HORSE-BREEDING IN INDIA. 91 



liockg, and falling away behind of the mother. Arab stallions are 

 best fitted for districts where grain and forage are scarce, and the 

 people poor, and unable to feed their youngsters well. As 

 already mentioned, Arabs will grow into useful animals on food that 

 would stunt the growth of English stock, and produce weedy, 

 misshapen, worthless creatures. Arab stock in England grow large, 

 because they get well fed, and both climate and soil are favorable 

 to their development. Again, well-bred Arab stallions may with 

 advantage be put to pure bred, big, roomy mares, to produce 

 foals adapted for generally useful purposes. The cross of Arab 

 blood thus infused gives the progeny beauty, endurance, and spirit. 

 But be careful that the mare is pure bred, if mongrel, and holding 

 strains of a variety of breeds, the progeny will be mongrel too, and 

 may throw back to one or more of its maternal ancestors, and you 

 may get an ill- shaped brute not worth rearing. 



Persian. — I am not greatly in favour of this class of horse, for the 

 reason that he is not ''true bred/^ his pedigree is doubtful, and 

 being mongrel himself it is not possible to tell what his produce will 

 be like. I have seen but little of the stock of Persian horses in India, 

 and those I have come across have not impressed me very favourably. 

 There are, moreover, but very few of this class of stallion in the 

 country. In my opinion all the good qualities of the Persian or 

 Gulf Arab he owes to the infusion of pure Arab blood, and the 

 stronger they hold this strain the better they are. As far as their 

 powers of endurance, ability to live on short commons, and hard 

 indigestible food goes, they come next to the Arab. But they want 

 his speed, his courage, and his good looks. They are sluggish 

 tempered, and lymphatic, especially when gelc. They have, however, 

 generally the advantage of size, standing* higher, possessing more 

 bone and substance, and are good tempered. 



Coimtry-hreds. — We sometimes find very good horses of this class, 

 sired by a Government stallion. If his pedigree is not crossed 

 too much, so as to make him a mongrel, he often proves a very useful 

 sire. It is not possible to describe a Country-bred stallion in 

 general terms, as so much depends on whether he is of Thorough- 

 bred, Half-bred, or of Arab descent. Care should be taken in this 

 class of sire to reject such horses as show the defects of the Indian 



