168 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



attempt should be made, and that attempt has 

 been so far successful that it is a pity funds are 

 not available to provide stallions sufficient for the 

 entire requirements of the province, which is far 

 from being the case. 



During the winter season the Herzegovinian 

 Government stallions are all collected at Mostar. 

 An excellent range of stabling has been erected, 

 adjoining which is a barrack-room for the soldiers 

 who act as grooms, quarters for the non-commis- 

 sioned officer in charge, stores, and an open-air 

 manege for exercising. At one end of the stables 

 stand, two in a stall, some score of Cyprus donkeys, 

 which, like the horses, are sent out for stud work 

 in the spring. Then come the horses, which, in- 

 tended for service in a province some two hundred 

 miles long and nearly as broad, are eight in 

 number. Of these two are Istrian Lipizaners, a 

 breed approaching to our hackneys ; the rest pure 

 Arabs, bred in Hungary. Although I have always 

 been an enthusiastic champion of the pure blood 

 of the desert, I cannot help admitting that in this 

 country they are hardly in the right place. The 

 pure blood with its attendant qualities should 

 come last, and not here until hackney sires (or, 

 in their default, Lipizaners) had, by a dozen years' 

 use, put shoulders and substance into the ponies 

 of the countiy. The results of the present system 

 cannot be hoped to be other than weedy animals 



