BLOOD OF HORSES INTO EUROPE. 
li 
I 
Annibal, where he describes the heaviness of the Roman cavalry, 
and the manifest superiority of the Numidian, displayed in their 
light and rapid manoeuvre: the horse of Marcus Aurelius, in 
the Roman bas-reliefs, formed after the low and indigenous mo¬ 
del, has nothing characteristic of the race, the fire, the elegant 
and vigorous make of the oriental horses. What Pliny says a- 
bout this animal in his natural history is not worth repeating j 
he had no idea of the beauty of the Eastern race. 
From all this it is easy to draw the conclusion, that in the 
south the cross with the oriental breed has done more for Eu¬ 
ropean horses than in the north. 
We recall the following events as so many antecedent epochs 
relating to the crossing of the indigenous breeds with the Asiatic. 
The migration of the Goths, who over-run Europe in dif¬ 
ferent directions as far as Spain. As a consequence of this 
immense accession to the population, horses, even from the 
north of Asia, where they are the same in kind as the Scy¬ 
thian, were spread over Europe: this, however, would im¬ 
prove the blood only, not the form ; for such a cross availed 
nothing in countries with marshy pasturages ^ and in such 
as are dry it was only productive of cleanness of make. 
This epoch also forms the date of the introduction of the 
common sort of horses from the south of Poland into Hungary 
and Transylvania; in- which latter country they throve best 
in consequence of the salubrity of the pasture. The invasion 
of the Moors in 710 introduced the oriental blood into Spain; 
where a continuance during eight centuries afforded it every 
opportunity for propagation; and besides, the elevated and dry 
pasturages of Andalusia were well suited to preserve the purity 
and form of such a race: the magnificence of the Saracen 
prince, the galantry of the courts of Grenada and Cordovia, the 
carousals of the grandees, became additional motives for the 
transportation of the most admired horses into Spain. In the 
tenth century we behold the grand Vizier offering to the calif, 
among other valuable presents, fifteen Arabian horses. By 
the Moors were also introduced into Europe the first Arabian 
stallions. 
In 732, the Saracens, to the number of two hundred thousand, 
made incursions even to the walls of Poitiers. Charles Martel 
completely repulsed them: their general Abd-el Rahman was 
killed. Thus routed they unavoidably left behind them great 
numbers of their horses. So that this appears to be the epoch 
when the French breeds first derived any advantages from cross¬ 
ing. Under the dominion of Napoleon, France has imported 
upwards of two hundred Arabian stallions! 
