ARAB HORSES, 265 



Camilla nor The Wild Oat, at the time, were good repre- 

 sentatives of their respective classes ; so the result of the 

 race is no criterion to go by. The common Argentine 

 horses, if somewhat wanting in blood, are of the sturdy and 

 useful sort. The country seems well suited to the production 

 of excellent stock. 



Arab Horses. — My fnend, the late Shaikh Esa bin 

 Curtas, always maintained that the best Arabs did not, as a 

 rule, exceed 14.I2 or 14.2 in height AH bin Abdoolah, 

 another Arab friend of mine, and of nearly as great experience 

 as the late Shaikh, likes them bigger. From a galloping 

 point of view, judging by the Indian records of the last half 

 century, there is not much to choose either way ; the balance 

 of weight being probably with the big Arabs, like Child of 

 the Islands, Raby, Lucifer, Marquis, Sherwood, Euphrates, 

 and Euclid. Yet with such good fourteen-handers as 

 Anarchy, Chieftain, Shere AH, and Turkish Flag, who, in 

 their time, were second to none in their own class ; the fact 

 remains, that for the attainment of galloping excellence, an 

 Arab need not exceed 14. i My own impression is that 

 among the Arabs sent to India for racing are to be found 

 many of the best and highest caste horses bred in the Desert 

 This opinion is in accordance with that often expressed to me 

 by experienced Arab dealers whose friendship I have enjoyed. 

 Also, poor Colonel Valentine Baker, whom I knew in Cairo, 

 and who had an intimate acquaintance with Eastern horses, 

 told me that the best Arabs were sent to Bombay, where new 

 importations, if of really high character, readily fetch from 

 ;^20o to ;^300 a-piece. We may infer from the foregoing 

 remarks, that the Arab horse is, according to our Western 

 acceptation of the term, a pony. Even restricting him to 

 this class, 1 feel confident that the best Arab that ever lived, 

 no matter what his height, was inferior, from a racing point 

 of view, to a first-class English or Australian pony of fourteen 

 hands. The English fourteen-hand pony mare. Skittles, 

 the property of Captain Mowbray, of the Black Watch, beat 



