a Barbary horse and one from Flanders, viz., that the cavity of the bone 

 of the former shall scarcely admit a straw, whilst you may thrust your finger in that of the 

 latter. The generality of Barbs are sinewy, strong, swift, and good-winded. Mountain Barbs 

 are horses of the best courage ; many of them bear the marks of wounds the}- have received 

 from lions. 



" With respect to the Northern horses, I have seen some beautiful in their kind, genteel in 

 all sorts of paces, and which have excelled all others in leaping. Moreover, they have a peculiar 

 excellency in the motion of their fore-legs, which is the principal grace in the action of a horse ; 

 but they sooner come to decay than a Barb, and you will alwa}'s find among them more horses 

 fit for the cart than the manege. 



"The best stallion is a well-chosen Barb or a beautiful Spanish horse. Some people pretend 

 that a Barb or genet produces too small a breed. There is no fear of having too small horses 

 in England, since the moisture of the climate and the fatness of the land rather produce horses 

 too large. 



."^eo anecdote of.T cavalry diarqc by " Vicillc Mcmstaclie," page ys, clin|iter (in Oriental Horses. 



