English Race-horse axd Arab War-horse Compared. 65 



Arab head, which denotes cunning and temper. I do not object to size, so long as it is not 

 out of proportion to the general frame. Large long ears are a sign of gameness. A good 

 neck means a strong, deep, broad neck, running right into the shoulders imperceptibly. I 

 abhor either a thin, weak, fine neck, or a light, tapery-arched peacocky neck." 



Passing over Mr. CoUins's ideas on the shoulders, the chest, the fore-limbs, &c., as to 

 ribs and back he says : " I do not at all dislike a rather hollow-backed horse ; they are nice 

 to sit on, and many race-horses have run well with this formation. Ragged square hips are 

 frequently met with in hunters and steeplechase-horses that are great fencers, but very seldom 

 in successful race-horses. 



" From the hip-bone to the setting-on of the tail, the structure should never be level, or 

 what jockeys call 'peacocky' and 'high-setting on of the tail' is a decided defect. Most of 

 the first-class horses, both on the flat and across country, have their tails set on low, with long 

 wide quarters, approaching what racing-men term ' mean-quartered.' 



" Two mares — Blink Bonny, the Derby, Oaks, and St. Leger winner, and also Caller Ou — 

 were remarkable instances of this extreme foimati'on." 



But with this elaborate description of what a good race-horse should be, Mr. Collins admits 

 that many trainers consider that "fore-limbs have nothing to do with racing;" that "horses 

 run in all forms," that " if they will have to run in flying handicaps of six, five, and even three 

 furlongs, which pay as well as anything in these days, and are not expected to be good 

 enough for the Derby, Oaks, St. Leger, or Doncaster, Goodwood, Chester, and Ascot Cups, 

 then mere formation must be tlirown to tlie winds, and the pedigree of the sire be carefully 

 weighed." 



It may be observed, in passing, that the public interested in useful horses have no concern 

 with the winners of the great races, until they fail to beget winning horses, because their fees — 

 of from thirty to one hundred guineas per mare — put them out of reach of the breeders of any 

 kind of hunter or riding-horse intended for sale. 



ARAB POINTS CONfPARED WITH RACE-HORSES. 



If one compares the points of the English race-horse with Abd-el-Kader's description of the 

 Arab horse, the different requirements of a single-combat desert war-horse and of a horse destined 

 to tremendous e.xertion for less than three minutes, may be seen at a glance. 



" The horse of race has ears short and mobile ; bones heavy and thin ; the cheeks lean and 

 unencumbered with flesh ; the nostrils wide ; the eyes fine, black, brilliant, prominent ; the neck 

 long ; the chest prominent ; the withers high ; the loins well gathered up ; the haunches strong ; 

 the fore-ribs long ; the hind-ribs short ; the belly sloping upwards ; the croup rounded ; the arms 

 long, like an ostrich, with muscles like a camel ; the hoof black. 



" Four things broad — the forehead, the chest, the croup, the limbs. 



" Four things long — the neck, the arms and thighs, the belly, the haunches. 



" Four things short — the loins, the pasterns, the ears, the tail.' 



In a word, a race-horse is bred to be very like a greyhound ; consequently hundreds 

 are bred every year too slow for the racecourse, and unfit for any other useful purpose. Mr. 

 Collins, in describing the difference between the formation of a race-horse, a steeplechase- 

 horse, and a hunter, the latter being, in his best form, the most useful horse for every purpose 

 except heavy draught, marks the needful variation between the living machine, which is to be 

 J 



