LONG PEDIGREES OF ARAB HORSES 99 



fence. It was a sad pity, for she would have been 

 most invaluable to breed from. 



It appears by all accounts that few, if any, wild 

 horses at present exist in the Arabian desert, by 

 reason of the Bedouins having hunted them down for 

 the sake of their flesh, which they consider a great 

 delicacy. 



There are three distinct breeds of horses in Arabia 

 — viz., tlie Attechi, which is an inferior breed, and of 

 but little value ; the Kadischi, or horses of unknown 

 pedigree — ^a mixed, half-caste breed ; and the Kochlani, 

 whose genealogy the Arabs assert to date back some 

 two thousand years. 



I myself have seen an Arab pedigree of four hundred 

 years ; and I am sure that my friend, Mr. Wilfrid 

 Blunt, can produce some still older. 



I sold a great beauty to the late Baron Hastings, 

 which, had it not been a gelding, would have been 

 worth a thousand pounds. One, which was not nearly 

 so handsome, belonging to the late Mr. Conolly, of 

 Castletown, sold for that sum many years ago. 



The Arabs think infinitely more of the pedigrees of 

 their horses than that of their own families. They 

 have taught us the most important lesson in breeding 

 horses — viz., that the mare is the more important 

 factor. I do not by any means consider that the shape 

 of the average Arab horse is by any means perfection ; 

 but one can expect to get staying-power out of an 

 Arab mare, and can, by judicious mating with our 

 own thoroughbreds, obtain a most perfect head, broad, 

 square forehead, fine, short muzzle, prominent and 

 brilliant eye, the smallest of ears, and the most beautiful 

 course of veins, which characteristics every foal from 



