36 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 



It may not be iirelevant to state in this connection that the great excel, 

 lence of the Arabian of the present day, whatever may have been his 

 •ri'i-in, is due in part to the extraordinary affection felt for him by his 

 master, which manifests itself in the extreme care that is lavished upon 

 him, and to which he is almost as sensitive as a human creature ; in part 

 to his freedom from that severe labor by which the horses of other na- 

 tions are prematurely broken, stiffened, and deprived of spirit ; and 

 partly, no doubt, by the steps which are taken, not so much to improvey 

 but to preserve y a choice breed. While other nations, notably the Eng- 

 lish, French and American, are engaged in ceaseless endeavors to im- 

 prove, and, according to some authorities, constantly making lamentable 

 failures — defeating their own ends by the systems of breeding, training, 

 and use, which they adopt — the wild sons of the desert maintain for their 

 horses from age to age the superiority which they were first found to 

 possess. 



Men differ in opinion as to the cause of all this, and the mooted ques- 

 tions of crossing and in-and-in breeding find their respective champions, 

 and the discussion is from time to time renewed ; but the fact remains 

 that the horses of Arabia excel all others ; while another important fact 

 seems to be most generally overlooked, that the Ai*abs neither cross nor 

 actually breed in-and-in, but, having by some means obtained a noble race 

 they guard equally against admitting admixture of blood and against too 

 close consanguinity. 



The subject of breeding, however, mil be found to have been more 

 fully discussed under its proper head ; and in conclusion it will perhaps 

 be sufficient to urge upon the attention of the intelligent owner and 

 breeder some few facts which have been touched upon in the course of 

 this brief sketch, namely : That among horses in a wild state disease 

 is rarely known, though admixture of blood most probably does take 

 l)lace, and, for aught we know to the contrary, as close in-and-in 

 breeding as the most pronounced advocate of that system could wish. 

 Tims, we find exemption from destructive disorders, but ordinarily no 

 strongly marked characteristics of race constantly prevailing, and but 

 rarely among them what may be termed really fine animals. 



Again, that among the horses of the Arabs and the American Indians^ 

 disease is almost as rare as among the Avild herds. And again, among 

 those nations where the horse is in the highest degree useful, becoming 

 more the slave than the companion of man, he is the subject of a multi- 

 tude of infirmities scarcely equalled in number by those to which map. is 

 himself heir. It has been said that in becoming the companion and the ser- 

 vant of man, he has partaken, in some measure, of both man's spirit and 

 K.s physical frailties. In battle, he adds to the terrors of the conflict 



