COMMON K-OJtSE;., 
M 7 
beginning of March, when the grass 1*3 pretty high, 
anti at which time the mares are given to the 
stallion. When the spring is past, they take them 
again from pasture, and, they get neither grass 
nor hay during the rest of the year; barley is 
their only food, except now and then a little straw. 
The mane of the foal is always clipped when about 
a year or eighteen months old, in order to make 
it stronger and thicker. They begin to break 
them at two years old 3 or two years and half at 
farthest; they never saddle or bridle them till at 
that age ; and then they are always kept ready- 
saddled at the door of the tent, from morning till 
sun-set, in order to be prepared against any sur- 
prise. They at present seem sensible of the great 
advantage their horses are to the country ; there 
is a law, therefore, that prohibits the exportation 
of the mares, and such stallions as are brought into 
England are generally purchased on the eastern 
shores of Africa, and coiperound to us by the Cape 
of Good Hope. They are in general less in stature 
than our own; being not above fourteen, or four- 
teen hands and a half high ; Their motions are 
much more graceful and swifter than of our own 
horses ; but, nevertheless, their speed is far from 
being equal ; they run higher from the ground ; 
their stroke is not so long and close ; and they are 
far inferior in bottom] Still, however, they must 
be considered as the first and finest breed in the 
world; and that from which all others have de- 
rived their particular qualifications. It is even 
probable that Arabia is the original country of 
horses ; since there, instead of crossing the breed, 
they take every precaution to keep it entire. In 
other countries they must continually change the 
races, or their hordes would soon degenerate ; but 
there the same blood has past down through a long 
