THE BREEDS OF HORSES. 199 



distinguished himself upon the turf. The Ara- 

 bian horses possess undoubted beauty of form 

 and grace of motion, but they are notoriously 

 inferior in point of size to the average thorough- 

 bred, being rarely over 14 hands high; and 

 their produce from the best of mares have been 

 failures both in the stud and on the race-course. 

 In every instance in which the speed and stout- 

 ness of our thoroughbreds have been tested 

 side by side with the Arabian the former have 

 proven superior to their eastern competitors. 

 Hence, recent crosses of Oriental blood, while 

 they do not warrant exclusion from the stud 

 book, are not looked upon with favor by the 

 best breeders of England or America. The 

 thoroughbred of to-day is greatly superior to 

 his Oriental ancestor in size, speed, endurance, 

 and every other useful quality, excepting, pos- 

 sibly, that of docility. 



So thoroughly have our people been imbued 

 with the idea that Arabia was the fountain- 

 head from which all modern equine excellence 

 has been drawn that to venture an opinion to 

 the contrary has been equivalent, in the mind 

 of the average horse essayist, to writing one's 

 self down as an ignoramus upon equine history. 

 And yet it is doubtful if ever a race of horses 

 has been more thoroughly overrated. The 

 greater portion of Arabia is, in point of fact, 

 illy adapted to the rearing of horses, and prior 



