THE HORSE AND ITS RIDER. 



[1853. 



Cliiua, were as far as we know, the last tribe of Gothic blood 

 that re.-iched the west about the time of Theodosius. In the 

 time of Charlemagne the spotted breed wtis in gi-eat dtmaud 

 as chai'g-ers for the heavily armed knights. In the Homeric 

 ballads thej are called"' \'ariegated and swift-footed ;" Statins 

 describes tliem in the same lei'ms, and distinctly tells us that 

 they were I'eputed to have descended from the Centaui-s, and we 

 also find a similar account in Virgil. 



It is unnecessary to enter into any minute detail of the ^'arietie 

 of the horse found at later periods in Greece and Italy, after the 

 extensive commerci;d intercoui'se that obtained thiongliout the 

 Mediterranean and the adjacent countries in the most flourishing 

 ages of those great monarchies. It is sufficient to say that they 

 can all be traced either to the bay, white, dun or dappled stock, 

 all of Central Asiatic origin. The fifth variety is the crisp haired 

 sorts or black stock, which became known to the world only when 

 Roman \alour had carried the Imperial Eagles to the Rhine, 

 Danube, and Britain. The Helvetian and Gallic horses were 

 mai'ked by the same characters, and were believed to be indige- 

 nous — the}- were long-backed, high-hijiped and heavy maned, 

 with small eyes and thick lips. In Gueld«rland and on the 

 Lower Rhine there was found a lighter and cleaner limbed horse 

 of the same colour, which the Romans imported for military 

 purposes, but that wealthy and wavlike peojjie procured during 

 the times of the Emperors horses from almost every part of the 

 known world, hence the great intermixture of the European 

 races, and it is certainly remarkable that notwithstanding this 

 the varieties of race can still be so accurately traced. In the 

 Biitish Islands there was an indigenous hoi-se, of very small size, 

 at the time of Ca;sar's invasion, and found wild for many years 

 after in many parts of the island; relics of this i-ace may still be 

 traced in the Welsh, New Forest, Dartmoor, and Scotch ponies. 

 The first intermixture in England was without doubt with the 

 vai-ious breeds imported by the Roman invaders, and then with 

 those of the Anglo-Saxou, Danish, and Norman conquerors. 

 Having now rapidly run through the detail of what are consi- 

 dered by natural historians to be the five primitix-e stocks or races 

 from which all the modern breeds are derived, I will jiroeeed as 

 shortly to notice the most celebrated modern breeds, beginning 

 with the Arabian, because it is to Arabian blood that England 

 owes her superiority in horses. I have already stated that the 

 horse was not originally found in Arabia — that it was probably, 

 nay, almost certainly derived from the Scythian Hyksos invaders-^ 

 that it was of the Tarpan or Bay primteval stock, and that to 

 climate and great care in feeding and breeding it owes its present 

 excellence, uniivalled indeed in the world, except by the Eno-lish 

 race-hoi-se, originally bay, is now found of nearly all colours, 

 though the bay still predominates — and this is owing to its hav- 

 ing been crossed at different times with the other i-aces, particu- 

 larly with the white or grey stock from Pei-sia and the black race 

 from Tourkhistan. AVith horses of this race, more or less pure 

 the whole of South-Western Asia, and the northern coasts are 

 su])plied, and as we have before stated, it was carried by the 

 l>loors into Spain. The perfection of the bay blood is due to the 

 Arabs; though for centuries they have bred, in and in, as it is 

 termed, from their own stocks, they still produce horses unrivalled 

 in form, with fine bone, firm sinewy legs, limbs small and hard, 

 ela.stic and close-grained muscle, every part of the animal fice 

 from vascular superabundance and useless weight. The Arab is 

 generally ratiier narrow-chested, but the band is well expanded, 

 the l]'\'i 1 small and most beautifully set on, the eyes large, soft, 

 yet l)rilliant; the eai-s film and beautifully pointed, every blood 

 vessel prominent beneath the silken coat; though the English 

 race horse is fleeter, no animal in the world has more speed com- 

 bined with endnranc(! than the Arabian horse, and they are 

 remarkably kindly tempered and intelligent. Among the Arabs 

 themselves, it is said jiroverbially, that the land of Nedgid claims 



the noblest — Hedjas the handsomest, Yemen the most enduring, 

 Syria the richest in colour, Mesopotamia the most gentle, Eo-ypt 

 the swiftest, Barbary the most prolific, Persia and Jiurdistan tL.3 

 most warlike. At present the five recognized I'aces are the Tan- 

 weya, Monakge, Kohayl, Saklawge and Zulfer — the matter i.s, 

 however, involved in .some obscurity, the very best breeds being 

 classed together as Kochlani, their genealogy preserved with great 

 care, and claiming for them an unbroken descent from the stud 

 of King Solomon ; somi Arabs, of great piety, aver that the five 

 races are descended from the five favourite mares of their prophet 

 Mahomet. 



The next conspicuous breed of the Tarpan stock is the Moroc- 

 co Barb, intermixed, as among the Arabs with a. few greys, and m 

 some blacks, probably introduced by the Vaudel couquerci's of I 

 Africa. The barb is a somewhat smaller horse than the Arab, 

 of graceful action, with flat shoulders, round chest, joints inclined 

 to be long, and a singularly beautiful head; they are far inferior 

 to the Arab in spirit and speed. To the south of Morocco, on 

 the borders of the Desert we find the Sbrubat-ui--Reech, or swal- 

 lows of the wind, reared among the tents of the Mangrabins, ■ 

 they are brown horses of the Tarpan conformation, of high spirit I 

 and great endurance, but from the poveity of their owners and 1 

 the barren nature of the country, always found in bad condition. 

 In Bornou, more towards the centre of Northern Africa, there is 

 found a fine variety of the Arab ; one of these horses was brought 

 to England a few years ago, but was so incurably ^•icious that his 

 owner was obliged to destroy him. In Nubia there is a breed 

 commonly known as the Dongola Arabian, introduced at the 

 time of the Mahometan conquest, and of fabled descent from the 

 five horses ridden by Mahomet and his four companions Abube- 

 kei, Omar, Atmar, and All, on the night of the Hegria, when 

 they fled from Me3ca. These horses often rise over sixteen hands 

 high, but the head is not well jjlaeed, the shoulders are flat, the 

 back carped and the eyes small ; the limbs ai-e excellent in shape 

 and very sinew}'. Good horses of the Bay Tarpan race are 

 found among the various tribes far down the eastern coast of 

 Africa; on the Guinea Coast no horse is produced of the slightest 

 value. At the Cape of Good Hope the Dutch settles crossed 

 the old bla:-k Dutch horse with an inferior Arab race, named 

 Kadisehi, the result is a small active hoi-se, still capable of great 

 improvement. The present Turkish horses are a mixture of 

 Arab blood with the Armenian brown stock, but as both are of 

 Tarpan origin it is unnecessary to say more than they are spirited 

 and beautiful, but without vigour or durability ; their skins are 

 so irritable that they can be cleaned only witii the sponge, and 

 they are extremely docile. The Persian hoi-se, on the frontiers 

 between that country and Arabia is essentially an Arab: further 

 in the interior it is strongly crossed with the Tourkoman; inform 

 they much resemble t'.ie Arab, but ha\e a tenden;-y lo low-neck; 

 their endurance of fatigue is almost unsurpassed by the purest 

 Arab. A Peraian courier, if we may believe Major Keppel, rode 

 one horse from Teheran to Bushin, 700 miles in 10 days. There 

 are various other breeds in this region of Asia of minor value, 

 among the small nomade tribes, but all referable to the bay stock. 

 In India, the bay race is not the horse of the pccijile; it has 

 been introduced by conpierors, anl still is so, and the r(«ult is, 

 that in Inilia there are various Ijreeds resulting from crosses of 

 the native horse with Arabs and Persian studs, and of these again 

 with blood horses bi'ought fiom Englaiul, until a splendid I'ace 

 of Indian hoi'ses has been obtained and is rapidly increasing, and 

 the cavalry of the East India Company is now entirely mounted 

 on hoi'ses bred in its own establishments. As cverytliing con- 

 nected with Australia is now of interest, it may be stated that 

 tlie Arab blood has been introduced into that country, and that 

 a race of bl.iod horees has been obtained, whose i>errormanoes on 

 the race course will bear a fair eomj^arison with Kprom or 

 New Market. Some years ago one gentleman in Australia had 



