424 UNGULATA. 



Hannibal swept from end to end of Italy. They were light men on 

 light horses, and rode without rein or bit. 



The following are the characteristic points of a true Barb, and 

 especially from Morocco, Fez, and the interior of Tripoli ; The forehand 

 is long, slender, and ill-furnished with mane, but rising distinctly and 

 boldly out of their withers ; the head is small and lean ; the ears well- 

 formed, and well-placed ; the shoulders light, sloping backward, and flat ; 

 the withers fine and high ; the loins straight and short ; the flanks and 

 ribs round and full, and with not too much band ; the haunches strong ; 

 the croup, perhaps, a little too long ; the quarters muscular and well- 

 developed ; the legs clean, with the tendons boldly detached from the 

 bone ; the pastern somewhat too long and oblique ; and the foot sound 

 and good. They are rather lower than the Arabia';., seldom exceeding 

 fourteen hands and an inch, and have not his spirit, or speed, or contin- 

 uance, although in general form they are probably V.is superior. 



The training is adapted to the exigencies of desert warfare. All that 

 is required of the best-taught and most valuable I'arbary horse is thus to 

 gallop and to stop, and to stand still, all the da} if it is necessary, when 

 his rider quits him. As for trotting, cantering, < ,r ambling, it would be 

 an unpardonable fault were he ever to be guilty of it. A Barbary horse 

 is generally broken in in a far severer way, an i much earlier than he 

 ought to be, usually in his second year, and then fore he usually becomes 

 unfit for service long before the Arabian. The usual food of the Barb is 

 barley and chopped straw, and grass while it is to be found, but of the 

 provision for winter food in the form of hay they are altogether ignorant. 



The Barb has chiefly contributed to the excellence of the Spanish 

 horse : and, when the improvement of the breed of horses began to be 

 systematically pursued in Great Britain, the Barb was very early intro- 

 duced. The Godolphin Arabian, as he is called, who was the origin 

 of some of our best racing blood, was a Barb ; and others of our m^st 

 celebrated turf-horses trace their descent from African mares. 



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