I ^o 



The Book of the Horse. 



amon<Tst which are to be found horses of so great a variety that at an exhibition held in 

 Moscow the horse show prize hst was divided into not less than fourteen classes, viz. : — 



1. Thorouglibreds, English and 



Arab. 



2. Saddle-horses, half bred. 



3. Orloff trotters. 



4. Carriage-horses. 



5. Carabaghs — saddle-horses crossed 



from Arabs and Trouchmens. 



6. Trouchmens — a fine breed from 



Central Asia, much resembling 

 the Arab. 



7. Horses from the Don — the well- 



known irregular cavalry horses 

 of tlie Don Cossack. 



8. Cart-horses. 



9. Voitugs. 



10. Fiiilanders. 



11. Sraouds. 



12. Baschkines. 



13. Ponies. 



14. Horses from the Caucasus. 



The landed proprietors of Russia proper include a great many country gentlemen, who live 

 on their estates, large or small, much as our squires did in the days of the first Georges, when 

 there was a distinction between the courtier, the citizen, and the well-acred squire (admirably 

 painted by Macaulay), which has long totally disappeared in Great Britain. The Russian novelist 

 Tourguenet, in his " Days of a Russian Sportsman," has also painted the Russian squire, neither 

 courtier nor soldier ; proud of his horses, his Persian greyhounds, and big wolf-hounds, and 

 devoted to field sports. Among this class horse-breeding \i pursued with passion, and riding 

 is one of their principal occupations in summer. In winter, sledge-driving presents the only 

 means of conveyance for passengers or merchandise. For military exigencies, every Russian 

 officer must know how to ride, and ride well ; but all over the empire harness-horses of pace 

 and endurance are required to cover the long distances between country house and country 

 house, and between towns and villages. Over a territory so vast and so barren, railroads can 

 only be carried to unite important cities and ports ; and, if ever, centuries must elapse before 

 sledges or horses cease to be the principal conveyances. 



A hundred years ago the Russian nobility began to import English blood-horses to cross 

 with their excellent mares, and judicious importations have continued ever since. Whenever 

 the means of communication have been rendered less costly than at present, it is from Russia 

 that we are most likely to obtain a supply of useful riding horses, the produce of native mares 

 by English sires ; for Russia has native breeds, with size, substance, and riding action, besides 

 her tens of thousands of Cossack ponies and Oriental galloways. The pictures of the Russian 

 sledge-horses show more blood than those of France or Northern Europe. 



The Russian horses imported into England and France are always said to be of the Orloff 

 breed, and are of two totally different tribes. The one is a leggy riding-horse with a great deal 

 of quality of the Arab style. The others are Orloff trotters, which are large horses, generally 

 brown, sometimes grey, fast according to European notions, but with a shooting action \\\i\\ the 

 fore-legs which we do not admire in this country, but which may be well calculated for sledge- 

 travelling. In an article attributed to Sir Erskine Perry,* he has traced the origin of these trotters, 

 some of the finest specimens of which were exhibited at the Hamburg Agricultural Show in 1865. 



Alexis Orloff (brother of Gregory), the lover of Catherine II. (Catherine the Groat), to whom an 

 imposing monument has just been erected in St. Petersburg, received from a Turkish pacha as a 

 present a Barb, Smolenska, whose skeleton is preserved to this day in the Orloff Museum. The 

 stud was commenced in 1700 with the following collection, according to the Russian horse- 



Stallions. 



3 

 I 

 o 



Mares. 



2 

 3 

 5 



