THE SPANISH HORSE. 43 



thougli in a smaller degree, among the Gaulisli liorseherds, 

 during the six months occupied by Hannibal's march through 

 their country from the Pyrenees to the Elione, at the head of 

 eight thousand African Barbs, principally, doubtless, if not all, 

 stallions. 



Exactly at the time when this ingrafted blood might be sup- 

 posed to be in process of deterioration, in consequence of in- 

 breeding, and perhaps of intentional vitiation by the introduc- 

 tion of Flemish sires, for the begetting of animals capable of 

 bearing the men-at-arms of the chiv^alric ages in their ponderous 

 panoply, opportunely arrived Tarik with his hordes of desert 

 horse to reinvigorate the depreciated race. 



From the first, in all probability, of these intermixtures, as 

 well as from the horses of the Thracian and German troopers 

 quartered on them by the Roman emperors, the British horses 

 of the old stock, as found by the Romans, under Cassivelan and 

 Caradoc, directly received their first improvement. Indirectly, 

 we know that they did so, through the improved second Spanish 

 cross, introduced largely for breeding purposes by the Saxon 

 and Norman monarchs of the southern kingdom. 



Of the actual Spanish horse, of the days of the conquest of 

 South America, when the Spanish horse was in his greatest pu- 

 rity and perfection, comes the wild stock of the South American 

 pampas, and of the southern and south-western prairies of the 

 United States ; and from this, to a certain degree, it is probable 

 that the domesticated stock of some of the southern States has 

 received a remote cross of Andalusian blood. In Louisiana, 

 that cross was obtained, and still exists, in a more direct form ; 

 although it does not appear that the blood continues to be dis- 

 tinguishable, to any considerable extent, in the external charac- 

 teristics of the animal. 



I trust that these preliminary observations will not be weari- 

 some to my readers, as I am well assured that they are of some 

 importance to my subject ; bearing on a point, as they do, in 

 the history of the English and American horse, which has been 

 scarcely, I think, sufficiently considered — the admixture of old 

 indigenous blood, which it cannot be denied does in some sort, 

 though in an infinitesimal degree, exist in what is esteemed the 

 purest and most perfect thoroughbred strain — and, secondly, 



