204 
THE HORSES OF SIBERIA. 
THE HOESES OF SIBERIA. 
There are two distinct races of horses in Sibe¬ 
ria—the Mogul or indigenous race, and the race 
imported by conquerors. In the former cate¬ 
gory, there are many, those especially which are 
used in rural labors through the country, and in 
teams among the towns, whose breed, by dint 
of good feeding and careful training, has consid¬ 
erably improved, and which have acquired, in 
size and strength, what they may have lost in. 
speed and liveliness. By far the greatest por¬ 
tion, however, of the horses which Siberia boasts 
of, are contributed by the Steppe, from its own 
pure Mogul race. These are ugly, of small 
size, of uncouth make, their coats curiously col¬ 
ored, their heads as huge as in the days of 
Zenghis Khan, the heads of their progenitors, 
long and pendant, and their ears shaggy. On 
the other hand, however, they are of fiery met¬ 
tle and extraordinary swiftness. Left in an 
entirely savage state, untended or unvexed, they 
wander in thousands, guided by their stallions, 
over the whole face of Siberia, and particularly 
over the Steppe of Barabinsk, which is the pro¬ 
longation of the Kirghish Steppes, and which is 
appropriated pre-eminently to the rearing of 
horses. While summer lasts, their pastures 
afford them a plentiful forage; but in winter, 
they are reduced, to the withered herbs,which 
sparingly dot the soil, and which they are often 
driven, under the guidance of their instinct, to 
disinter from depths of snow. 
In so vast a region as Siberia, where, for want of 
canals, railways, or steamboats, the horse is the 
only available medium of locomotion, the inhabi¬ 
tants have very naturally bestowed an anxious 
degree of attention upon the rearing of the equine 
race. And as the immense deserts which separate 
the inhabited localities turn every removal, how¬ 
ever trivial, into a long expedition, the grand ob¬ 
ject has been to impart to their horses the utmost 
possible hardihood and capacity for bearing 
fatigue, privation, and the inclemency of the 
seasons—in a word, to impart to them the vigor 
necessary for those rapid and flying journeys 
in which all Russians delight. The results 
which the Siberians have attained in these mat¬ 
ters are incredible. It is not uncommon to see 
their teams accomplish a distance of 200 versts 
unchanged; and such is the acquired abstemi¬ 
ousness of their horses, that they often remain 
for forty-eight consecutive hours under the yoke 
without being once baited with feed or drink. 
These extraordinary local severances, indeed, 
have reacted on the manners of the inhabitants, 
and have originated very peculiar customs. In 
the north of Russia—thanks to the daring tem¬ 
perament which is one of the characteristics of 
the nation—the people’s classic equipage of 
the Troik, has from time immemorial served for 
picturesque contests, in which the drivers of the 
rapid vehicle which is seen scouring the streets 
of the capital in every direction strive to surpass 
each other in dexterity, and in the prompt agility 
of their horses. In the south, on the contrary, 
the manners of the Cossacks, a race essentially 
equestrian, have made the saddle, not the drosh- 
ky cushion, the universal conveyance. Siberia, 
being compounded in its population of these 
two types of the Russian race, has become, by 
pre-eminence, the scene of these tournaments, 
which enjoy for a race course a flat country of 
many thousands of square miles in extent. Eve¬ 
ry moment you behold along the high roads 
heavy trains, (called caravans,) of travelling 
carriages, whirled on at the utmost speed of 
their teams, and contending one with another 
in pace, precisely as if it were a real race by 
the stop watch., Indeed, in the very language 
of the people, the word to race, has supplanted 
the term to go. You are not told that such a one 
has gone this way, but such a one has raced this way. 
Each village and each town has its own horse 
races, which are made the occasion of consider¬ 
able bets among the inhabitants, and have ac¬ 
quired the importance of national festivals. 
The preparatory training of the horses is very 
rigorous, and never lasts less tharj a fortnight. 
The whole of this period is spent in starving the 
animals, in order to give them greater lightness 
and spirit, in bathing them continually, and in 
exposing them now to the frosts of winter, and 
again to the heat of vapor baths. In the prepar¬ 
atory races, they appear enveloped in felt cov¬ 
erings. Entirely deprived of food on the eve of 
the race, the horses are led into the arena fever¬ 
ish with impatience and hunger, neighing long 
neighs, plunging with eagerness, and their 
grooms have the greatest difficulty in holding 
them in at the starting post. When the jockeys 
mount, they are careful to turn their coursers’ 
heads the way directly opposite to the true di¬ 
rection, and facing the barriers. Without this 
precaution, no power on earth could make the 
steeds await the signal. The aboriginal natives 
of these countries evince rare skill in breaking 
the wild horse. They throw themselves on his 
back without saddle or bridle, and bit him at 
the very height of his fury, after having first 
grasped his ears. The Tcherkissies of Irkousk 
have a different method. They first bit the 
horse which is to be broken, and then, while 
helpers hold the animal, and by means of long 
chords, prevent his throwing himself down. Tn 
spite of his plunges, the rider mounts, his feet 
being bare, and he himself armed with a Cos¬ 
sack whip. By this method, it is easy to master 
a horse in the course of two or three days at 
most. In the chase after wild horses, a peculiar 
breed of horses is employed in Siberia. These 
are called outruchnoi, (picklocks,) on account of 
an instrument used by the huntsmen, and which 
is in the form of a long hook, furnished with a 
running knot .—Journal des Haras et de la Chasse. 
CULTIVATE A VARIETY OF CROPS. 
This principle is inculcated by several con¬ 
siderations ; variety of soils and situations; use 
of the products for various purposes, feeding to 
stock, selling in market, &c.; time of planting, 
cultivating and harvesting; variableness of cli¬ 
mate; the necessity for rotation of crops or 
change on the same fields; the eradication of 
weeds, &c. 
Some fields may bear remunerative crops of 
one plant, yet leave a deficiency from the cul- 
