rill-: HORSE rxnh'h' domesticatiox 45 



also clear, from l\uypl iaii ail . t hat I licsc lioiscs were of I he Noil li Afiicaii, 

 oi" as we would say to-day, Arabian lyix'. it lias hccii the coiistaiil 

 infusion of this Libyan Mood which has tcndctl to iniproxc our c()iii- 

 inonci- hors(>s for th(>sc many centuries. 



The sk(>l(Mon of " Ximr" (S(H' V'l^. 27, p. 4()j, a j)ure-l)l()()(l('(l Arabian 

 stallion, has Ixhmi mount(>(l to sliow some of tlie conspicuous chai-acter- 

 istics of this sp(H'i(^s, which [\\v as follows: 



1 . 1 lead and tail carried liigli when tiie animal is animated; - 



2. Skull short, hut broad l)etween the eye S()('k{>ts; 



'.\. Eye sockets hij2;ii and prominent, ^ivinji the eyes a wide ran^e of vision; 



4. Facial profile, or forehead, concave; 



o. Muzzle slender, hut jaw deep and wide-set a])()ve the throat ; 



(). l^ound thorax, well "rihhed up" and short hack with only five rihless, or 



lumbar vertebrae; 

 7. Horizontally })laced ]:elvis (a sjieed character) and v(a-y high tail region, few 



tail vertebra^; 



5. A complete shaft of the ulna, or small lione of the forearm; 

 9. Long and slender cannon Ijones and long sloping pasterns.' 



" Ximr " was sired l)y the desert -bred Arabian '' Kismet," famous for 

 an unbroken series of victories as a race horse in India. After his death at 

 Oyster Ba^', Long Island, in 1904, the subject was presented to the Mu- 

 seum ])y the ow^ner, Mr. Randolph Huntington. 



THE RACE HORSE 



S for the earliest domestication of the horse in Britain, where the 

 race horse or thoroughbred has since been developed, no definite 

 statement can be made. We read that horsemen in large num- 

 bers opposed the landing of the Romans, and also that in 631 a. d. the 

 English first began to saddle their horses. Again we find mention of 

 ^'I'unning" horses in the ninth century. But it is not until about 1689, 

 when the famous ^'Byerley Turk" w^as brought to England, that we learn 

 anything definite concerning the origin of the present English stock, 

 though horses of undoubted North African blood had been imported from 

 Turkey a century or more earlier. 



The Daide}' Arabian, bred in the desert of Palmyra, was imported 

 into England by Mr. Darle}^ in 1705. About tw^ent}^ years later the 

 Godolphin Arabian^ arrived on the scene, continuing to improve the 

 English stock with infusion of North African or Libyan blood, to wdiicdi 

 the qualit}' of the race horse is chiefly due. 



Touchstone states, ''The thoroughbred, as soon as he ceases to be 

 subjected to the special regime of training reverts to the Arab type with 



•OsBORN, H. F. Points of the Skeleton of the Arab Horse. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 

 xxiii, art. 13, pp. 259-263, 1907. 



"Richard Berenger, however, denies that this horse was an Arab, though his view is not generally 

 accepted. History and Art of Horsemanship, m\. 



