ARAB HORSES. 283 



as the late Shaikh, Hkes them bigger. From a galloping 

 point of view, judging by the Indian records of the last half 

 century, there is not much to choose either way ; the balance 

 of weight being probably with the big Arabs, like Child of 

 the Islands, Raby, Lucifer, Marquis, Sherwood, Euphrates, 

 and Euclid. Yet with such good fourteen banders as 

 Anarchy, Chieftain, Shere Ali, and Turkish Flag, who, in 

 their time, were second to none in their own class ; the fact 

 remains, that for the attainment of galloping excellence, an 

 Arab need not exceed 14.1. My own impression is that 

 among the Arabs sent to India for racing are to be found 

 many of the best and highest caste horses bred in the Desert. 

 This opinion is in accordance with that often expressed to me 

 by experienced Arab dealers whose friendship I have enjoyed. 

 Also, poor Colonel Valentine Baker, whom I knew in Cairo, 

 and who had an intimate acquaintance with Eastern horses, 

 told me that the best Arabs were sent to Bombay, where new 

 importations, if of really high character, readily fetch from 

 ^200 to ^300 a-piece. We may infer from the foregoing 

 remarks, that the Arab horse is, according to our Western 

 acceptation of the term, a pony. Even restricting him to 

 this class, I feel confident that the best Arab that ever lived, 

 no matter what his height, was inferior, from a racing point 

 of view, to a first-class English or Australian pony of fourteen 

 hands. The English fourteen hand pony mare. Skittles 

 {see Fig. 171), the property of Captain Mowbray of the 

 Black Watch, beat in a two-mile match, at Cairo in 

 1886-7, the Arab Haddeed, in a common canter when giving 

 him 7 lbs. He was looked upon in Egypt as an extra- 

 ordinary good Arab. Mr. Kelly Maitland's Australian 13.2 

 mare, Fleur de Lys, several times proved herself as fast as 



