220 CONFESSIONS OP A HORSE DEALEB. 



walk ; and though they do not trip, their trot is far from 

 being so agreeable and perfect as that of the English 

 horse, being a kind of running, shuffling gait. But I 

 believe, if they were bred here, and not subjected to 

 the leg-tying tether, that their paces would be as per- 

 fect, and as agreeable, as those of our own horses, more 

 especially when we take into consideration the high- 

 stepping qualities which they would (by crossing, as 

 above recommended,) inherit from their dams, and the 

 advantages which they would derive from the difference 

 in our manner of breaking them in. Whenever com- 

 petent judges go into the heart of the Desert, prepared 

 to give high prices, they will obtain valuable horses ; 

 but they must not object to those which are of low 

 stature, as many who are prejudiced against Arab 

 horses do, forgetting what they ought to remember, 

 that when our system of feeding is applied to small, 

 l)ut vigorous Arabs, the progeny obtained from them 

 will, like that obtained from their predecessors on our 

 turf, be only too much disposed to acquire a high stature. 

 The stature of many of our early race-horses did not 

 exceed fourteen hands, while that of our present ones 

 is rarely less than fifteen and a half hands, many sixteen 

 hands and more. 



"We could not, under any system of breeding, expect 

 to produce horses capable of carrying our soldiers in 

 complete marching order, and having the agreeable 

 action and high breeding of horses that are only bred 

 with a view to speed alone, under very light weights. 



