THE ARABIAN HORSE. QI 



" A better stallion by far would be the Arab, on the big, 

 roomy, thoroughbred, weight-carrier mare. By big is not 

 meant one such as that giant of his generation, Arrandale, 

 standing 17 hands, with bone in proportion, and, for one of 

 his weight, certainly a wonderful light and easy goer. A well 

 spread young mare, 15.3 to 16 hands, is quite tall enough ; but 

 there must be power enough to carry fifteen stone in the 

 Shires. We want to breed Anglo-Arabs such as Colonel 

 Gore's Moodkee, first prize in the hunter-stallion class at the 

 Royal at Dublin, or Mr. Lofft's Gidran (bred in Hungary), 

 a horse that has got some excellent stock. In the South 

 African campaign, Colonel Gore, then commanding the Innis- 

 killing Dragoons, rode a full brother to Moodkee, and the Arab 

 blood told, for this charger was never sick or sorry, lasting out 

 four picked horses his master had also brought with him from 

 Ireland. Stallions so bred, and not brought up like fatlings, 

 would nick admirably with colonial mares such as are advo- 

 cated above. The Bernais, who are extensive breeders, prefer 

 the Anglo-Arabian stallion to the thoroughbred, finding the 

 foals by the former much stronger and easier to rear on their 

 coarse fodder. 



" The ' sealed pattern ' according to which we should 

 endeavour to breed stallions for the Indian Government, and 

 for our own home general purpose use, will be found in the 

 engraving of a portrait of the Anglo-Arabian so admirably 

 depicted by Mr. P. Palfrey. In it will be traced a strong 

 ressmblance to the famous Sultan, the worthy representative 

 of the Woodpecker branch of the King Herod line, a horse 

 said to have been cast in an enlarged mould of the Darley 

 Arabian, and in many of his characteristics, a reflex of Flying 

 Childers. The line carried from the point of the elbow, along 

 the belly to the stifles, is, it will be noticed, very nearly 

 straight, as is the case with Ormonde, and is common to very 

 nearly all blood Arabians. The deep back rib, which always 

 takes away from the appearance of a deep brisket, is indicative 

 of that stamina and constitution possessed by the * air drinker 



