44 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



gait he is most loath to travel, is high and pounding, 

 owing undoubtedly to the fact that he has a somewhat 

 different hock and far longer femur and tibia than 

 other horses. These, although they enable him to 

 reach farther backward in the act of propulsion in 

 the trot, also necessitate his rotating his whole leg 

 outward in order to bring it well under him. 



The Arab. The Arab, to whom we owe a great 

 debt as the founder of the thoroughbred family, has 

 undoubtedly great intelligence and tremendous stamina. 

 From earliest time he has been raised with one idea — 

 to carry his master through all vicissitudes of the ele- 

 ments, and this has produced endurance, courage, and 

 hardiness, while constant companionship with man has 

 resulted in extraordinary sagacity and docility. But 

 in spite of these excellent qualities of disposition, his 

 conformation, gaits, and speed leave much to be de- 

 sired. He is usually pictured by artists as being built 

 along magnificent lines, with a graceful, curved neck. 

 With few exceptions, however, the average Arab is 

 not nearly as beautiful or so gracefully turned as pic- 

 tures have led us to imagine. His neck is generally 

 short, and his head carried high with his nose stuck 

 out in front. His shoulders are often good, but his 

 withers are too low, broad, and rounded to suit our 

 ideas of saddle conformation. Moreover, the chief 

 objection to the use of the Arab for general saddle 

 work is his size. The caste Arab stands only 14.1 

 hands. He is undoubtedly able to carry very heavy 

 loads, as has been demonstrated time and time again, 

 but few full-grown men or women would look well on 

 a horse barely above pony size. Under the Orient's 

 sunny skies a man gloriously arrayed in Bedouin's 

 clothes, mounted on an Arab, may please the eye, but 



