1 74 The Arabian Horse. 



developed, trained, and tried ? Have we tried the 

 plan of breeding horses of pure Arabian blood, and 

 trying the young stock in the first, second, and third 

 generation ? Until all this has been tried and proved, 

 who can say that the Arabian is inferior in speed to the 

 English racer ? It is only an unfounded assertion. Has 

 any trouble been taken at all about the matter ? The 

 answers are simply in the negative. 



Formerly the training of Arabs consisted in galloping 

 a good honest game horse so many times round a race 

 course. A somewhat improved system, since 1838, has 

 shown that from such Arabs as go to India the time 

 has improved from 2 miles in 4 min. to 2 miles in 3 min. 

 48 sees., and from 3 miles in 6 min. or 6 min. 7 sees, to 

 3 miles in 5 min. 54 sees., but the improvement is not 

 necessarily limited to this ; but with such natural speed 

 to start upon, if these horses were bred from exclusively, 

 in a few generations what might we not hope for ! 



Much as the Arab has been appreciated in India, 

 little or no trouble has been taken to secure the impor- 

 tation of first-class Arabs ; and even there, comparatively 

 few really know an Arab horse. 



The love of size which Englishmen have, has been for 

 a long period detrimental to the importation of good 

 Arabians into India. Size was demanded. The Arab 

 merchant would plead in vain that it was no real cri- 

 terion. Eventually the gentleman from England with 

 European taste would find some one less scrupulous 

 to accommodate him, and horses not of quite pure blood 

 on the dams' side would be imported to please him, 



