254 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



this stage of the training he is allowed to eat as much 

 grain as he pleases, but never much at any one time, 

 and he is never allowed much water. A system of 

 sweating is then gone through, and gradually the pace 

 is increased into his best gallop, at which he is at last 

 kept for ten or twelve miles, and then he challenges 

 all the world ! without having received one ball or 

 seen a drenching-horn. Think of that, ye knowing 

 ones ! The only advantage, unless you are a racing 

 character, in purchasing one of these tried horses, is, 

 that you get a beast whose constitution and sinews 

 are hardened by constant exercise, which has been so 

 gradually increased that the animal is not strained or 

 injured, and is able to go through the severest exercise 

 for days together without loss of condition. But if 

 you are fond of scampering across country, or twist- 

 ing and twirling your horse about, you must not come 

 to this market, for all people will decide that both 

 horse and man are mad ; and a compact little Arab 

 for hunting, or a pleasant canter, is worth all the 

 Turkomans' horses I have yet seen. All the best 

 Turkoman horses have a cross of the Arab blood. I 

 brought with me a handsome compact Arab as a 

 present to the Khan Huzarut. This horse was seldom 

 ridden on the march, and taken more care of than the 

 other horses ; but he had been accustomed to two 

 grooms scrubbing his back for hours morning and 

 evening, and to more grass and grain than I could 

 give him, and he fell off sadly on the road, arriving 



