II ORIENTAL BREEDS 17 
the veins of the Norfolk hackney. Could we know 
the history of their breeding farther back, it is not 
too much to suppose that there were other foreign 
crosses; but here at least we have the fact that 
Blaze, the sire of (Original) Shales, was seven-eighths 
Oriental in blood, and that Flying Childers, the sire 
of Blaze, was practically purely Oriental in origin. 
The cultivation through ages of the pure Arab 
gave him an impressive power that no other breed 
has yet attained to, nor ever can till it has gone 
through ages of similar cultivation and judicious 
inbreeding. 
It is not too much to say that almost every 
distinguishing characteristic of beauty, endurance, 
and speed in every horse in Europe is due to the 
Arab blood. Studied historically, the Arab is the 
purest and most potential horse; considered physically 
and scientifically, the best balanced and proportioned 
horse ; tried by experience, the most enduring and 
companionable of man’s equine friends; judged by 
his intelligence, the most sagacious and docile. 
Why, then, is he not more used in England? Partly 
because we have him and his. qualities engrafted to 
an enormous extent in all our best breeds; partly 
because we do not know him as we ought to; partly 
because we prefer great pace over a short distance 
to a fair pace over a long one; partly because we 
prefer quantity and size to quality and symmetry. 
The Arab certainly cannot approach his English 
“thoroughbred ” descendant in respect of speed over 
a short distance ; no one would be foolish enough to 
think that he could. The English racehorse is in 
the main an Arab, with but one of his superior 
Cc 
