THE ARABIAN HORSE. 



THE WELLESLEY ARABIAN, 



THE present writer having seen this fine horse, can vouch for the truth of 

 Mr. Marshall's drawing. This horse, in figure, bearing considerable resemblance 

 to the larger war-horse of Europe, although possessing the delicate skin and 

 various other attributes of the South Eastern courser, it may be conjectured, was 

 the produce of some country bordering upon Arabia, where, as in England, the 

 Arabian or Barbary horse in process of time, acquires an increase of size and fullness 

 of form, together with a considerable expansion of the hoofs. This is no doubt 

 the effect of lower and more moist grounds, and more succulent food than can be 

 found in the deserts, where the dryness and purity of the air and soil compress 

 the animal body, impart a superior firmness and elasticity to the tendinous and 

 fibrous system, allowing greater powers in a smaller compass of substance, and 

 exalting the tone and vigour of the animal spirits. Thence horses are chosen from 

 the deserts for their fleetness and courage, and those from the mountainous regions 

 are preferred as coursers. A few of the produce of the Wellesley Arabian were 

 trained, but not with sufficient success to raise his reputation as a racing- stallion. 



It is a curious physico-zoological fact that, the horse was a genus formerly 

 unknown to that vast portion of the globe, the American Continent and the Is- 

 lands ; and that the horse found no path through which to migrate thither, until 

 he was imported by the Spaniards after the subduction of those countries. The 

 breed soon multiplied far beyond human need, on the rich and productive soils of 

 those almost unlimited regions, as well as that of horned cattle, which had been 

 simultaneously imported. In consequence, the animals ran wild, and in the 

 course of several centuries, have had such a multitudinous increase, as to have lost 

 all vestiges of private property. The accounts of travellers in South America are 

 almost incredible, as to the innumerable herds which they saw, and the frequent 

 danger of being trodden under foot by them. Herds of wild horses are also found 

 in the vast Tartarian regions, from the East to the borders of Russia. The native 

 horse of East India, is said to be small, and unendowed with the generous qualities 

 of the courser, supplies of which latter, however, are constantly passing into that 

 country. 



Importations of the Southern horse have taken place upon the Continent of 

 Europe, during many centuries, for the purpose of improving the native breed, 

 as war, carriage, and road horses. In England, such imports had not so early a 

 commencement, at least from the Levant, most of the breeding stock for the 

 purpose of improvement, being purchased on the opposite continent : but about 



