68 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 



He IS peculiarly adapted to that waste and barren country, and to th© 

 uses for which he is prized by the a\ andering tribes. The food and drink 

 upon which he can live and perform great journeys Avould be wholly inad- 

 equate to the keeping of one of ours which we are pleased to call thrifty. 



As has ])ccn said, this remarkaljle stock has long maintained its essen- 

 tial purity ; nor docs it show, in recent times, any tendency to degenerate. 

 Those good Arabians that are offered for sale to British residents and 

 other horse dealers in the markets of Bengal and Bombay command prices 

 ranging from seven hundred and fifty to one thousand dollars ; and it is 

 said by travelers that their best mares are seldom if ever sold. 



IV. The English Thorough-bred. 



We have already referred to different varieties of English horses, some 

 of which have had more or less influence upon those of our own country : 

 but the most excellent and famous of all is the thorough-bred, or race- 

 horse, descended chiefly from imported Arabians, Barbs, and Turks. 

 The animal known to-day as the real English thorough-bred is perhaps of 

 almost purely eastern origin. His excellences are derived, it is thought, 

 from an admixture of various pure breeds, native to those regions to 

 which the noblest of the race are indigenous, so far as either history or 

 tradition determines. Ai-abia, Sjni-ia, Persia, Turkestan, Nubia, Abys- 

 sinia, and the Barbary States, all have breeds closely connected with each 

 other, and yet possessing different characteristics ; but the English race- 

 horse is a superior animal to any of them ; and his blood cannot now be 

 improved by crossing with any known stock. 



There seems to be in him a larger mixture of the Barb than of any 

 other breed ; but the earliest and most celebrated importations into Eng- 

 land were Arabians. Much attention has long been paid there to the 

 improvement of racing stock. The minds of Englishmen were most 

 probably turned to this by the accession of the Norman Conquerors ; at 

 any rate, soon after the Normans were established in the island, the firs 

 Arabian of which any record has been preserved was imported. Thr 

 was in 1121, during the reign of Henry I. Then, an authenticated case 

 of importation from Arabia took place in the reign of James I. This 

 horse was condemned, not having met the popular expectation ; but the 

 true value of eastern blood began now to be appreciated, and the White 

 Turk was soon brought over ; then a horse known as the Helmesley Turk ; 

 Boon afterward, Fairfax's Morocco Barb. The interest in the improve- 

 ment of racing stock then so actively manifested has never suffered more 

 than a temporary abatement, and in no other country than in England 

 has such success been attained. During the troublous times consequent 

 upon the overthrow of Charles I. and the accession of the Puritans to 



