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 PURE 
 
 SADDLE-HOUSES, 
 
 HOW TO BREED THEM IN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH A CONSIDERATION OF THE HISTORY 
 AXD MERITS OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH, ARAB, ANDALUSIAN, & AUSTRALIAN 
 BREEDS OF HORSES. 
 
 EDWARD M. CURE. 
 
 MELBOURNE : 
 
 WILSON & MACKINNON, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 
 
 COLLINS STREET EAST. 
 
 1863. 
 
TO MY OLD FEIEND, 
 
 MYLES GERALD KEON, 
 
 FORMERLY OF THE FRENCH FOREIGN LE(4I0N IN ALGf:RI. 
 
 NOW CHIEF SECRETARY OF BERMUDAS, 
 
 THESE PAGES ARE INSCRIBED 
 
 WITH MANY FEELINGS OF AFFECTION, BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/puresaddlehorses01curr 
 
PRE FAC E. 
 
 In offering this work to the public, none 
 can feel better than the Author the neces- 
 sity for asking some indulgence for entering 
 on a theme which has already been treated 
 of by so many. This becomes, apparently 
 at leasts the more needed by one to whom 
 the subject is not professional, who has 
 never backed, entered, or ridden a racer on 
 the turf, and who yet ventures to differ in 
 opinion with many received authorities on 
 the subject of the horse in general, and to 
 call in question doings and customs which 
 have been considered beyond the reach of 
 contradiction. But whilst differing radically 
 from several able authors who have, with 
 what has been considered excellent oppor- 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 tunities, written on this subject, I should 
 be sorry to be thought to have under- 
 valued their efforts or capabilities. So far, 
 indeed, from doubting these, I cannot but 
 wonder that they have done so much, 
 hedged in by local prejudices and with an 
 experience drawn from so very limited a 
 field for observation as Great Britain ; 
 whose great error appears to have been their 
 idea that whilst treating of the artificial 
 and arbitrary specialties of Leicestershire 
 and Epsom, they were retailing a cosmo- 
 politan wisdom and dealing with the neces- 
 sities of the Horse and the horseman of the 
 world at large. 
 
 In considering this point, it has struck 
 me as not unlikely that the undeniable su- 
 periority of the English horse on the turf, 
 and the fame of the English hunter, placed 
 side by side with the very degraded saddle- 
 horse of the rest of Europe, has led to the 
 dictatorial tone of Englishmen and English 
 writers on this subject, and has encouraged 
 them to claim a superiority for their saddle- 
 horses over many others, which I have no 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 hesitation in saying exists only in their im- 
 aginations, and would never stand the test 
 of a trial. 
 
 But it is not merely the English estimate 
 of the English horse that I complain of in 
 connection with their treatises on the sub- 
 ject of the horse. Hitherto it appears there 
 has been a great lack of knowledge shown 
 by our ^vriters of the horses of other coun- 
 tries. None of our authorities, indeed, 
 appear to have troubled themselves with 
 seeking for much information on a subject 
 on which, notwithstanding, they write dog- 
 matically enough. A few anecdotes or 
 descriptions, drawn from books of travel, 
 followed by some hajDhazard desultory re- 
 marks, seems ^ fully to have exhausted in 
 their minds all that is either useful or 
 exjDected from them on the subject. Besides 
 this, the testimony of travellers so quoted 
 is never accepted farther than where it is 
 found conveniently to dovetail into the pre- 
 conceived ideas or prejudices of the writer. 
 Any accounts of vigor, endurance, stoutness, 
 or abstemiousness which the English author 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 knows is not to be found in the English horse, 
 he, unexamined, quietly puts aside as unworthy 
 of belief, facetiously remarking on the well- 
 known accuracy of travellers' tales, or the 
 want of mile-stones in the desert. Nor is 
 this little charlatanry very imprudent with 
 readers but little disposed to set up rivals 
 for their equine favorites. A little cold 
 water on the subject of foreign horses has 
 indeed gone a long way, and if to the Arab 
 horse some ^^ faint praise" has been meted 
 out, it has only been out of consideration 
 for the family honor as the progenitor of 
 the famous thoroughbred. 
 
 But if the summing up of the untravelled 
 English judge and the verdict of the unen- 
 quiring jury have always be^n in favor of 
 the native and adverse to the foreigner, the 
 case as yet may almost be said to have 
 gone by default, for as yet the cause of the 
 Eastern horse, which, as far as is consistent 
 with truth, I mean to plead, has been but 
 very feebly urged by such of our authors 
 at least as treat professedly of the subject. 
 
 It is not, however, these apparently trifling 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 misrepresentations, nor the false deductions 
 which are based upon them, but the ruinous 
 prejudices which we have gradually accepted, 
 that has induced me to take up my pen 
 with the hope of being useful to my fellow- 
 colonists. 
 
 It cannot but be allowed by the most 
 enthusiastic believer in the virtues of the 
 English horse, that however well qualified 
 such wi'iters as Youatt and Stonehenge may 
 have been to treat of that animal, that they 
 have advanced but very slender claims to 
 entitle them to be held as authorities on 
 any foreign horses, excepting as regards the 
 latter author those of North America. A 
 Frenchman, however good a judge he might 
 be of horseflesh, who had seen a few packs 
 of hounds throw ofl", or witnessed the Derby 
 run, would not probably be deemed neces- 
 sarily a very high authority by gentlemen 
 of the turf; few of them, probably, would 
 be much inclined to back his favorite for 
 the Derby, though he might be considered 
 quite im jock, and shake his head very know- 
 ingly, and write a sporting article or two on 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 his return to his ^^ native Tours." If the 
 Frenchman's fitness for the post of a sport- 
 ing oracle would be more than doubtful, is 
 it not, may I ask, on the very same prin- 
 ciple and with just that sort of information 
 at best, that Youatt and Stonehenge have 
 undertaken to treat of, compare, and judge 
 the horses of the world. Many years of 
 practical experience, joined to a natural apt- 
 ness for the subject, alone fit perhaps one 
 person out of every thousand who attempts 
 the subject, to be held as a judge of these 
 matters in his own country ; but the shal- 
 lowest smattering of anecdotical reading 
 concerning foreign horses, quite unsupported 
 by personal experience, seems to be all that 
 is requisite to mature a knowledge and per- 
 fect appreciation of the desj)ised ^^ outsider." 
 A traveller, who would be looked on as a 
 fool at Ascot if he should back his own 
 judgment in the betting ring, is referred to 
 as a gi^eat authority on the Turkish horse, 
 because he has j^ast a fortnight at Constan- 
 tinople or Bayakdere, and hazarded some 
 remarks on an animal, which possibly no 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 previous training had fitted him to esti- 
 mate. 
 
 Of saddle horses in general, their merits, 
 and the limits of their powers, I feel no 
 hesitation in saying, that the English horse- 
 man, of only English experience, knows 
 but little, and is a much less competent 
 judge than the Australian bushman Nor 
 is it singular that it should be so : for he 
 wants opportunity, he is never in a position 
 to arrive at a full knowledge of the animal. 
 The English gentleman, if ever he requires 
 a roadster, buys one under the advice of a 
 vet or experienced groom, or perhaps com 
 missions some one, in whose judgment he 
 believes, to buy for him. If a colt, the breaker 
 breaks him and trains him ; the groom feeds 
 and looks after him ; the farrier shoes 
 him ; and the veterinary surgeon prescribes 
 for him when he ails. In the bush, on the 
 contrary, we breed, and occasionally break, 
 feed, shoe, and physic our own horses, and 
 are daily brought into much more intimate 
 and responsible relations (if I may use the 
 term) with the animal than are any of the 
 
XU PREFACE. 
 
 several persons who busy themselves with 
 him in England. The groom, the farrier, 
 the jockey, &c., in England, are probably 
 unsurpassed, each in his line, but there is 
 no class in that country who shine, except 
 in this limited way. And then, what 
 Englishman in England needs a saddle- 
 horse ? How many are there in England 
 who ride, even once in their lives, what 
 may be called a journey ? We notice in this 
 country that the amount of work which a 
 newly-arrived emigrant, who has been used 
 to horses, and an experienced bushman will 
 extract from similar horses is very different : 
 A^ery few days' work serves to pump out the 
 horse under the guidance of the former, 
 whilst the latter will leave him behind, and 
 continue on for weeks after, if necessary. 
 Did any one ever see a new chum starting 
 on his first journey who did not think his 
 knowledge of horses quite a perfection in 
 its way, and who did not come to grief with 
 his quadruped somehow before the week 
 was out ? 
 
 The journey-horse, indeed, seems never 
 
PREFACE. XIU 
 
 to have been much used in England. No 
 doubt, as we learn, our ancestors were ac- 
 customed, on rare occasions, to ride their 
 horses (having first made their wills) 100 or 
 150 miles from home and back again, at the 
 rate of 20 or 30 miles a day. These, at 
 best but short trips, were, however, of too 
 infrequent occurrence to produce a ripe 
 knowledge on the subject. 
 
 In offering the reader my ideas, I have 
 been careful to confine my descriptions to 
 some of those breeds of horses which are 
 particularly worth an inquiry, and of which 
 I have had generally some personal ex- 
 perience in their own country. Where such 
 has not been the case, I have brought for- 
 ward the opinions of authors who were 
 themselves eye witnesses, and probably 
 competent to form a correct estimate of the 
 animal they describe : for I admire the pre- 
 caution of the author of ''Les Natchez," 
 when he says, ^'J'ai ete voir les sites que 
 je voulois peindre.'' 
 
 With regard to the possession of such 
 experience as might be supposed to give 
 
xiv PREFACE. 
 
 the author some fitness to treat of the sub- 
 ject which he has undertaken, it may be 
 allowable to state, tljat, a native of the 
 colonies, circumstances have led me during 
 twenty years to pass more time in the 
 saddle than falls to the lot of most men : 
 that the journeys I have made on single 
 horses, extending from 100 to 1,000 miles 
 each, are innumerable — and that I have lived 
 amongst people of similar occupations, and 
 have had the benefit of their experience. 
 To this I have added some 23ersonal expe- 
 rience of the horses of England, Ireland, 
 France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, 
 Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Greece, Egyj^t, the 
 Ionian Islands, the CajDe de Yerd Islands, 
 Brazil, and New Zealand, as well as those 
 ot Tasmania and Australia. Besides the 
 varieties of treatment and j^erformance which 
 these opportunities have placed before my 
 eyes, I have witnessed the performance and 
 sufferings of the horse under almost every 
 phase of labour, accident, and hardship, with 
 the exception of the battle-field. With the 
 object I have had in view in writing these 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 pages, viz., to point out the necessity for 
 the production of a breed of pure saddle- 
 horses in this country, as well as the means 
 to that end, my treatise has naturally 
 divided itself into three parts. In the first, 
 I have endeavoured to place before my 
 readers an unbiassed account of the Eng- 
 lish, Arabian, Andalusian, and Australian 
 horses, together with a consideration of 
 some of our best writers on the horse. In 
 the second part, it has been my object to 
 place, in a logical point of view, the true 
 results of those axioms which have been 
 received on all hands. And in the third 
 part, I have endeavoured to point out 
 how these axioms can be applied correctly 
 and usefully to the circumstances of our 
 country. 
 
 Since engaging myself with this subject, 
 and consulting various works upon it, it 
 has not failed to surprise me that I have 
 found the customs and maxims of the East 
 much more in accordance with the results 
 of my own experience than those of the 
 English, which have constantly led me to 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 back my assertions by :^hose of Eastern 
 authorities. Had racers, instead of saddle- 
 horses, been my theme, it would of course 
 have been otherwise. 
 
 In directing the attention of my reader 
 to Stonehange, my subject has led me to 
 those portions of his work which I think are its 
 weak points. His forte is the Kacer, which 
 animal, as is evident, notwithstanding his 
 assertion to the contrary, is never absent 
 from his view while writing, and that not 
 as a means, hut as the great end of horse- 
 hreeding. In both of these points I have 
 quite disagreed with him. His Tenth 
 Chapter is no doubt the pearl of his work, 
 which, though the first of its class, is still 
 in great measure a rechaiiffe. 
 
 Les Chevaux du Sahara, by General 
 Daumas, is another work which I have con- 
 sidered at some length. It is more new, 
 suggestive, and sound, as concerns the 
 saddle-horse, than any I have met with in our 
 own language, and as such, I recommend its 
 perusal to my Australian reader. 
 
 I am afraid lest the latter half of my 
 
PREFACE. XVll 
 
 book be considered egotistical by my readers. 
 The perpetual recurrence of '^ I believe/' ^^ I 
 have no doubt/' &c,, were^ however, almost 
 unavoidable expressions, when the opinions 
 advanced were merely personal, and had no 
 claim to be put forth as accepted facts. 
 These, however, with my many other short- 
 comings, I must leave to the mercy of the 
 reader. 
 
 Though what I have written is, I believe, 
 correct (and is certainly the result of convic- 
 tion), I am far from expecting that such 
 will generally be acknowledged, or that it 
 will be followed by any perceptible results. 
 Some day, possibly, there will be a change 
 wrought in what is now so imperfect. In 
 the meantime, the ball has been set rolling 
 by Lord Kedesdale in England, the author 
 has had the honour of giving it a j)ush in 
 Australia, and passing it on : it may get 
 larger as it rolls — perhaps it may one day 
 become an avalanche, and overwhelming our 
 present rotten system, make room for the 
 adoption of something more useful in its 
 stead. 
 
xviii PREFACE. 
 
 Let me here in conclusion give my thanks 
 to those gentlemen who, by their subscrip- 
 tions, have shared with me the expense of 
 this publication. 
 
 Melboukne, 1863. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface ..-v 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Introduction 3 
 
 Youatt 8 
 
 Stonehenge, and the Saddle-horses of England - - - 10 
 
 Cavalry Horses 54 
 
 The Arab Horse, and the Horses of the Sahara - - - 71 
 
 The Arab Horse in India, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia - 100 
 
 The Andalusian Horse - -.131 
 
 The Australian Saddle-horse 141 
 
 PART II. 
 
 On Blood 199 
 
 Selection of Sires 214 
 
 On Climate 219 
 
 Food 231 
 
 Recapitulation 239 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Saddle-horse Breeding in Australia - 245 
 
 On Racing 266 
 
 On Riding Long Distances - - 289 
 
PAR T I 
 
 Tu es mon ami ; je te donnerais mes enfants: mais fais attention 
 que mon cheval c'est mon cou ; si tu viens a me le ruiner, qui 
 sauvera n^es chameaux et ma famille au jour du danger. 
 
 Lies Chevaux du Sahara, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 You do yet taste 
 
 Some subtilties o' the isle, that will not let j'ou 
 
 Believe things certain. 
 
 The Tempest. 
 
 Let us begin with the consideration of the English 
 horse. The saddle-horses of England enjoy a great 
 European fame. I will not ask whether they deserve 
 their renown, but whether the perfection of which 
 the saddle-horse is capable, has generally been 
 realized in England? The question will, perhaps, 
 raise the smile which comes of confidence and self- 
 satisfaction with my English readers. I trust before 
 we part to shake this confidence. 
 
 The following pages treat of saddle-horses, by 
 which are meant roadsters and cavalry chargers ; and 
 also of saddle-horse breeding in Australia. As my 
 convictions have forced me to disagree in important 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 matters with received authorities on the first part of 
 this subject, I shall endeavour to put the reader into 
 a position to judg^e for himself of the correctness of 
 my views, by placing before him some of the prin- 
 cipal facts and observations which have led to, or 
 rather confirmed, in my mind the conclusions which 
 I shall advance. To this end, as something more 
 than mere assertion (too much in vogue on this 
 subject) is desirable and necessary, it will not be 
 out of place to bring forward a succinct account of 
 the condition, capabilities, and breeding of the Eng- 
 lish, Arab, and Andalusian horses, they being those 
 which are held amongst a few others to have reached 
 the highest state of perfection, before entering on 
 the consideration of those of our own new country. 
 From this examination it may be also possible, as a 
 result, to fix with some degree of accuracy what the 
 capabilities of a good saddle horse should really be, 
 and to determine, by making past experience the 
 basis of future efforts, what may be attempted by 
 the horse-breeder, and on what principles, with 
 legitimate hopes of success. For it is my belief that 
 on an examination sufficiently careful and extensive, 
 certain tendencies and results of a very important 
 nature may be detected, and which hitherto may 
 practically be said to have escaped observation, from 
 which I cherish the hope that many time-honored 
 prejudices may be exploded, and something more 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 real, correct, and useful be substituted in their stead, 
 and a solid foundation be thus laid for improvement. 
 In support of such belief the production of facts 
 will be doubly necessary, for it seems, indeed, hard 
 to believe that anything new to an Englishman, or 
 worth hearing, can be said of an animal that has 
 been so carefully cultivated and described time out 
 of mind. For in England and amongst Englishmen, 
 a passing notice of the national favourite has not 
 been thought beneath the dignity of either the his- 
 torian or the legislator. He is placed before our 
 eyes, on our coins, in our statuary, and our paintings. 
 He is sung by our poets and exhibited in our theatres. 
 For several centuries he has engaged the attention 
 of devotees in every grade of life, from the throne 
 downwards. Peers whose names arise as landmarks 
 in our history, grave statesmen whose lungs one 
 would think could breathe no other atmosphere than 
 that of the House of Commons, have not esteemed 
 it a small honor to be reckoned amongst the breeders 
 of the best horses in Merrie England. Strains of 
 celebrated blood have become heir-looms in families, 
 and like other heir-looms have been accounted part 
 of the glories of noble houses, until at length the 
 English thoroughbred is believed by Englishmen to 
 be the sanspareil of his kind 
 
 There are, however, many in England and high au- 
 thorities on the subject, who unwillingly have begun 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to chronicle the decline of the British horse, and 
 denounce as ruinous the system under which he has 
 been bred. This fact, which I shall endeavour to 
 make clear, may justify, and perhaps lend some 
 interest to inquiries on an animal that counts 
 amongst us so many enthusiastic admirers. 
 
 Of all animals, the horse, without doubt, has 
 always held the first place in the esteem of man. 
 In America he did not exist at the period of its 
 European discovery, and hence we miss his figure in 
 the ruins of Palenque and Copan, but in all 
 the other principal records, ruins, and remains of 
 antiquity, he finds a place. At this day he is 
 beloved by many in the palace, the cottage, the 
 wigwam, and the tent. The Bible paints him in 
 his glory, and he is not forgotten in the Koran. Still, 
 as ever, he is the great auxiliary of states, both in 
 peace and war. Can the consideration of him then 
 in our new country be devoid of profit 1 Wisdom 
 is not necessarily the dower either of old people or 
 of old countries. Why then should we not judge 
 for ourselves on the subject ? 
 
 To have a prejudice disturbed, to be asked to re- 
 consider a matter long set at rest ; above all, to be 
 asked to admit a whole string of errors, is, no doubt, 
 a serious afiair. These considerations, however, will 
 not prevent me from endeavouring to show, that 
 many of our ideas on horse-breeding are puerile and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 incorrect ; that our present system is not the less 
 wrong because based on errors which time and pre- 
 cedent have made respectable amongst us, or from 
 trying to show that from the very nature of things, it 
 is practicable to breed better saddle-horses on the 
 Australian continent, than ever were, or can be bred 
 in the green fields of Old England. 
 
YOUATT. 
 
 YOUATT. 
 
 He is dead and gone. Samlet. 
 
 Though Youattr, as an authority on the horse 
 may be said to have made his bow to his country- 
 men and given place to Stonehenge, still, as his is 
 the work on this subject most commonly found 
 in the hands of Australians, I have thought it 
 useful to say a word on his treatise. To Aus- 
 tralians, inhabiting a continent two-thirds of the 
 size of Europe, which on the whole bears much 
 more resemblance to Arabia than to England, 
 it becomes particularly pertinent to inquire, 
 how we are likely to be served by Youatt's teaching, 
 or our English preconceptions, as they affect the 
 subject of horse-breeding, and to bear in mind, that 
 were all that Englishman have written about their 
 own horses correct, that still their knowledge and 
 experience might require much modification when 
 applied to our circumstances. 
 
YOUATT. 9 
 
 Youatt's treatise on the horse, useful in its day, 
 though incomplete, has still served as the model 
 and ground-work of the volume which has taken its 
 place, and may claim paternity to many of the mis- 
 statements contained therein. As it may now be 
 entirely said to have been superseded by Stonehenge, 
 it will not require further notice at my hands. 
 
 B 2 
 
10 STONEHENGE. 
 
 STONEHENGE, 
 
 SADDLE HORSES OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Our present breed of horses is undoubtedly less healthy than 
 that of our ancestors ; and this tendency to unsoundness is not 
 marked in any particular department of the animal economy, but 
 the defect shows itself wherever the strain is the greatest, from the 
 nature of the work which the animal has to perform, 
 
 Stonehenge, p. 144. 
 
 The most recent, popular, and best work now 
 in the hands of Englishmen on the horse is, '' The 
 Horse in the Stable and the Fields' by Stonehenge, 
 and this author I have taken as the great authority 
 on the horse of England, a position which cannot, I 
 think, be accorded to him in connection with any 
 other horse, except that of North America. As a 
 successor to " The Horse" by Youatt, his book is no 
 doubt a great improvement. It contains more infor- 
 mation, and takes more distinct a-nd enlarged views, 
 
STONEHENGE. i I 
 
 of part of the subject at least, rests on a more 
 enlarged basis of facts, and analyzes more carefully 
 received opinions. Some of the old pet errors of 
 the English horse-loving public are also examined 
 and clearly exposed, and future difficulties with 
 present deficiencies in horse-breeding looked in the 
 face with some fairness. At the same time the 
 author who takes so large a subject as " The Horse 
 in the Stable and in the Field,'' by which, as is clear 
 from the context, the whole genus is meant, should, 
 I think, have rested his assertions on a wider basis 
 of information than is possessed by Stonehenge, if 
 he hoped to treat the subject at all fully or cor- 
 rectly, and shown feelings more cosmopolitan and 
 less decidedly English. So desirous, however, is 
 this writer of showing the universality of his theme, 
 that besides (as is usual on every subject now-a-days) 
 giving the biblical history of the animal and draw- 
 ilig pretty freely on his classic lore, he even is so 
 good as to furnish us with his sjmonyms in twenty 
 different languages, which if neither very necessary 
 to his subject, nor a very Mezzofantian exploit, is a 
 beginning sufficiently ambitious to warrant the 
 reader in expecting a great deal more than the 
 writer either does or can furnish. But as my object 
 is not to write a critique on Stonehenge, but merely 
 to direct attention to the substance of some parts of 
 his work, I will pass on, premising that that part of 
 
12 STONEHENGE. 
 
 his book which treats of the veterinary art I have 
 not read. 
 
 The first point with which I was struck on open- 
 ing Stonehenge's work was the disparity of space 
 allotted to the several breeds of horses. Thus it 
 may be remarked that whilst the horses of England 
 and what concerns them occupies 75 pages, irrespec- 
 tive of the chapters on Breeding, on the Brood 
 Mare and her Foal, which refer almost entirely to 
 England, as well as that on Stable and Stable 
 Management, which bring the space allotted to the 
 English horse alone and what concerns him up to 
 about 180 pages, that the whole of what the author 
 has to say of the horses of Asia, Africa, and Australia, 
 is easily compressed into ten pages. Now, if the 
 object of the writer was to place before his English 
 reader that which the latter neither knows nor 
 appreciates, rather than what many are already 
 very well acquainted with, an arrangement the very 
 reverse of this would perhaps have been more proper. 
 To the horses of continental Europe are allotted four 
 pages, whilst those of the United States of North 
 America occupy twelve pages, and whilst the steeds 
 of Circassia, Greece, Sicily, Brazil, China, and other 
 countries too numerous to name are passed over in 
 silence, the Brougham, the Gig'ster,the Phaeton horse, 
 the Park Hack, and the Cob, receive a very full 
 notice. Instead of all this biblical, classic, and 
 
STONEHENGE. IS 
 
 philological lore, would it not have been quite as 
 well if the author had simply told us that "the 
 horse probably came out of the Ark in the days of 
 Noah, but of his subsequent history I know nothing, 
 until about that period of history when one Oliver 
 Cromwell, familiarly called Old Noll, sat on the 
 half-hidden throne of England, from which period 
 up to date you will find me well informed in all 
 concerninof one class of Horses, viz., the Race-horse 
 of England and of North America, on which subject 
 I am able and willing to give you much information/' 
 Had he undertaken this task he could have acquitted 
 himself of it well. In fact, this is what he may be 
 really said to have done, and no more. The Racer 
 is his hobby ; to him, as a beau ideal, all others are 
 compared ; he usurps almost the whole of the 
 author's attention, and is never absent from his 
 mind when writing. As an authority touching 
 racers, or the best strains of their blood in England 
 and America, on the effects of in-and-in breeding, 
 on crossing, on the hit, on the analysis of the pedi- 
 gree of horses, I believe Stonehenge has no equal 
 in our language, or in any other. These are his 
 strong points ; on all this he is clear, logical, and 
 acute, and, except this, I know nothing worthy of 
 note in his book. On other matters he has the 
 average amount of information, and no more. 
 
 But whilst his information touching the racer is 
 
14 STONEHENGE. 
 
 SO minute, great facts, and ones of much wider in- 
 terest, seem to have escaped his observation ; thus 
 it is with surprise I find that, in treating of the Ai-ab 
 and other Eastern horses, he has overlooked the very 
 important circumstance that there exist in the 
 world, differing only in various places in the assiduity 
 with which they are carried out, two distinct sys- 
 tems of horse breeding and management, we may 
 call them the Eastern and European methods. That 
 there exists indeed any system besides that in vogue 
 in Europe, seems to have escaped the notice of our 
 author, or at most to have only been received by 
 him as one of those vague, disjointed, and incomplete 
 rumours that require amplification and confirmation 
 before they can be recognized as facts. Thus coast- 
 ing, as it were, the confines of the subject, he 
 writes : — " It is said that the Arab horse is only fed 
 twice a day, but I conclude that this only refers to 
 his allowance of corn, and that in the intervals he 
 is allowed to pick up what little dry herbage the 
 
 soil affords About ^yq or six pounds of 
 
 barley or beans, or a mixture of the two, constitute 
 the daily allowance of corn, which is the weight of 
 about half a peck of good oats, and would be con- 
 sidered poor feed by our Enghsh horses, unless the 
 proportion of beans is very large." All this, it ap- 
 pears, is said to be the case, and who says it? 
 And where does the author learn it, or why does he 
 
STONEHENGE. 1 5 
 
 sui'mise that beans form any or the principal portion 
 of this corn ? And why is not the reader entitled 
 to a full and distinct understanding on this very 
 important part of horse management? And why 
 was not a system so different from om's, and so ex- 
 tensively practised as that in use amongst the Arabs, 
 and in the case of so famous a breed, placed clearly 
 before the reader of the Horse in the Stable and the 
 Field ? But if the horses of many large countries 
 are overlooked, the hack and cavalry horses, cer- 
 tainly the most useful of saddle-horses of England, 
 likewise receive but scant attention at the hands of 
 our author ; who, devoting himself, as I have said, 
 almost entfrely to the racer, awards, however, en 
 passant, to every variety of English horse a super- 
 iority, which, except in the case of the thorough-bred, 
 he does not attempt to substantiate. Let us, how- 
 ever, turn to some of the views and assertions of 
 this author. '' Grass," says Stonehenge, page 220, 
 "is undoubtedly the natural food of the horse, 
 though in his native plains the same species of 
 plants are not to be met with as form the green 
 surface of our own fields. English horses, however, 
 may now be said to be thoroughly accustomed to our 
 grasses, which seem to agree with these animals so 
 well as to be one main cause of their superiority. 
 
 " A sound and moderately young animal gets fat 
 during the summer and autumn months, when turned 
 
16 STONEHENGE. 
 
 out on a good upland meadow ; but he is not able 
 to undergo long-continued exertion, especially at a fast 
 pace ; partly because the amount of fat accumulated 
 in his internal organs interferes with his wind, but 
 chiefly from the fact, that grass does not supply 
 sufficient muscle-making materials for the wear and 
 tear of his frame. 
 
 " Winter grass, which contains no clover, from 
 this plant not being of a nature sufficiently hardy 
 to stand the frost, is so void of nourishment, that 
 the horse confined to it alone speedily becomes very 
 poor, and will almost starve if he has not some hay 
 and corn." 
 
 Let us take the above passage as a sample of 
 Stonehenge's loose way of making asseii^ions, and 
 point out a few only of the important inaccuracies 
 and doubtful positions which he here assumes as 
 facts. " Grass is undoubtedly the natural food of 
 the horse in his native plains, &c." Now, how does 
 he learn that the horse is a native of the plain rather 
 than the hills ? Both from reading and observation 
 I object to this assertion as incorrect, taking his 
 present habits, when quite unfettered, as a proof of his 
 present, and therefore original predilections. At 
 page 1, indeed, he goes more into particulars, and 
 assigns the plains of Central Africa as his original 
 habitat. Without, however, favouring us with the 
 source of his information, adding, " where curiously 
 
STONEHENGE. 17 
 
 enough, he is not now to be found in his wild state." 
 To this he might have added, where grass is scarce, 
 the climate the reverse of that of England, and water 
 not plentiful, therefore, very unlike the country 
 where he is now said to attain perfection, and where, 
 consequently, if this is correct, he must have been 
 first placed in an ill-selected locality. But as I have 
 just said, where there is no dii^ect proof on the 
 subject, why should we suppose him to have first 
 inhabited plain country, where he must of necessity 
 be inferior, rather than the hills, where alone 
 experience teaches he ever reaches the full per- 
 fection of which he is capable ? He continues, 
 " English horses, however, may now be said to be 
 thoroughly accustomed to our grasses, which seem to 
 agree with these animals so well as to be the main 
 cause of their superiority," and yet in the same 
 breath he tells us, "that in winter the horse 
 confined to grass alone speedily becomes very poor, 
 and will almost starve if he has not some hay and 
 corn." So that the grass to which the English horse 
 owes his superiority is of such a sort, that he becomes 
 too fat and wanting in muscle to work on it in summer 
 and autumn, and is almost reduced to starvation on 
 it in winter. Now in other countries, I hope to 
 show, that on gi^ass alone the horse attains his full 
 size and strength, enjoys excellent health, and is 
 much more capable of hard work than the horse of 
 
18 STONEHENGE. 
 
 England, (feed him as you like,) whilst entirely 
 grass-fed. If, then, English grass is insufficient for 
 the horse, English hay must naturally be so like- 
 wise ; and so Stonehenge informs us, that " between 
 a race-horse reared on corn, and another confined to 
 hay and grass, the difference in value would be a 
 thousand per cent.;" further, that all horses in 
 England require it, but that to give it to hacks, &c., 
 is impossible on account of the expense, which he 
 says would never be reimbursed. Practically, then, 
 he admits, few horses can be brought to perfection 
 in England, because the grass of that country is 
 insufficient for the purpose, and the necessary 
 artificial food too costly. This is, let me remark, a 
 difficulty in the way of reaching perfection in horse- 
 breeding, which is not universal, for it must be 
 admitted that the grass on which the horse is always 
 well, and on which 'he can work hard at all times, is 
 more likely fully to develope his powers than the 
 grass on which he cannot work in summer and 
 autumn, and on which he nearly starves in 
 winter. 
 
 At page 54 of the same author, we learn that in 
 England, "gradually a breed of horses has been 
 established, which has been celebrated through the 
 world for the last century, for speed, stoutness, and 
 beauty ; in all which qualities the present stock 
 exceeds their parents on both sides. Much of this 
 
STONEHENGE. 19 
 
 excellence is doubtless due to the climate and soil, 
 which encourages the growth of those fine gi-asses, 
 that exactly suit the delicate stomach of this 
 animal." With reo^ard to the delicate stomach of 
 the horse, though, no doubt, it has been the fashion 
 to speak in this manner in England of the whole 
 genus, where indeed the horse, and especially the 
 thorough-bred, has a very delicate stomach, yet I 
 have never been able to discover any symptoms of 
 delicacy about him in other countries, where his 
 readiness to feed, his power of abstinence, and the 
 variety of plants he is in the habit of feeding on, is 
 quite as great as those of most other herbiverous 
 animals. And yet, at page 19, he attributes much 
 of the excellence of the horse of Arabia, to its sandy 
 soil, light grasses, and dry climate. To me it 
 appears, that if the cold, moist climate of England, 
 together with its luxm^iant grasses is a disideratuTYi 
 for horses, that then the dry atmosphere of Arabia 
 with its poor grasses and arid sands should be their 
 hane ; or that grass and climate are circumstances of 
 little import to them. 
 
 But if Stonehenge makes rash assertions as here 
 in the matter of climate, he generally, sooner or 
 later, gives you the truth of the matter. So in this 
 instance, " Shelter from the weather," says he, 
 " should, however, be afforded to colts of all classes 
 during the winter season, and, unless they have this 
 
20 STONEHENGE. 
 
 they soon grow out of form, however well they may 
 be fed. A colt neglected in its first winter never 
 recovers its proper shape, nor does it grow into the 
 size and strength of body and limbs which naturally 
 appertain to its breed." Now, I think that a climat6 
 which is so severe as to requu-e the horses bred in 
 it to be housed, to prevent them growing out of 
 form, cannot be said to be particularly adapted to 
 that animal. Hence, if the English horse is superior 
 to all others, he can manifestly owe it, neither to 
 grass without corn, nor climate without shelter. 
 
 His speed I have allowed ; as for the claim to 
 stoutness and beauty we will examine that in a 
 moment ; in the mean time let me ask in what does 
 the superiority which we so often hear claimed for 
 the English horse consist ? It cannot be on the 
 score of racing — in which he is without a rival — 
 because the speed of the race-horse serves no useful 
 purpose of life, is too costly in its attainment, is 
 debarred to all but boys and dwarfs, and indeed is 
 a means, not an end. To this we shall see in a 
 moment that Stonehenge agrees. Is it then on his 
 appearance or beauty ? but of what use is his 
 appearance if it only belies his performance ? If 
 he looks a good horse, and at work is found to be a 
 bad one ? " The great object," says Stonehenge, " of 
 encouraging the breed of racehorses is " (not to race) 
 ^'however lost sight of, if suitable crosses for 
 
STONEHENGE. 21 
 
 hunting, cavalry, and hack mares, cannot be obtained 
 from these ranks. In these three kinds, soundness 
 of feet and legs is all-important, together with a 
 capacity to bear a continuation of severe work." 
 Hence we must conclude that a racer is not a hack ; 
 second, that a racer not fitted to get hunters, hacks, 
 or chargers, is a failm^e. Then, let me ask, what 
 breeder of thoroughbreds hopes that his mare will 
 throw a colt fit to be a sire of saddle-horses ? we all 
 know he flies at higher game, if not so useful. His 
 interest is to breed a winner of races ; the sire of 
 saddle-horses is not his hope, but his misfortune. 
 The racer pays him better and brings more renown. 
 And thus in fact we learn from Stonehenge, not that 
 the object of breeding racers is lost sight of, if these 
 racers are not fitted to be sires of saddle-horses, but 
 that " the great object of encouraging the breed of 
 race-horses is, however, lost sight of, if suitable 
 crosses for hunting, cavalry, and hack mares cannot 
 he obtained from their ranks'' Hence the occur- 
 rence of such stallions is not the rule but an 
 accident ; so that racing has a happy accident for 
 its great object. We shall see how rare the acci- 
 dent is. 
 
 Now, if there is one point constantly and 
 strongly insisted on by Stonehenge, and well known 
 to every breeder, it is " that like jproduces like, or 
 the likeness of some ancestor. 
 
22 STONEHENGE. 
 
 That the foal is in a great measure indebted to 
 the sire for his quahties, good and bad, is a truism 
 found in the mouths of all horse breeders of every 
 country. Hence the careful selection of sires, for 
 if such were not the case one sire would do as well 
 as another, and all breeding be a lottery. It is 
 further known to all and received by Stonehenge, 
 that not only are speed, stoutness, soundness, &c., 
 and their opposites inherited chiefly ftom the 
 sire, but that even acquired quahties are in part 
 inherited from him, which indeed must be apparent 
 to all who have experience in animals as well as 
 birds of any description. Then if " like begets like," 
 on what principle is the Racer used as the sire of Hun- 
 ters, Hacks, or Chargers, in which horses quahties 
 very different from his own are necessary ? In 
 truth, this is a direct contradiction of the great 
 principle on which is founded the whole theory of 
 breeding. Let us go a little into particulars. In 
 hacks, hunters, and chargers, we are told (and who 
 can deny it ?) that " soundness of feet and legs are 
 all important, together with a capacity to bear a 
 continuation of severe work." In other words these 
 horses must be sound and stout. To be so, they 
 must — like begets like, remember — be got by horses 
 that are sound and stout ; they are, we have 
 seen, got by the thorough-bred or racer. Well ! is 
 he sound and stout ? Whatever he is, they must be 
 
STONEHENGE. 23 
 
 to a considerable extent, and as sucli you must 
 receive them, or cast aside the received theory and 
 substitute another on the subject, different from that 
 received either in England or anywhere else. You 
 will remind me of the dam and her mfluence on her 
 progeny. Admitted. But as the one cause only can 
 be at work with both parents, it simplifies the inquiry 
 to consider the sire alone, as his peculiarities, good 
 or bad, must in a great measure, at least, be trans- 
 mitted to the foal. Then I repeat, what is true of 
 the sire must, as a rule, apply to his get. Has then 
 the racer sound feet and legs ? Is he sound and 
 stout ? Listen to Stonehenge, speaking of English 
 horses (page 81). " But how many of the fashion- 
 able sort," says he, '' will bear constant use on the 
 road without becoming lame ? and how many sound 
 horses are there to be met with out of a hundred, 
 taken from the ranks of any kind tolerably well 
 bred ? Every horse proprietor will tell you scarcely 
 five per cent., and some will even go so far as to say 
 that a sound horse is utterly unknoivn." The same 
 author (page 80) further says, " One chief difficulty 
 of the trainer now is to keep his horse sound, and 
 unfortunately as disease is in most cases hereditary, 
 and too many unsound stallions are bred from, the 
 difficulty is yearly on the increase. Without doubt, 
 roaring is far more common than it used to be, and 
 the possession of enlarged joints, and back sinews, 
 
24 STONEHENGE. 
 
 is the rule instead of the exception. During the 
 last ten years, the Derby has f^ve times been won 
 by an unsound animal, which the trainer was almost 
 immediately afterwards obliged to put out of work, 
 either from diseased feet or a break-down, and yet 
 few breeders think of refusing to use such horses as 
 these." 
 
 The following chapter quoted entire fr^om Stone- 
 henge, page 144, will interest the reader. 
 
 '' IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH AND SOUNDNESS IN BOTH 
 SIRE AND DAM. 
 
 " Our present breed of horses is undoubtedly less 
 healthy than that of our ancestors, and this tendency 
 to unsoundness is not marked in any particular 
 department of the animal economy, but the defect 
 shows itself wherever the strain is the greatest, from 
 the nature of the work which the animal has to 
 perform. Thus, the race-horse becomes a roarer, or 
 his legs and feet give way. The hunter fails chiefly 
 in his wind or his hocks, because he is not used 
 much on hard ground, and, therefere, his fore legs 
 are not severely tried, as in the case of the racer, 
 who often has to extend himself over a coui'se 
 rendered almost as hard as a turnpike road by the 
 heat of a July or August sun. The harness-horse 
 often becomes a roarer, from the heavy weights 
 
STONEHENGE. 25 
 
 tliat he has to draw, especially if his wind-pipe is 
 impeded by his head being confined by the bearing- 
 rein. The hack again suffers chiefly in his legs, 
 from our hard macadamized roads, whilst the cart- 
 horse becomes unsound in his hocks or his feet, the 
 former parts being strained by his severe pulls, and 
 the latter being battered and bruised against the 
 ground from having to bear the enormous weight of 
 his carcase. But it is among our well-bred horses 
 that unsoundness is the most frequent ; and in them, 
 I believe, it may be traced to the constant breeding 
 from sires and dams which have been thrown out 
 of training in consequence of a break down, or 
 'making a noise/ or from some other form of disease. 
 It is quite ti-ue that roaring is not necessarily trans- 
 mitted from father to son, and it Ls also manifest that 
 there are several causes which produce it, some of 
 which are purely accidental, and are not likely to 
 be handed down to the next generation. The same 
 remarks apply to the eyes, hut in the main it may 
 be concluded that disease is hereditary, and that a 
 sound horse is far more likely to get healthy stock 
 than an unsound one. In the mare, probably, health 
 is still more essential, but if the breeder regards his 
 future success, whether he is estabhshing a stud of 
 race-horses, or of those devoted to any kind of 
 slower work, he will carefully eschew every kind of 
 unsoundness, and especially those which are of a 
 
26 STONEHENGE. 
 
 constitutional character. If a horse goes bhnd 
 in an attack of influenza, or if, without any 
 previous indications of inflammation, he breaks 
 down from an accidental cause, the defect may be 
 passed over, perhaps ; but, on the contrary, 
 when the blindness comes on in the form of ordinary 
 cataract, or the break-down is only the final giving- 
 way of a leg which has been long amiss, I should 
 strongly advise an avoidance of the horse which has 
 displayed either the one or the other. I believe 
 that a Government inspection of all horses and 
 mares used for breeding purposes would be a great 
 national good, and I look forward to its establish- 
 ment, at no distant time, as the only probable 
 means of insuring greater soundness in our breeds 
 of horses. I would not have the liberty of the 
 subject interfered with. Let every man breed what 
 he likes, but I would not let him foist the produce 
 on the public as sound, when they are almost sure 
 to go amiss as soon as they are worked. Ships 
 must now all be registered at Lloyds in the classes 
 to which they are entitled by their condition ; and 
 horses, as well as mares, should be registered in the 
 same way, according to the opinion which the 
 Government inspector may form as to their health, 
 and the probability of getting or producing sound 
 and useful foals. The purchaser would call for tlie 
 registration mark, when he asked for the pedigi*ee 
 
STONEHENGE. 27 
 
 of the horse he was about to buy, and if it was not 
 a favourable one, he would, of course, be placed 
 upon his guard. If this plan could be carried out 
 in practice, as well as it looks on paper, much good 
 might be done, I am assured ; but we all know that 
 inspectors are but mortals, and that they are liable 
 to be biassed in more ways than one ; still, I believe 
 that the evil is becoming so glaring that something 
 must soon be done, and I see no other mode so 
 likely as this to be advantageous to the interests of 
 the purchaser and user of the horse." What will 
 an admirer of English horses think of all this ? 
 
 In training, the superfluous fat used to be 
 removed from racers by sweating gallops with 
 cloths on. For the gallop the Turkish bath has now 
 been substituted, wdth the object of sparing the 
 animal's legs. "No wonder, therefore," says 
 Stonehenge, page 264, ''that trainers eagerly resort 
 to the use of the bath, as every year their horses seem 
 to be getting more liable to break down." But this is 
 not all, nor the worst ; so delicate and frail is the 
 English high-bred horse, that we find, that not 
 only is he unable to sustain his sweating gallops 
 and his races uninjured, as we have seen, but he can 
 no longer even be trusted loose on his summer 
 pasture ground. " Not only," says Stonehenge, 
 page 276, "is his stomach pinched, but his legs and 
 feet are damaged by being battered on the dry soil. 
 
28 STONEHENGE. 
 
 The feet of wild asses, and even native Arab horses, 
 may be aljle to bear the blows and friction of the 
 wastes over which they travel, but those of English 
 horses are undoubtedly not formed of such strong and 
 tough materials, so that it is utterly unwise to leave 
 them exposed to the risk." To this evil he again 
 proposes the interference of Government as a 
 remedy. " We are sadly in want of soimd, well- 
 bred stallions for general purposes, and if the 
 Government of the country does not soon interfere, 
 and adopt some means of furnishing these islands 
 with them, we shall be beaten on our own ground, 
 and shall have to import sound, useful horses from 
 Belgium, France, Hungary, or Prussia, whichever 
 country can best afford them." 
 
 Whatever then may be the attributes of the 
 English horse, whose superiority is mainly attri- 
 butable to the grasses and climates of England, 
 soundness, or the first requisite, is not one of them. 
 The other vital necessity in a good saddle-horse is 
 '■' a caiJcwity to hear a continuation of severe vjork,'' 
 in other words stoutness. Before, as I may say, 
 taking evidence on this point, I would ask, can an 
 unsound horse be stout ? Will not a continuance of 
 liard work be sure to bring a break-down ? It is 
 true that a horse may be quite deficient in stoutness 
 and yet sound ; but he cannot, it appears to me, if 
 all his limbs are necessary to him, and there exists 
 
STONEHEXGK 29 
 
 no superfluity in his conformation, he unsound and 
 yet stout. In the instance before us, we shall see 
 the cause followed by its effect — the tree loaded 
 with its fruit. "I wish now," says Stonehenge, 
 page 81, "to impress upon my readers that while 
 the race-horse of 1860, is as fast as ever, as stout as 
 ever, and as s^ood looking as ever, he is made of 
 more perishable material, in proportion as he comes 
 to maturity at an earlier period. Any of our modern 
 two-year-olds would probably give two stone and a 
 beating to Eclipse at the same age, but if afterwards 
 they were put to half-bred mares for the purpose of 
 getting hacks, chargers, and hunters, the stock of 
 Eclipse and Childers would be much more valuable 
 than any which we have at present. We sadly 
 want sound and well-bred stallions, &c." Hence the 
 thoroughbred in his useful capacity, viz., that of a 
 sire of saddle-horses has deteriorated. In this pas- 
 sage the sire of our saddle-horses is said to be as 
 stout, as fast as ever, and yet more perishable than 
 of yore. But, is he in fact as stout as ever, or is 
 this assertion only a little ebullition of the patriotism 
 or partiality of the writer ? Stonehenge, as iLsual, 
 supplies his own refutation, for this author is ruled 
 in his writing by two clashing feelings ; partiality 
 to the horses of his country would make him hide 
 their defects, whilst the hope that their exposure 
 may bring a remedy, induces him to lay them bare. 
 
30 STONEHENGE. 
 
 He would tlirow a cloth over the imposthume, and 
 strike the lancet through the covering. I am less 
 particular, and seek only the truth. Let us hear 
 what he says, " In spite, however (page 79), of all 
 the elaborate calculations which others AS WELL AS 
 MYSELF have made, I cannot quite divest myself of the 
 behef that Lord Redesdale is correct in his assump- 
 tion that the thoroughbred horse of the present day 
 is, on the average, less stout than he was of yore. 
 That there are some few which can race and also 
 stay, I firmly believe, and that many which cannot 
 race, but can stay, are early drafted into the hunting 
 stable is also my opinion, but that the mctjm^ity are 
 deficient in stoutness seems to me a patent fact'' 
 
 Again, "I am quite of opinion (page 79), that 
 taking any number of race-horses at random in the 
 year 1 860, they will not on the avei^ge bear com- 
 parison, in point of stoutness, with a similar number, 
 either of the year 1800 or of the year 1760." I 
 could adduce much more from this author to the 
 same effect, but the above fully marks his belief, and 
 so answers every purpose, for it leaves no escape 
 from the conclusion, that the climate, gTass, 
 system of breeding in England, or some union of 
 these causes, have produced an imperfect and daily 
 deteriorating horse, unless the reader leans to the 
 opinion that a delicate and unsound animal is pre- 
 ferable to a healthy and sound one. Let the reader 
 
STONEHENGK 31 
 
 quietly re-consider the various extracts which I have 
 made from Stonehenge, and he will, I feel convinced, 
 if he accepts that author as an authority, see the 
 fairness and truth of my deductions and conclusion. 
 Many travellers who have had opportunities of 
 seeing the horses of other countries take an exactly 
 similar view of the subject. One or two instances of 
 this, as Captain Nolan and Captain Shakspeare, are 
 adduced in the sequel, whereas I have never met 
 with an author, ivho, throiving aside mere assertion, 
 undertakes to shoio hy comparison with other horses 
 that the saddle-horse of England is good or stout, 
 and I believe that there is no instance on record in 
 which it is attempted to be shown by a credible 
 eye-witness that a body (for I have nothing to do 
 with rare exceptions or picked specimens) of English 
 horses have earned for themselves the title of stout 
 saddle-horses. On the contrary, whatever evidence 
 I have met with on the subject has been all the other 
 way ; so that if the great principle of horse-breeding 
 that ''like begets like " is admitted, and the evidence I 
 have brought forward proves that the racer who is 
 the su^e of the English saddle-horse is neither 
 sound nor stout, then it must follow that the 
 English saddle-horse is unsound and soft. And, if 
 so, in what consists his superior it i/, of which it is 
 the fashion to talk so much ? There is one circum- 
 stance which I think alone causes this to be doubted 
 
§2 STONEHENGE. 
 
 by many Englishmen, that they have never been in a 
 position to compare their own with other horses, 
 and that they do not know what a really good 
 horse can do or suffer ; but are like persons who 
 have lived in an hospital till groans seem music, 
 and jalaps and squills tlie proper drinks of healthy 
 men. 
 
 But, besides, when actually at work we find 
 the saddle-horse of Great Britain displays in various 
 ways the frailty and debility of his constitution. 
 Thus Stonehenge, for instance, when speaking of 
 the small stomach of the horse, page 235, says : — 
 " From the first of these causes the horse must never 
 be allowed to fast for any long period if it can possi- 
 bly be avoided, it being found fi^om experience, that 
 at the end of four hours his stomach is empty, and 
 the whole frame becomes exhausted, while the appe- 
 tite is frequently so impau-ed, if he is kept fasting 
 for a longer period, that when food is presented to 
 him it will not be taken." This ma}^ be true in 
 England — ^no doubt it is true there, more especially 
 of the racer, the true pole to which the thoughts and 
 remarks of tlie author constantly turn, and in favour 
 of which all other horses are constantly forgotten, 
 but if it be meant to apply to the horse universally, 
 then the Arab horse must be considered to pass his 
 whole existence in a very exhausted state, for he 
 never breaks his fast but twice in the 24 hours, and 
 
STONEHENGE. 33 
 
 even then in a manner which an Englishman would 
 consider but sparing, as the whole operation does 
 not occupy him two hours daily. " II est rare qu' 
 on donne a mwiger le matin,'' says Abd-el-Kader, 
 " le cheval marche avec la nourriture de la veille, et 
 non avec celle du jour.'' The same may be said of 
 the Eastern horse in general. 
 
 Neither does this precautionary injunction enter 
 much into the calculations of Australians, as we ride 
 our grass-fed horses thirty miles a day for twenty 
 successive days without any difficulty or any such 
 precaution. 
 
 We have seen, from Stonehenge, that the 
 great object sought in the cultivation of the pure 
 thoroughbred horse of England, when not lost sight 
 of, is to produce a horse eminent for all those quali- 
 ties which are desiderated in a saddle-horse, and 
 which it is expected he will transmit to his offspring ; 
 but the first anomaly that strikes me in all this is 
 that the saddle-horse himself has no pedigree ; his es- 
 cutcheon is always crossed with the bar sinister. To 
 me it appears unreasonable that if pedigree is all im- 
 portant in the sire of the saddle-horse, and that 
 " like begets like," that it should be neglected in the 
 beast actually to be ridden. Seeing, however, that 
 the thoroughbred is unequalled in speed for a short 
 race, carrying a feather, and is the sire of the cavalry 
 horse, hack, and hunter of England, and that he 
 C 2 
 
34 STONEHENGE. 
 
 seems destined to the same end in France, Germany, 
 Russia, and America, it becomes interesting and im- 
 portant to breeders to scrutinize his pedigree, and 
 to ascertain by what means he has attained that 
 unrivalled speed which he undoubtedly possesses. 
 In matters of fact on this head no one equals our old 
 friend Stonehenge, but as he is not always quite 
 straight forward, let us, as usual, cross-question him 
 a little. He says, page 82 : — '' In the first place 
 purity of blood must be considered as a sine qua non, 
 for without it a horse cannot be thoroughbred, and 
 therefore we have only to ascertain the exact mean- 
 ing of the term 'blood.' It is not to be supposed 
 that there is any real difference between the blood 
 of the thorough-bred horse and that of the half-bred 
 animal, no one could discriminate between the two 
 by any known means ; the term blood is here 
 synonymous with breed, and by purity of blood is 
 meant purity in the breeding of the individual under 
 consideration ; that is to say, that the horse is en- 
 tirely bred from one source, is pure from any mixture 
 with any other, and may be a pure Suffolk Punch, 
 or a pure Clydesdale, or a pure thorough-bred horse ? 
 {and luhy not a pure saddle-horse f) But all these 
 terms are comparative, since there is no such animal 
 as a perfectly pure-bred horse of any breed, whether 
 cart-horse, hack, or race-horse ; all have been pro- 
 duced from an admixture with other kinds, and 
 
STONEHENGE. 35 
 
 though now (liow in the matter of the saddle-horse 
 I should like to know?) kept as pure as possible, 
 yet they were originally compounded from varying 
 elements ; and thus the race-horse of 1700 was ob- 
 tained from a mixture of Turks, Arabs, and Barbs. 
 Even the best and purest thoroughbreds are STAINED 
 (remark the word for it is of consequence) with some 
 slight cross with the old English or Spanish horse, 
 as I have shown at page 54 ; and, therefore, it is 
 only by comparison that the word pure is applicable 
 to them or any others. But since the thoroughbred 
 horse, as he is called, has long been bred for the 
 race course, and selections have been made with that 
 vievj alone, it is reasonable to suppose that this 
 breed is the best for that purpose, and that a stain 
 of any other is a deviation from the clearest stream 
 into one muddy, and therefore impure ; the conse- 
 quence is, that the animal bred from the impure 
 source fails in some of the essential characteristics of 
 the pure breed, and is so far useless for this parti- 
 cular object. Now, in practice, this is found to be 
 tlie case, for in every instance it has resulted, that 
 the horse bred with the slightest deviation from the 
 sources indicated by the stud book, is unable to 
 compete in lasting power with those which are 
 entirely of pure blood. Hence it is established as a 
 rule, that for racing purposes every horse must be a 
 thoroughbred, that is, as I have already explained, 
 
36 STONEHENGE. 
 
 descended from a sire and dam whose names are 
 met with in the stud book." On the same subject 
 we read, page 71, "To define the thoroughbred horse 
 of the nineteenth century is easy enough, because it 
 is only necessary to adduce the law that he must 
 appear in the stud book. Without this testamentary 
 evidence no other will be received, nor even theoreti- 
 cally can any other be adduced. By some it is sup- 
 posed that he is a horse descended from sires and 
 dams of Eastern blood, that is, either Turks, Barbs, 
 or Arabs ; but this has long been known to be a 
 fallacy, for we find numerous gaps in almost all the 
 old pedigrees, which there is every reason to believe 
 ought to be occupied with the names of native or 
 Spanish mares." A few lines lower down, page 71, 
 he adds : — *' An Eastern horse is at once admitted 
 (into the stud book) as being supposed to be of pure 
 blood, and there is no difficulty in his case, &e." 
 Now with these definitions and remarks I have 
 several faults to find. The definitions of " blood," 
 and of the thoroughbred, do not to my mind dis- 
 tinctly or even correctly dispose of the question. 
 For example, let us place side by side the two fol- 
 lowing passages : — " To define the thoroughbred 
 horse of the nineteenth century " page 71, "is easy 
 enough, because it is only necessary to adduce the 
 law that he must appear in the stud book. Without 
 this testamentary (documentary f) e\ddence no other 
 
STONEHENGE. S7 
 
 will be received, nor even theoretically can any other 
 be adduced." Now this is monstrous ! If a half- 
 bred were entered in the stud book, would the entry 
 purify his blood ? Would West Australian be less a 
 thoroughbred, if his name had not been entered ? 
 The stud book is no doubt convenient. Entry in the 
 stud book may constitute the only evidence which 
 will be received of any horse being thoroughbred 
 but certainly it is no definition of what that animal 
 is. It is the difference between a fact and the proof 
 of such fact. Besides it is only in the next page 
 that the author says : — " There is no doubt that when 
 half-bred races were in fashion, numerous exchano^es 
 of foals took place, by which the thorough-breds 
 were made to appear as half-bred, and vice versa.'* 
 Even as a record, then, the stud book is not immacu- 
 late, but still less can it be considered any definition 
 of the thoroughbred, or any perfect record, when we 
 read in the same page an Eastern horse is at once 
 admitted as being supposed to be of pure blood. 
 The public have agreed to receive the stud book as 
 a definite authority on the matter and no more. But 
 after all this want of correctness may practically be of 
 small consequence. Not so what follows, viz. : — '' By 
 some it has been supposed that he (the thoroughbred) 
 is a horse descended from sires and dams of Eastern 
 blood, that is either Turks, Barbs, or Arabs, hut this 
 has Jong been known to he a fallacy, for we find 
 
38 STONEHENGE. 
 
 numerous gaps in all the old pedigrees, which there 
 is every reason to believe ought to be occupied with 
 the names of native or Spanish mares." Now on the 
 point concerning which the author has just emphati- 
 cally told us that none but "testamentary evidence" 
 will be received, how are we to be expected to receive 
 an assertion so loosely made as this ? What proof 
 does the author give us that there is a fallacy in 
 attributing an unmixed Eastern descent to the thor- 
 oughbred ? It is at best but putting one supposition 
 against another. Besides, does a breakdown in a 
 pedigree necessarily lead to the inference that the 
 gap should be filled up with the name of a native or 
 a Spanish mare ? Is it even probable that it should 
 be filled up with the name of a native mare ? And 
 of what blood would be the Spanish mare ? Could 
 it be Eastern ? These points I shall examine in a 
 moment, though I should have preferred " testamen- 
 tary evidence " to any other from Stonehenge — the 
 " pound of flesh " from Antonio ! But not only was 
 a gap to be filled up, but it was filled by what 
 " made the charm firm and good," according to our 
 author, who adds, page 56, " Indeed, I believe that 
 the use of the Spanish, mixed, 2?erhaps, with the 
 native English blood in the mare, was the real cause 
 of the success which attended the cross with the 
 Barb ; the mare being of greater size and stride 
 than the horse, and giving those qualities to the 
 
STONEHENGE. 89 
 
 produce, while the horse brought out the original 
 strain of Eastern blood, which possessed the wind 
 and endurance so peculiar to it." So that the size 
 and stride are said to be the English contribution to 
 the racer, whilst wind and endurance are his heritage 
 from the East. In this, however, and several other 
 passages, Stonehenge evidently wishes to rebut the 
 idea of the thoroughbred horse being wholly of 
 Eastern blood ; and further than this, he would leave 
 the impression that it was by engrafting the Arab 
 blood oh the English stock that has made the jper- 
 fection of that horse. Though he says, as I have 
 shown a few pages back, that " even the best and 
 puj-est of our thoroughbreds are stained with some 
 slight cross of the old English or Spanish horse." 
 Here is a jumble 1 What are we to believe ? First, 
 purity of blood is held up for oin* admiration, then a 
 stain is said to improve a character ! Of this junc- 
 tion of old English blood, however, he advances no 
 proof. Indeed, when this special pleading is laid 
 aside, and he is off his guard, he teUs us, point blank, 
 of the thoroughbred, page 155, "Being a native of 
 a warm and dry climate, he requires to be protected 
 from the weather, &c." I presume England is neither 
 a warm nor very dry climate. The simple truth is, 
 that certain pedigrees are incomplete ; of what blood 
 were the unrecorded animals remains a matter for 
 conjecture. It has commonly been held to be 
 
40 STONEHENGE. 
 
 Eastern, Stonelienge wishes to liave it thought Eng- 
 lish. Now all the blood that is recorded in the stud 
 book is Eastern, all the known roots of that breed 
 are Eastern, and as we know that Eastern blood 
 had constantly been imported into England, and its 
 value, though fluctuating, appreciated there from 
 the days of the Norman conquest to the date when 
 the English pedigrees commence, is it not extremely 
 probable that the unknown blood was, in a great 
 measure at least, Eastern also ? And if the racer of 
 this day is more fleet and larger than his desert an- 
 cestor, can it be attributed to nothing more reason- 
 able or likely than an admixture of blood which has 
 always been slow ? I thought Stonelienge had told 
 us, page 82, that "purity of blood must be considered 
 as the sine qua non, for without it a horse cannot 
 be considered thoroughbred ?" But here he would 
 make his imiproved horse a mongrel — improved, be 
 it remarked, by, and not in spite of, his cross. But, 
 worse than this, to admit that inferior blood can 
 improve what is superior, overthrows the whole 
 system he has so emphatically laid down ; which 
 leaves us only two alternatives — either that the 
 thoroughbred is not superior to the Eastern horse, 
 or that, if he is, the superiority cannot be in 
 consequence of an amalgamation with base blood, 
 but in spite of such amalgamation, and attributable 
 to some other cause. Now, a superiority in speed is 
 
STONEHENGE. 41 
 
 very easy accounted for, in conformity and not in 
 contradiction to a well-known law, and one on which 
 Stonehenge himself insists, without the necessity of 
 having recourse to base blood, viz. : by a constant, 
 and for that purpose judicious selection for sires, of 
 those horses which have proved themselves eminent 
 in this point. The English having done this, selected 
 sires for speed alone for 150 years, and the Arabs, 
 not ha\"ing pursued this plan, requiring speed of 
 quite a different sort, and united with qualities not 
 sought on the turf, it is but a natural result, as any 
 one conversant with animals will allow, that the one 
 should have become more speedy than the other. 
 
 Nor is his increase in size more difficult to 
 account for than his speed, without any recourse in 
 theory to base blood. If it had come fi'om a cross 
 with a mare larger than the Arab, it would have 
 been immediate, and probably the first cross larger 
 than any other, as I have personally witnessed in 
 breeding horses, sheep, and cattle. But this was not 
 the case ; the increase has been gradual and pro- 
 gressive, as we learn from Stonehenge himself, who 
 says (page 72), " Out of 130 winners in the middle 
 of the last century, only 18 were fifteen hands 
 and upwards, whereas, now, a winner below that 
 height is a very great rarity indeed, even among 
 the mares. The increase of size is, no doubt, mainhj 
 due to the influence of the Godolphin Barb, who was 
 
42 STONEHENGE. 
 
 himself larger than most of the Eastern sires, and 
 got stock of a still greater height. His son 
 Babraham was fifteen hands high, then considered 
 an extraordinary development ; of the eighteen 
 winners mentioned above as being fifteen hands and 
 upwards, eleven were by the Godolphin Barb or his 
 son." 
 
 Thus as Babraham was not of English blood, he 
 upsets completely his previous assertion concerning 
 English blood, the increased size being attributable, 
 not to English mares, but to the Godolphin Barb in 
 the first instance, and having been very gradual, as 
 he asserted, and as is well known. Still further causes 
 and no doubt the principal ones are, the increased 
 quantity of food which he has been allowed since 
 his importation to England, and also from the effects 
 of a climate "^nhiCi gives to stature and hulk what it 
 takes from solidity of muscle and density of hone. 
 For as Captain Shakspeare tells us, in his description 
 of the Arab horse, as compared with that of England, 
 " The bone looks small, but then it is very dense \ 
 the hollow which contains the marrow being very 
 small and the material solid, more like ivory than 
 bone, heavy and close gi-ained." He also speaks of 
 the muscles feeling firmer to the hand. I feel no 
 doubt, indeed, that it would be found on experiment 
 that the Arab is of greater specific gravity than the 
 thoroudibred. But, after all, is the thoroughbred an 
 
STONEHENGE. 43 
 
 Eastern or a cock-tail ? Let us hear Stonehenge once 
 more. " My own belief,'' says he, page 55, " is, that 
 the race-horse of that (Eclipse) day was imported 
 from Spain, and bred from a cross of the Andalusian 
 mare with the Barb introduced by the Moors." 
 Here, too, we have no mention of English blood. 
 Since those days no other blood than Eastern, has 
 knowingly at least, been added to the stud book, but 
 with Eastern blood it has been so deluged, that any 
 baser alloy did it ever exist, must long since have 
 been drowned, which will not be difficult to credit, 
 when it is shown by Stonehenge that the offspring 
 of a common mare, may, in twenty years, be so far 
 reclaimed as to leave only one sixty-foui*th of the 
 original alloy of the dam. Thus we trace the most 
 esteemed English horses practically to Eastern blood 
 alone, and it becomes neither unimportant nor 
 without interest to examine how these foreign 
 progenitors of our racers were themselves bred, a 
 subject oil which our author is silent. The fii-st 
 question naturally asked is, are the Barbs, Turks ^ 
 and Ai^abs, of which England has imported so many, 
 one race, or are they so many distinct races ? Allow 
 me on this subject to offer the ideas of General 
 Daumas, from " Les Chevaux du Desert" " If we 
 might be permitted to offer our personal opinion, 
 (which he very rarely does,) we should say, that 
 there is a disposition to draw too marked a line 
 
44 STONEHENGE. 
 
 between the Arab and the Barb horse. A more 
 comprehensive name, that of the Eastern horse, 
 should, it appears to us, be given to them both ; for 
 they are of one great family of common origin, 
 modifying and displacing each other under the 
 influences of various climatCvS, which after all are not 
 very different. 
 
 " Strengiih, activity, vigour in conformation and in 
 action, is the dower of the horse the moment you 
 meet him on this side of the Euphrates, and on the 
 other side of the Mediterranean and the Caucasus, 
 where he j-emains on the soil of Islamism ; there he is 
 always muscular, abstemious, and invincible to priva- 
 tion and fatigue, living betwixt heaven and the sands. 
 Call him if you choose, Numidian, Barb, Syrian, Arab, 
 Persian, or Nedjd, it is of little moment, all these are 
 but Christian names (prenonis), if I may be allowed 
 the expression, his family name is the horse of the 
 East. The other family, this side of the Mediter- 
 ranean, is the European breed." 
 
 It is natural, in fact, that as the necessities of the 
 riders of these various horses are very much the 
 same, and the circumstance of climate and mode of 
 treatment very similar, that there should exist a 
 great family resemblance amongst their horses. 
 And such is found to be the case, so that the remarks 
 made on one variety, will, to a great extent apply to 
 all The Arabs, indeed, have no stud book, though 
 
STONEHENGE. 45 
 
 records of very ancient date of some of the most 
 esteemed families of their horses are well known to 
 exist, but amongst a people so much wrapped up in 
 their horses as they are, it is easy to conceive that 
 their descent will be well known. Abd-el-Kader, in 
 his celebrated letter to General Daumas, says, page 
 407, " You ask me if the Arabs of the Sahara have 
 registers wherewith to establish the filiation of 
 their horses." " Know then that the people of the 
 Algerian Sahara do not trouble themselves with 
 registers anymore than do those of the Tell. 
 Notoriety is enough for them, as the genealogy of 
 their pure horses is as well known to everybody as 
 is their own." But, after all, amongst a poor people 
 necessity is the great source of their customs ; and so 
 we find it with the Arabs. " The nature of the 
 Sahara horses," says the Emir Abd-el-Kader, " is a 
 consequence of the lives of their masters ; scarcity of 
 food obliges the Saharians to accustom their horses 
 to hunger, and to thirst from lack of water, which 
 is often not found nearer than one or two days' 
 journey from their encampment. Their speed and 
 endurance of fatigue, arises from the numberless 
 quarrels of these Arabs, from their incessant war 
 excursions, and their love of hunting the fleetest 
 animals, the ostrich, the gazelle, and the wild ass, 
 which some of them will continue for a whole year 
 uninteiTuptedly." When, from any circumstanre, as 
 
46 STONEHENGE. 
 
 the capture of a horse in battle or otherwise, doubts 
 arise as to the purity of a horse's blood, they are 
 decided by trial as well as by his appearance. On 
 which subject the Emir says, " Where there is no 
 pubHc notoriety on the subject, it is by a proof of 
 speed joined with hottor)i that the Arabs judge of 
 their horses, and of the nobility and the purity of 
 their blood, but their figures also reveal their 
 qualities." What is the amount of speed and 
 bottom required from horses of pure blood will 
 appear in subsequent chapters, and will, I have no 
 doubt, be deemed satisfactory and to spare to the 
 most fastidious. I indeed believe myself, without 
 wishing to question the undoubted utility of a stud 
 book, that performance, if not an irrefragable proof 
 of purity of blood, is its best witness, and the only 
 guarantee that whilst pure it is not degenerate. 
 That under-bred horses would often be able to 
 compete with thoroughbreds is not likely, for as 
 Stonehenge notices, page 82, "in every instance 
 it has resulted that the horse bred with the 
 slightest deviation from the sources indicated 
 by the stud book is unable to compete in last- 
 ing powers with those which are entirely of pure 
 blood." 
 
 Our thoroughbreds, then, are descended from the 
 Eastern horse, which was bred by equestrian nations, 
 yni\\ infinite care and judgment, on the strictly 
 
STONEHENGE. 47 
 
 applied principle " that like begets like, or the 
 likeness of somne ancestor." 
 
 I have thought it right at this place to say this 
 much about the Arab horse, and have only to add, 
 that whether a first-class Eastern horse or mare has 
 ever been brought to England is a matter of much 
 doubt : so that it appears that the thoroughbred is 
 descended from Eastern horses of what class or 
 quality is unknown. 
 
 In quoting the opinion of the Emir Abd-el-Kader, 
 not only on the Barb but also on the saddle-horse 
 in general, I have accepted him as the very highest 
 authority on that animal. Whether we look at his 
 admitted judgment or skill on the subject, which is 
 notorious and proverbial amongst Eastern nations 
 and well known in France, or reflect on the great 
 struggle he carried on for years through the agency 
 of his horses, as well as the soundness of the prin- 
 ciples which he has given us on the subject, we are 
 bound, I think, to accept him as an authority 
 second to no man. This much it has seemed to me 
 necessary to say at present of the Arab horse, as 
 connected with the English thoroughbred, and 
 through him with the English and Australian 
 saddle-horse. With regard to Stonehenge, it will not 
 be needful to press further the consideration of his 
 work. His enthusiastic admiration of the thorouo-h- 
 
 o 
 
 bred leads him into inconsistencies. He upholds 
 
48 STONEHENGE. 
 
 him as the first of horses, and yet allows it to leak 
 out that he is delicate, unsound, and useless. To his 
 agency as a sire (added to "grass so admirably fitted 
 to the delicate stomach of this animal " that it ren- 
 ders him too fat in summer and autumn and too 
 poor to work the rest of the year, joined to a climate so 
 excellently suited to him as to require to be hourly 
 guarded against) he attributes that fine breed of 
 horses, which he himself considers to have been lonar 
 deteriorating, and which he in fact shows us will in 
 the future require government support, with the 
 help of sires from France, Belgium, Prussia, and 
 Hungary, to preserve from even a fuller decrepitude. 
 But even this partiality and folly might have been 
 passed over, and must be esteemed but a venial 
 offence compared to his great and radical contradic- 
 tion^ — that of first singing the praises of pure blood 
 in horses of mery description, and yet holding up as 
 the acm^ of possible perfection as a saddle-horse the 
 bastard offspring of the thoroughbred. 
 
 In two words, I can only estimate this author as 
 an able exponent of an utterly untenable system. 
 
 In oflfering my concluding opinions and remarks 
 on the saddle-horse of England, I will do so first 
 absolutely and then as compared with the Eastern 
 horse. 
 
 It mil then be understood that he is absolutely a 
 cross-bred animal, save in a few exceptional cases, 
 
STONEHENGE. 49 
 
 where a " stieket " racer is drafted into the hunting 
 stable, and hence, if there is any meaning in the 
 words pure blood, and the stress laid on them by all 
 writers, he is necessarily and inevitably inferior ; 
 inferior, ifto none other that exists, as his friends would 
 have us beheve, at least to the possible of perfection 
 He is got by the thoroughbred out of any mare, and 
 is only accidentally a saddle-horse, for as far as his 
 blood is concerned, he might have been hack, 
 hunter, or charger, gigster, park-horse, or coacher ; 
 or have filled one of the other fifty refuges, which are 
 open to his reception. It is a fact which will 
 perhaps, some day, be acknowledged that whatever 
 good is in him he owes to his Eastern blood, and, in 
 spite of the climate in tvhich he is reared, and in 
 spite of the system under which he is bred, which 
 is quite as much that like begets unlike, as that 
 like begets like. Unfortunately for the country, a 
 few exceptional horses, which seem to have preserved 
 some of the stoutness of their desert ancestors, exist 
 and can be picked out to perform a feat, and under 
 the cloak of this exceptional solvency, is hid the 
 all but universal bankruptcy of the race. If England 
 ever wishes to test the real condition of her horses, 
 let her cease to be satisfied with the performance of 
 rare exceptions, and turn out a cavalry regiment or 
 two, and as a trial assign them a task which any 
 saddle-horse should readily perform ; say, weight 
 
50 STONEHENGE. 
 
 the horses ^vith fourteen stone, march them daily 
 50 miles for a week, tying them up one night out of 
 the seven without food or water. Give them a 
 day's rest, then a field-day closed by a retreat of 70 
 miles. Those that go through the ordeal unscathed 
 may be looked on as having gone through tlie trial 
 of average horses ; and those that do not as useless. 
 The horse of England is tall of stature, and has a 
 grace and beauty captivating to the eye of many, 
 lout which cannot deceive those who have much 
 general experience of horses, and indeed becomes 
 distasteful to them. They are soft and soft-looking. 
 Take, as an instance, the horse which forms the 
 frontispiece to Stonehenge, of whom he says, page 98, 
 " He is thoroughbred, and in my belief can carry 
 twelve stone against anything in this country. . . 
 The likeness is most faithful, &c. Indeed, if we 
 could obtain plenty of such horses, there would be 
 nothing further to desire ; but he is an exception 
 and can only be considered as the standard or type 
 to be aimed at in breeding the hunter to carry 
 twelve stone or fourteen stone." How long, let me 
 ask, would a horse of his appearance last in war ? 
 How would he stand the bivouac ? How would he 
 stand the wear and tear of light cavalry practice 
 before an enemy where forage might be scarce or 
 bad ? How would he suit a bushman ? How would 
 cold, 01' thirst, or hunger agree with this type of a 
 
STONEHENGE. 51 
 
 hmiter ? A thousand times rather give me the little 
 Arab, at page 19, than this thoroughbred, whose 
 appearance gives every indication of softness per- 
 sonified from head to hoof 
 
 As compared with the Eastern horse that of 
 England is costly in his food, a great eater and yet 
 delicate in his appetite, a consumer of hay-stacks, 
 and emptier of corn-bins ; he is soft and washy ; 
 deteriorating on the turf, on the road a failure, — a 
 national folly. How often have I heard Englishmen 
 on dismounting from a ride in other countries ex- 
 claim " Well, how that fiery little devil carried me 
 to-day I how he pulled and came in as fresh as paint ! 
 Why a horse of liis stamp in England would have 
 been jaded at the pace we went in twenty miles ; 
 only fancy fom'teen stone on thirteen hands ! and 
 such roads ; never made a false step, and a bolt in 
 him to the finish. I suppose they're used to it ; and 
 then the food they get is nothing ; and he'll be on 
 his hind legs when I go to mount him in the 
 morning." 
 
 That the Eastern horse in England is still an 
 exotic, a hot-house plant, and has become degenerate 
 and not acclimatized, he owes in a great measure to 
 the Turf As a rule in England the higher the 
 breeding the more useless the animal ; amongst the 
 Eastern the purer the blood, the more capable the 
 horse. 
 
52 STONEHENGE. 
 
 If the English horse promises little to the eye 
 used to Arab horses, his performance is infinitely 
 less. The Eastern horse has been transplanted to 
 many soils ; on English ground alone as a saddle- 
 horse is he quite a failure. 
 
 The personal opinion of the writer of these pages 
 may bring but little conviction to the reader ; but 
 the fact that (as far as I have been able to ascertain) 
 there is no writer who, knowing personally the 
 Eastern horses, and comparing them with those of 
 England, does not give to the former a decided pre- 
 ference, for the fundamental qualities required in 
 the saddle-horse, viz. : soundness, stoutness, vigor 
 and endurance of hardships of all and every sort, is 
 a circumstance which cannot be overlooked. 
 
 So much for the thoroughbred and saddle-horse of 
 England, as gathered from personal observation and 
 from the pages of Stonehenge and other English 
 writers. 
 
 To amuse ourselves here in competing with the 
 English Turf, is it not worse than useless? The 
 Australian wants a good, sound, pleasant, fleet, hard- 
 working, abstemious, hardy, and handsome saddle- 
 horse. Has the English system through the agency 
 of English races led to any such result either at 
 home or abroad ? I answer confidently on the 
 authority of every author I have been able to meet, 
 that for the last hundred years the saddle-horse of 
 
STONEHENGE. o3 
 
 England has shown a manifest, steady and progres- 
 sive decline in all useful qualities. But if it is a 
 most mistaken measure on the part of Australians, and 
 contrary to the first principle we accept as our rule 
 in breeding, to persist in breeding our saddle horses 
 from the unfit, unsound, and delicate thoroughbred 
 of England, this is not unfortunately our greatest 
 error on the subject, which undoubtedly lies in the 
 cultivation and acclimatization amongst us of the 
 root and origin of this decadence, the adoption not 
 of races, but of such races as have mainly wrought 
 this damage at home, are perpetuating it here, and 
 are practically a barrier to all amelioration. 
 
54? CAVALRY HORSES. 
 
 CAVALRY HOESES. 
 
 CAPTAIN NOLAN ON " CAVALRY AND ITS 
 TACTICS." 
 
 "Our Cavalry horses are feeble ; they measure high, but they do 
 so from length of limb, which is weakness not power."— JToZaw. 
 
 From what has been submitted to the notice of 
 the reader in the preceding chapter, I trust that his 
 faith in the advisability of breeding saddle-horses 
 from English racing sires will be somewhat shaken. 
 But if such breeding is an error, it is not without 
 many kindred ones. In fact a sort of fatahty seems 
 to have attended the management of horses by 
 Englishmen and Europeans generally. 
 
 In the last 70 years we have done wondei*s for 
 some at least of our other domestic animals. The 
 produce of our sheep for instance, both in meat and 
 wool, has been much increased in quality and 
 bettered in description, and so in other things. We 
 have gone on perfecting old sciences and creating 
 
CAVALRY HORSES. 00 
 
 new ones ; thinking, weighing, and reasoning, we 
 have gone on road making, steaming, manufactur- 
 ing ; disseminating our people and language on all 
 sides ; we have bettered and multiplied our material 
 products ; all that requires peace and security to gi'ow 
 has flourished. And so again in the art of destruction ; 
 our armies and volunteers have so increased in 
 numbers and efficiency that it might almost be said, 
 that the labor saved by steam to the hands of man, 
 has been concentrated on the means of defence or 
 aggression ; but whilst our navy .and artillery have 
 armed themselves with a deeper thunder and a more 
 deadly bolt, whilst our infantry has become infinitely 
 more efficient than it once was, it would be difficult 
 to show that our cavalry and then- horses have not 
 absolutely retrograded in every useful qualification. 
 To make, however, the magnitude of our systematic 
 mismanagement of saddle-horses, more unmistakably 
 evident, I must bring forward further evidence on 
 the subject and expose abuses and follies of another 
 class. In the management and breeding of the 
 thoroughbred horse in England, when his real pur- 
 pose is considered, viz., no improvement in, or 
 keeping up of the quality of the saddle-horses of 
 that country, which does not for a moment enter 
 into the purely commercial, and in no wise patriotic 
 calculations of the breeder, but the production of an 
 animal that shall stand a chance to fill his ovTiers 
 
56 CAVALRY HORSES. 
 
 pockets by success on the race course, there is un- 
 deniably displayed an immense amount of experience 
 and sound knowledge of the real means to attain the 
 result sought. This I have never denied ; what I 
 have endeavoured to point out, is the extravagant 
 folly of a system which assigns to these racers the 
 office of sires for saddle-horses, in the face of every 
 experience and of every rule the result of experience 
 on this subject. I must now, however, go a step 
 further, and show my reader that when the absolute 
 necessity for proficiency in his undertaking, that is 
 the TYhoney test, which is forced upon the racing man 
 is removed, the skill which distinguishes him in his 
 particular branch of horse management at all events, 
 disappears likewise, and ignorance and folly usurp 
 the places of knowledge and common sense. A re- 
 markable exemplification of the truth of what I 
 advance was fomid in the doings of George IV ; no- 
 body ever denied (for there is no denying racing 
 results which are expressed but by two words, on 
 which indeed the fate of too many depends — success 
 or failure) his perfect capability for directing the 
 management of his racers and racing stud, any more 
 than his contemptible failm'e when he turned his 
 royal attention to the management of cavalry. 
 
 Of no class of horses have we the same oppor- 
 tunity for forming a correct estimate as in that of 
 the cavalry. Here we have many horses, treated on 
 
CAVALRY HORSES. 57 
 
 certain well authenticated principles, arriving at 
 well known results. In turning to accounts of 
 cavalry, one would expect to find, that howevei' 
 much the breeding of horses may have failed, that the 
 management of such as have been selected for army 
 purposes would have approached to something like 
 perfection. Where the gi^eat national interests and 
 honor of a people has so often fallen and will again 
 in all probability fall to the lot of a few squadrons of 
 cavalry to decide ; where crowns, kingdoms, 
 and colonies, where the fate of those who sit at the 
 fire-side has been so often delegated to the arbitra- 
 ment of the sabre ; where so many intellects and for 
 so long a time have been concentrated, we may sup- 
 pose on that very important subject, the horse- 
 soldier and his horse, it will be difficult to believe 
 that anything but a judicious treatment, almost the 
 perfection of horse management, has not long since 
 become traditional in the service. With so much 
 skilled labour at command, with the experience of 
 ages to guide it, and the paramont importance of the 
 subject itself intimately connected with the very 
 being of a nation, here if anywhere we must expect 
 
 to meet the results of a full and enlio^htened ex- 
 es 
 
 perience. As the remarks of a civilian on cavalry 
 horses and their management might be looked down 
 on as wanting the seal of professional knowledge to 
 give them value, I will retire from the scene and 
 
58 CAVALRY HORSES. 
 
 allow the soldiers to speak for themselves. General 
 F. de Brack, in his preface to his work on Light 
 Cavalry, says, " War, said General Lassalle to me one 
 day, is to the soldier who has not previously quitted 
 his garrison, what the world is to the young man, 
 who is leaving the forms of his school, it is the 
 application of the theory T 
 
 How does the British soldier and his horse stand 
 this test ? Lord Wellington, in his despatch 8th 
 November 1810, says " Neither the Dragoons nor 
 their horses are capable of performing much service, 
 in the first year after their arrival, and many horses 
 are lost, being unaccustomed to the food of the Pen- 
 insula and from want of experience in the mode of 
 taking care of them" So the theory fails in prac- 
 tice ! and a new experience is needed. In "Cavalry, 
 its History and Tactics, by Captain L. E. Nolan, 15th 
 Hussars," we get a pretty clear insight both into the 
 doings of our cavalry authorities as well as into the 
 worth of our cavalry horses. In introducing this 
 work to such of my readers as have not read it, it 
 may be well to premise, that Captain Nolan had 
 served in the Hungarian Cavalry, and was well 
 acquainted with that arm in France, Austria, Russia, 
 England, and India ; was an enthusiast in his pro- 
 fession, by the members of which his book was well 
 received. " The most hopeless condition to which 
 an arm or science," says Nolan, ''or an art can 
 
CALVARY HORSES. 59 
 
 attain is that where its professors sit down with 
 perfect self-satisfaction, under the conviction that it 
 has reached perfection and is susceptible of no further 
 improvement." A very proper and pertinent remark 
 from an author who is just going to demonstrate, 
 that the whole state of the arm of which he treats 
 is rotten, root, stem, and branch I Speaking, for 
 instance, of the Indian troops who did such good 
 service, when fighting in their own fashion with 
 their feet in short stirrups, and sharp blades in their 
 hands, he says : " There is scarcely a more pitiable 
 spectacle in the world than a native trooper mounted 
 on an English saddle, tightened by his dress to the 
 stiffiiess of a mummy, half suffocated with a leather 
 collar, and a regulation sword in his hand, which 
 must always be blunted by the steel scabbard in 
 which it is encased." 
 
 I could multiply such instances and reflections, 
 but will pass on to what chiefly concerns us, the 
 horse. Lieutenant General Sir Chaiies Napier, as 
 quoted by Nolan, says, "The hardships of war are by 
 our dressers of cavalry thought too little for the 
 animal's (the horse's) strength ; they add a bag with 
 the Frenchified name of valise, containing an 
 epitome of a Jew's old clothes shop. Notably so if 
 the regiment be hussars, a name given to Hungarian 
 light horsemen, remarkable for activity, and carrying 
 no other baggage than a small axe and a tea kettle 
 
60 CAVALRY HORSES. 
 
 to every dozen men. Our hussars' old clothes bag 
 contains jackets, breeches of all dimensions, drawers, 
 snuff-boxes, stockings, pink boots, yellow boots, eau- 
 de-cologne, Avindsor soap, brandy, satin waist-coats, 
 cigars, kid gloves, tooth-brushes, hair-brushes, danc- 
 ing spurs ; and thus, a light cavalry horse carries 
 twenty-one stone. Hussars our men are not ; a real 
 hussar, including his twelfth part of a kettle, does 
 not weigh twelve stone before he begins plunder- 
 ino^." 
 
 '' Without a system," says Nolan, " and a good 
 system, it is impossible to make good troopers ; at 
 present we have none." 
 
 Many follies and mishaps, and amusing ones, 
 might be transcribed from the pages of Captain Nolan, 
 accounts of men armed with swords which will not 
 cut, saddles on which it is impossible to sit, placed 
 on the loins instead of the back, and girthed round 
 the belly instead of the brisket, might be brought 
 forward. All these, and a hundred other such ab- 
 surdities, which are not accidental but parts of a 
 system instilled into our soldier, and which send him 
 to battle rather a victim than a combatant, might be 
 adduced as proof of the empiricism to which the 
 horse and all concerning him has been consigned. 
 This, however, is apart from my subject, and I will 
 at once hasten to place before my reader the results 
 of Captain Nolan's experience of the stoutness and 
 
CALVARV HORSES. 61 
 
 soundness of the English horse. The chapter is 
 transcribed complete. 
 
 " Before I left India, some very interesting trials 
 were made at Madras, by order of the Commander- 
 in-chief, General Sir George Berkeley, the object of 
 which was to test the capabilities of the troop horses, 
 as well as the relative merits of entire horses and 
 geldings for the purposes of war. 
 
 " Three trials were made. The first with two 
 regiments of Native Regular Cavalry, one of stal- 
 lions, one of geldings. The next with two troops' of 
 Horse Artillery. The third, and last, with two 
 hundred English Dragoons (loth Hussars), one hun- 
 dred riding stallions, and one hundred mounted on 
 geldings. 
 
 " This squadron marched upwards of eight hundred 
 miles, namely from Bangalore to Hyderabad, where 
 they remained a short time to take part in the field 
 days, pageants, &c. They then returned to Banga- 
 lore, four hundred miles, by forced marches ; only 
 one rest-day was allowed thein, and the last six 
 marches in were made at the rate of thirty miles a 
 day. They brought in but one led horse ; stallions 
 and geldings did their work equally well, and were 
 in equally good condition on their leturn. The 
 question was, however, decided in favour of the 
 latter, because they had been cut without reference 
 to age, and only six months before the trial took 
 
62 CAVALRY HORSES, 
 
 place. The English cavalry in India is well mounted. 
 On an emergency, any one of these Indian regiments 
 would gallop iifty miles in a pursuit, leave few horses 
 behind, and suffer but little from the effects of such 
 exertion. The horses on which they are mounted 
 are small but powerful. The Arab, the Persian, the 
 Turcoman, the horses from the banks of the Araxes, 
 are all unrivalled as war-horses. I have seen a 
 Persian horse, fourteen hands three inches, carrying 
 a man of our regiment of gigantic proportions, and 
 weighing in marching order twenty-two and a half 
 stone ; I have seen this horse on the march above 
 alluded to, of eight hundred miles, carrying this 
 enormous weight with ease, and keeping his condi- 
 tion well. At the crossing of the Kistna, a broad, 
 rapid, and dangerous river, the owner of this horse 
 (Private Heme, of C troop,) refused to lead the 
 animal into the ferry-boat to cross, but, saying, ' An 
 hussar and his horse should never part company,' 
 he took to the water in complete marching order, 
 and the galbnt little horse nobly stemmed the 
 tide, and landed his rider safely on the opposite 
 bank, 
 
 " An officer in India made a bet that he would 
 himself ride his charger (an Arab little more than 
 fourteen hands high) four hundred measured miles 
 in ^YQ consecutive days, and he won the match ; 
 the horse performed his task with ease, and did not 
 
CAVALRY HORSES, 63 
 
 even throw out a wind-gall. The owner, an officer 
 of the Madras Artillery, died shortly aftei^vards. 
 
 " General Daumas relates that the horses of the 
 Sahara will travel, during five or six days, from 
 seventy-five to ninety miles a day, and that in 
 twenty-four hours they will go over from one hun- 
 dred and fifty to one hundred and eighty miles, and 
 this over a .stony desert. Diseases of the feet and 
 broken wind are almost unknowai amongst them. 
 
 " What would become of an English cavalry regi- 
 ment if suddenly required to make a few forced 
 marches, or to keep up a pursuit for a few hundred 
 miles ! Their want of power to carry the weight, 
 and want of breeding, makes them tire after trotting 
 a few miles on the line of march. 
 
 " Our cavalry horses are feeble ; they measure high, 
 but they do so from length of limb, which is weak- 
 ness, not power. 
 
 The blood they require is not that of our weedy 
 race-horse (an animal more akin to the greyhound, 
 and bred for speed alone), but it is the blood of 
 THE Arab and Persian, to give them that compact 
 form and wiry limb, in which they are wanting. 
 
 " The fine Irish troop horses, formerly so sought 
 for, are not now to be procured in the market. In- 
 stead of the long, low, deep-chested, short-backed, 
 strong-loined horse of former days, you find nothing 
 now but long-legged, straight-shouldered animals, 
 
64 CAVALRY HORSES. 
 
 prone to disease from the time they are foaled, and 
 whose legs grease after a commion field day. These 
 animals form the staple of our remount horses. 
 
 " Decked out in showy trappings, their riders 
 decorated with feathers and plumes, they look well 
 to the superficial observer ; hut the English cavalry 
 are not what they should he. If brought fresh into 
 the field of battle, the speed of the horses, and the 
 pluck of the men, would doubtless achieve great 
 things for the moment ; hut they could not endui^e, 
 they could not follovj up, they could not come 
 agoAn. 
 
 " All other reforms in our cavalry will be useless, 
 unless this important point be looked to. It is 
 building a house on the sand to organize cavalry 
 without good horses. Government alone could work 
 the necessary reform by importing stallions and 
 mares of Eastern hlood, for the purpose of breed- 
 ing troop horses and chargers for the cavalry of 
 England. 
 
 " It is said that a Government stud is opposed to 
 the principle of competition. What competition can 
 there be amongst breeders for the price of a troop 
 horse, when by breeding cart horses they obtain £40 
 for them when two years old ? How could they 
 possibly afford to rear animals with the necessary 
 qualifications for a cavalry horse of the first class ? 
 To breed such horses a cross must firet be obtained 
 
CAVALRY HORSES. 65 
 
 with our race-horses. This would entail a large 
 outlay of capital, and when the good troop horse was 
 produced, the breeder could not obtain his price for 
 him. 
 
 " The rules of our turf encourage speed only, and 
 that for short distances. Horses wre bred to meet 
 these reqwirertients^ and from these weeds djO our 
 horses of the present day inherit their long legs, 
 straight shoulders, weak constitutions, and want of 
 all those qualities for which the English horse of 
 former days was so justly renowned. 
 
 "I had heard of fine horses in Russia, but I compla- 
 cently said to myself, ' Whatever they are they 
 cannot be as good as the English.' However, I went 
 to Russia — and seeing is believing. Their horse- 
 artillery and cavalry are far better mounted than 
 ours, and their horses are immeasurably superior in 
 those qualities which constitute the true war-horse, 
 namely : — courage, constitutional vigour, strength 
 of limb, and great power of endurance under fatigue 
 and privation. 
 
 " The excellent example set by Sir George Berkeley, 
 in India, might be followed up at home with great 
 advantage to the service ; the capabilities of our 
 cavalry horses of the present day should be severely 
 tested, and the saddles should be tried, and experi- 
 ments made to ascertain how sore backs may be 
 avoided." 
 
66 CAVALRY HORSES. 
 
 And yet how are we to reconcile this with the 
 folloAving assertion in an earlier part of his work, 
 where he wiites : — " I have heard it said that Eng- 
 lish horses are not adapted, like the Arab and other 
 horses of Eastern breed, to skirmishing, to pulling 
 up from speed, and turning quickly. The better the 
 horse the more adapted to all feats of agility and 
 strength. No horse can compare with the English, 
 no horse is more easily broken into anything and 
 everything, and there is no quality in which the 
 English horse does not excel, no performance in which 
 he cannot beat all competition." 
 
 This I at least put down as a rhodomontade which 
 he has not failed to correct in his more serious mood 
 when the subject came formally before him, and on 
 several occasions. Nothing can be stronger or more 
 contradictory than the conclusion of the former 
 passage from Nolan. Here we have his estimate of the 
 thoroughbred, of the English saddle-horse, and of the 
 Arab. Stonehenge, too, invokes Government aid, and 
 asks for sound and stout sires for the turf; Nolan calls 
 for Eastern sires for the cavalry horses of England, and 
 yet neither of them appear to me to have arrived at 
 the pith of the subject, or to have seen the yet very 
 obvious fact, that if " Hke begets like," that if the 
 foal follows the sire, it is monstrous to expect 
 good saddle-horses from racing sires, be those sires 
 good or bad of their sort, and, of course, still less 
 
CAVALRY HORSES. 67 
 
 when we know how weedy, deHcate, and unsound 
 they really are. 
 
 For the amusement of the reader, I will add a few 
 more particulars of cavalry and its management, 
 from the same writer. 
 
 For example, he says, " When I was in India an 
 engagement between a party of the Nizan's irregular 
 horse, and a numerous body of insurgents took 
 place, in which the horsemen, though far inferior 
 in numbers, defeated the Rohillas with great 
 slaughter. 
 
 "My attention was drawn particularly to the fight 
 by the doctor's repoi^ of the killed and wounded, 
 most of whom had suffered by the sword, and in 
 the column of remarks such entries as the following 
 were numerous, *Arm cut off frorfi the shoulder,' 
 ' Head severed,' ' Both hands cut off (apparently at 
 one blow) above the wrist, in holding up the arms 
 to protect the head,' ' Leg cut off above the 
 knee,' &c., &c. 
 
 " I was astonished. Were these men giants to 
 lop off limbs thus wholesale ? or was this result to 
 be attributed (as I was told) to the sharp edge of 
 the native blade, and the peculiar way of drawing 
 it ? I became anxious to .see these horsemen of the 
 Nizam, to examine their wonderful blades, and learn 
 the knack of lopping off men's limbs. Opportunity 
 soon offered, for the Commander-in-chief went to 
 
68 CAVALRY HORSES. 
 
 Hyderabad on a tour of inspection, on which I 
 accompanied him. After passing the Kistna River, 
 a squadron of these very horsemen joined the camp 
 as part of the escort. And now fancy my astonish- 
 ment ! The sword-blades they had were chiefly old 
 dragoon blades cast from our service. The men had 
 mounted them after their own fashion. The hilt 
 and handle, both of metal, small in the grip, rather 
 flat, not round like ours where the edge seldom falls 
 true ; they all had an edge like a razor from heel to 
 point, were worn in wooden scabbards, a short 
 sinsfle slino^ held them to the waist-belt, from which 
 a strap passed through the hilt to a button in front, 
 to keep the sword steady and prevent it flying out 
 of the scabbard." 
 
 Again, says the same writer, " At , on the 
 
 continent, Z Z shewed us the royal stables, and the 
 horses broken in at the riding school. One of them 
 had no shoes on ; we asked the reason. Answer, 
 ' He never works out of the riding school.' Question, 
 ' How old is he ? ' A, ' Fourteen years old.' Q,, * Is 
 he quite perfect in the riding-school work?' A, 
 ' Not quite, but very good at it.' 
 
 " We were shewn a ' Springer.' A groom led in a 
 horse with his tail tied on one side (I presume to 
 give a better opening for the whip of the riding 
 master), a cavesson on, and a young man in jack boots 
 riding him, his legs drawn down and unnaturally 
 
CAVALRY HORSES. 69 
 
 far back, a cutting whip held upright in one hand, 
 and the reins divided in both hands. The horse 
 was placed against the side wall, the groom in front 
 with the cavesson line held up to prevent the horse 
 springing forward. The animal was evidently un- 
 easy and looked back. No wonder ! for presently 
 the riding-master stepped up behind, and crack ! 
 crack ! went the whip into the ' springer's ' unpro- 
 tected hind-quarters. He sprang in the air and 
 back to his place, for he could not get forward. 
 This was not enough. It appears that the perfec- 
 tion of this performance consists in getting the horse 
 to kick out behind at the moment he is off the 
 ground with all fours ; and what between the groom 
 pulling the iron band against the horse's nose with 
 all his might, and the riding-master giving him the 
 whip with a practised hand, he succeeded in getting 
 the capriole required, sending the man in boots on 
 to the horse's neck, at the same time. The riding 
 master, pleased at the success of his experiment, 
 turned to us to explain how difficult it was to get a 
 horse to do it. I asked how long the horse had 
 been at it. ' Oh,' said he, ' he has been a springer 
 for several years. In fact, he was a lucky beast and 
 had got his promotion early in life.' " 
 
 With these extracts from Nolan I will leave the 
 leader to form his own idea about the management 
 of cavalry horses, &c., by Europeans, and yet, as tlie 
 
70 CAVALRY HOUSES. 
 
 same author remarks, " It doubtless requires great 
 liberality and freedom from prejudice and precon- 
 ceived opinion to admit that a system, on which the 
 talent and experience of practical men has been ex- 
 hausted for ages can be a bad one." May not these 
 words be applied to many things in connection with 
 our horses. 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 71 
 
 THE AEAB HOESE, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE HORSES OF THE SAHARA. 
 
 BY GENERAL E. DAUMAS. 
 
 " Rien n'est loin pour les chevaux." — Froverhe Arabe. 
 
 Having placed before the reader what appears 
 useful for my purpose concerning the horses and 
 horse-management of the English, I will now hasten 
 to contrast him with a race of horses which, from 
 many ages back, have been bred for the purpose of 
 the saddle alone. A race of 'pure saddle-horses, in 
 the real sense of the word. The progenitor of all the 
 best saddle-horses which exist in the world — the 
 Arab. 
 
 Amongst the various works treating of horses with 
 which I have met, I know of none so likely to 
 interest, amuse, and give information to the general 
 reader as General Daumas's book, published about 10 
 years ago, entitled, " Les Chevaux du Sahara et les 
 
72 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 Moeurs du Desert" In recommending it to the 
 Melbourne reader — for a handsome edition of it 
 presented by His Majesty the Emperor of the French 
 is in the Public Library — I must warn him not to 
 look for a repetition of many of our old English 
 wonders, rules, or prejudices. Its faults and its 
 merits are its own ! It is fruit from a tree which 
 does not grow in our gardens ! To an Englishman 
 interested in the horse, it is just such a treat as 
 we might expect a German or Frenchman would 
 experience in falling in with one of Nimrod's works 
 for the first time. On what the author sees and 
 hears, however, he makes but few remarks, and 
 theorizes still less, remarking, " Je ne viens nulle- 
 ment dire, ceci est bon, ceci est mauvais ; je dis tout 
 simplement, bon ou mauvais, void ce que font les 
 Arabes" 
 
 Besides a collection of facts, which by the generality 
 of Australians will be found new, and the full record 
 of a system in every way different from that of 
 Europe, the author has succeeded, with the help of 
 Abd-el-Kader, who largely contributed to his 
 work, in throwing around the realities of his subject 
 that garb of poetry and imagination with which the 
 son of the desert loves to clothe even the sober 
 realities of his every day life. 
 
 From the pages of Daumas I will now proceed to 
 make translations of a few of such passages as 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 73 
 
 appear likely to suggest matters for reflection, on the 
 subject of which I write : — 
 
 *' Horses," says Abd-el-Kacler, ''though all of one 
 family, are of two sorts ; the first is the Arab race, 
 the other of the race of Beradin." 
 
 "■ A good horse," says Daumas, "■ ought to do 25 to 
 80 leagues (75 to 90 miles) five or six days con- 
 secutively ; after two days of rest and good feed, he 
 can begin the same work again. Journeys, however, 
 in the desert are not always so long ; but on the other 
 hand it is common to see horses do 50 or 60 leagues 
 (150 to 180 miles) in the twenty-four hours. 
 
 " On the subject of long distances traversed by 
 desert horses, facts are quoted which would appear 
 fabulous, were not the performers of them still 
 alive, as well as witnesses who can confirm the truth 
 of their statements. Here is one from a thousand, 
 which was related to me by a man of the tribe of 
 Arbaa. I will let him speak for himself : 
 
 *' ' I had come to the Tell, with my father and 
 tribe, to purchase grain. It was under Aly Pacha. 
 The Arbaa had had terrible quarrels with the Turks, 
 and as it had become their interest, for the moment, 
 to obtain by a show of complete submission, forget- 
 fulness of the past, it was agreed amongst them, to 
 gain over the immediate friends of the Pacha by 
 money bribes, and to send to the Pacha himself, not 
 as was their custom, a horse of medium qualities. 
 
74 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 but a steed of the first distinction. It was a mis- 
 fortune, but it was God's will, and there was nothing 
 for it but resignation. The choice fell on a mare of 
 the colour of the grey-stones of the river, well known 
 in all the Sahara. She belonged to my father who was 
 warned to hold himself in readiness to start the next 
 day and to take her to Algiers. 
 
 " * After the evening prayer, my father who had 
 taken care to let fall no remarks on the matter, came 
 to me and said, ' Ben Zyan, can I depend on thee 
 to-day ? wilt thou leave thy father in a dilemma ? or 
 wilt thou make his face blush ? ' 
 
 '"In me, sir,' I repUed, ' there is only your will ; 
 speak, and if your orders are not obeyed by me, it 
 will only be because I have been overtaken by death.' 
 
 '' ' Listen, then,' said my father, * these children of 
 sin, to settle their differences, wish me to take my 
 mare to the sultan ; thou knowest my grey mare, she 
 who has always brought happiness to my tent, my 
 cliildren, and my camels ; my grey mare, born the 
 same day as thy youngest brother ; speak, wilt thou 
 allow them to defile my wliite beard with shame ? 
 The joy and happiness of my family are in thy 
 hands ; Mordjana (the name of the mare) has eaten 
 barley (equivalent to being in high condition) ; if 
 thou art my son, sup, take thy arms, and then at 
 nightfall fly into the desert with the jewel that we 
 all love. 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 75 
 
 " * Without saying one word, I kissed the hand of 
 my father ; I took the evening meal, and left 
 Berouaguia happy in being able to prove my filial 
 love, and laughing beforehand at the disappointment 
 awaiting our Cheiks on awaking. I kept on for a 
 long time, fearing that I was followed ; Mordjana in 
 the meantime pulling, and I trying to calm rather 
 than to excite her. 
 
 *' * Towards two o'clock at night I began to get 
 sleepy, and pulling up alighted, and taking the reins 
 rolled them round my wrist. Placing my firelock 
 under my head, I lay down softly enough on one of 
 those dwarf palm-trees so well known in our country. 
 In an hour I awoke. Mordjana had eaten all the 
 leaves of the dwarf palm-tree. We started. Day- 
 light broke on us at Souagui ; my mare had sweated 
 and dried three times and began to take the spur. 
 She drank at Sidi-bou-Zid in Ouad Ettouyl (Ettouyl 
 Creek), and that evening I prayed the evening 
 prayer at Legrouat, having given her a handful of 
 straw to make her wait patiently the enormous 
 nosebag of barley which she was to get.' 
 
 " These are not," said Si-ben-Zyan to me, " the 
 journeys of your horses, for the horses of you 
 Christians go from Algiers to Blidah, thirteen 
 leagues ! — as far as frorn my nose to my ear ! — 
 all the while thinking you are doing a long day's 
 journey." 
 
76 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 " This man," continues Daumas, "had done eiglity 
 leagues in twenty -four hours, his mare had eaten 
 nothing but the leaves of the dwarf palm-tree on 
 ^^hich he slept, she only drank once when half-way, 
 and he swore to me by the head of the prophet that 
 he could have gone and slept the next day at Gar- 
 daya (46 leagues further), if his life had been of 
 danger. Si-ben-Zyan belongs to a family of 
 Marabouts of the Oulad-Salahh, a branch of the tribe 
 of Arbaa. He often comes to Algiers, will relate this 
 adventure to any one who wishes to hear it, and will 
 if necessary substantiate what he advances by 
 credible witnesses. 
 
 " Another Arab of the name of Mohamed-ben- 
 Mokhtar had come after the harvest to purchase 
 grain at Tell ; his tents were already erected on the 
 Segrouan, and he was busy with his commerce Tvdth 
 the Arabs of Tell, when the Bey Mezrag fell suddenly 
 upon him at the head of a numerous body of cavalry, 
 to punish one of those imaginary crimes, which the 
 Turks so well know how to invent as a pretext for 
 their rapacity. The attack had been made without 
 any warning, and the foray was complete, the 
 troopers of Makhzen giving themselves up to all the 
 atrocities usual on such occasions. 
 
 " While this was going on, Mohamed-ben-Mokhtar 
 hurriedly mounts his dark bay mare, a magnificent 
 beast, known and en\^ed by all the inhabitants of 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 77 
 
 the Sahara, and impressed with the dangers of the 
 occasion, he decides at once on sacrificing his whole 
 fortune to the safety of his three children ; one of 
 them, four yeai^s old, he places on the pummel before 
 him ; another of six years of age behind him holding 
 on by his belt, and the third he was about to deposit 
 in the hood of his burnous, when he was prevented by 
 his wife, who exclaimed, * No, no, I will not give it 
 to thee I They dare not kill an infant at the breast ! 
 Fly ! I will keep it myself God will protect us.' 
 Mohamed-ben-Mokhtar then springs forward, dis- 
 charges his gun and dashes from out the melee. Hard 
 pressed he pushes on all day and the night following, 
 and arrives the next evening at Laghrouat, where he 
 is safe, 
 
 " A short time after his escape, he heard that his 
 wife and child had been saved by some friends he 
 had in TeU. 
 
 " Mohamed-ben-Mokhtar and his wife are still 
 alive, and the two cliildren whom he saved are 
 known amongst the best horsemen of the tribe. 
 
 " What scene can be imagined more worthy of the 
 painter's brush, than this of a family saved by a 
 horse, from amongst pillage and bloodshed. 
 
 " And why should I seek to produce proofs of 
 these facts ? All the old officers of the division of 
 Oran can relate how, in 1837, a general, attaching 
 much importance to the obtaining of news from 
 
78 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 Tlemcen, gave his own horse to an Arab to go in 
 search of it. At four in the morning this man left 
 Chateau Neuf, returning the next day at the same 
 hour, having in the intermin done 70 (seventy) 
 leagues, through a country very much more rugged 
 than the desert," 
 
 So much for the distances which can be done by 
 the horses of the Sahara ! And it should be borne 
 in mind that these two instances selected from 
 amongst a few of the like sort, in the first of which 
 the horse accomplishes 80 leagues in twenty-four 
 hours, and in the second does not much short of the 
 same distance in thirty-six houi's, having a man and 
 two children on his back, are not related to 
 us as the mere uncertain reports which might 
 have been palmed oif on a passing traveller. 
 It must be remembered that Daumas, himself 
 an old resident in the country, writes in the presence 
 of thousands of French officers, who passed many 
 years in Algeria, were often outmanoeuvred and 
 foiled in pursuit of men mounted on these very 
 horses, and who had many excellent opportunities 
 forced upon them of forming a correct estimate both 
 of the capabilities and of the correctness of their 
 historian. 
 
 But my reader must not imagine that "Xes Chevaux 
 du Desert," is by any means a collection of anecdotes 
 of this nature, they being, in fact, a material of 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 79 
 
 which he has been very sparing, not indulging himself 
 perhaps with half a dozen in the whole of his vol- 
 ume. Indeed, most readers, especially his own 
 countrymen, would have relished a few more. But 
 if he is sparing of prodigies, he is not so of customs 
 and manners, of sayings and proverbs, of breeding 
 the horse, feeding, physicking, breaking, shoeing, 
 training, or bringing him up, &;c. ; on these, on the 
 precepts of the Koran which apply to him, and 
 many other points, his information is full, allowing 
 nothing to escape liim, except, perhaps, in the mat- 
 ter of the price at which he may be bought, of 
 which he says not a word. In fact, with this excep- 
 tion, so thoroughly has he done his work, that but 
 few new crumbs remain to be picked up by any one 
 who would come after him. Besides this, he wrote 
 under circumstances more fortunate than are ever 
 likely to fall to the chance of another, for as he 
 completed each chapter of his book, he submitted it 
 to the judgment of Abd-el-Kader, then a prisoner in 
 France. A remarkable position ! not unhke one 
 sitting with Pompey in the vessel that bears him to 
 Egypt, listening to him speak of Mithridates and 
 Pharsaha, before writing the fall of the commonwealth. 
 A subject for the poet or the painter ! Only fancy 
 the great, the unfortunate emir ; the scimitar-sur- 
 rounded prince of the desert ; the man of his day 
 for a commentator ' who, I may say, receiving into 
 
80 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 his hand a discussion, adorns it, etches it into pic- 
 tures, throws on it the shadow of the burnous, 
 strews flowers upon the page, and returns authenti- 
 cated into the hand that gave him the dry truth, a 
 poem rich with the imagery, the feel, the odour of 
 his Eastern fancy — in matter a truth, in manner an 
 ode ! As I read the page I feel again in the East ; 
 the tent, the sand, the date-tree on the horizon, the 
 Arab maiden coming from the well, the camel, the 
 horse, the Slougui are again before my eyes, the 
 odour of the chibouque is in my nostril, the musical 
 gutteral of the Bedouin is again in my ear. 
 
 Then to what man of his time or of any other 
 was the horse so much a stern reality as to Abd-el- 
 Kader ? For eighteen years he contended with the 
 armies of France, backed by her immense resources. 
 And what had he to oppose to this power ? He was 
 a living commentary on those words of the first 
 Napoleon, " legs win more battles than arms." His 
 goums bestrode horses whose locomotive powers, 
 whilst defying pursuit, long annulled even calculations 
 founded on the then supposed powers of the animal — 
 to contend with whom, generals had to be educated 
 anew, troops which might be called a new organiza- 
 tion had to be set on foot to encircle this will-o'-the- 
 wisp, enthral this ubiquitous foe, who so long 
 opposed an army which has no superior, by the 
 transcendent qualities of his horses alone. Well can 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 81 
 
 we reali2;e, as we read, his patriotic eulogium oi 
 the desert ; his soldierly complaints of fortune, his 
 manly regrets ! 
 
 In this retouching of the subject by Abd-el-Kader, 
 there is, however, nothing of the style of the com- 
 mentator, far less of the reviewer ; each tells the 
 same tale after his owii manner. The neat, concise, 
 methodical, unadorned narrative of the son of France ; 
 followed by the brilliant, enthusiastic, richly imaged 
 poem of the desert chief, redolent of the ardent 
 fancies of the dwellers of the tent. 
 
 But if I cannot hope to give my readers any 
 but a very general idea of a work whose beauty, 
 like that of a statue, must be sought rather in its 
 homogenous entirety than when broken in each 
 disconnected limb, yet I shall, perhaps, be able to 
 add from it to the foregoing some facts which bear 
 upon my subject ; facts which have brought irre- 
 sistibly to my mind the conviction that horses, bred, 
 reared, and treated on a system very different to 
 that in vogue in England and in Australia, do still, 
 in spite of all our prejudices, eclipse and surpass our 
 own in every imaginable good quality except the one 
 (if indeed it can be esteemed as a good quality) of 
 speed for short distances alone. To put his assertion 
 successfully to the test, would, if I am correct, re- 
 quire no careful culling of select specimens, but 
 might with perfect safety be entrusted to any body 
 E 2 
 
82 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 of Sahara horses that might be found collected 
 together for hunters or war-horses. I should like to 
 see a thousand of the stoutest horses that could be 
 produced in England, with fourteen stone on their 
 backs, matched against a like number of Sahara 
 horses, carrying a like weight, not for a day's gallop 
 only, but for a month's march. I should like them 
 to meet a little heat or cold, hunger or thirst, or all 
 of them, on the road. I expect at the end of a 
 month there would be a large hiatus between the 
 two bodies, and that the result would go far to dis- 
 enchant some of us Englishmen of our partiality for 
 our very indifferent nags. 
 
 Amongst the circumstances in which the Barb is 
 placed, no practice is begot more foreign to our ideas 
 than that of his feeding. Barley alone, and that in 
 very small quantities, is his most esteemed and often 
 his only food. Touching this grain the Arabs of the 
 Sahara have a host of sayings and legends. " He 
 has eaten barley," is equivalent to "he is in training." 
 " If we had not seen the mare give birth to the 
 horse, we should have said he was born of barley." 
 On a friend wishing to feed the horse of the Prophet, 
 he is said to have exclaimed, " You wish then to 
 have all my recompenses, for the angel Gabriel has 
 told me that every grain of barley given by me to 
 my horse will be counted as a good work for me." 
 In the spring his food often consists of the milk 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 83 
 
 of the sheep or camel, both of which are highly es- 
 teemed for this purpose. Dates, also, in various 
 shapes, are often given to him ; hay and grass are 
 but Uttle used, but chiehh, alfa, and one or two other 
 plants that grow in the desert, are in high repute. 
 Except a few mouthfuls in the morning, the Barb 
 may be said to eat only once a day ; sundown is 
 about the hour he receives his 10 or 12 handfuls ot 
 barley. " The feed of the morning is found on the 
 road," says the Arabs, " that of the evening on the 
 croup of the horse." Water is given twice a day ; 
 in the morning it is limited to half a bucketful, and 
 in the evening, about two hours before he gets his 
 barley, he is allowed to drink his fill. But even this 
 measure is at times still further curtailed, in order 
 to give him the habit of abstemiousness, and enable 
 him to bear thirst when necessary. For this pur- 
 pose he is made to endure, yearly, two fasts during 
 the height of summer, each of 40 days, during which 
 period he is only watered once every second day. 
 What would our consumers of haystacks, and 
 emptiers of cisterns, with the thermometer at 120° 
 in the shade, think of this ? 
 
 Green-stuff is said by the Arabs to enlarge the 
 stomach and fatten, and hence avoided, as the Arab 
 of the Sahara likes his steed to be attenuated, and 
 drawn up like a greyhound. They say, " The 
 greatest enemies of the horse are rest and fat." 
 
84} THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 " On seeing," says Daumas, " two horses, one of 
 the Tell and the other from the desert, a person who 
 has not made himself well master of the facts of the 
 case, would certainly prefer the former, looking so 
 handsome, well-furnished, shining, and fat ; whilst, 
 misguided individual, he would despise and calumni- 
 ate the second for those very qualities in which 
 consist all his worth ; for Ms fine, hard, and dry legs, 
 his drawn-up stomach, and his bare ribs ; and yet 
 this desert horse who has had but little barley, 
 knows not green-stuff or straw, whose feed has been 
 chiehh, bouse, and seuliane, whose drink has been 
 milk, and has from his youth run the chase and the 
 raid, has the swiftness of the gazelle and the patience 
 of the dog, and by his side the horse of the Tell is 
 but an ox." 
 
 Of breeding, Daumas and the Emir say much. 
 The Saharians hold the sire to be of much greater 
 consequence than the dam, which latter in theory, 
 perhaps, though not in practice, they undervalue. 
 In the choice of a sire they are most particular, going 
 any distance to obtain one, and allowing 2 or 3 years 
 to pass rather than accept one that is not approved 
 of Not more than six or eight mares are allowed 
 to a horse in one season ; his services are gi^atuitous, 
 one who should take money for them, say they, 
 '' would be called marchand d'aTnour du clievaU 
 Neither is the mare kept constantly breeding, as such 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 85 
 
 a course is said to weaken the offspring. Good and 
 bad qualities of every sort, injuries from work, 
 unsoundness, &c., are said to re-appear in the 
 offspring, hence a sire of repute always excels in 
 such qualities as are sought in the desert. 
 
 The '' breaking " of the Arabs, though gentle, is 
 prolonged and severe, as they exact more acquire- 
 ments from their horses than we do from ours. It 
 begins very young — at 80 months old. " Mount 
 him," say they, ''between two and three years of 
 age, and ride him gently ; tie him up from three to 
 four, and feed him well ; then remount him, and if 
 he does not suit — sell him." He is said usually to 
 live five and twenty years, and with respect to tlie 
 period of his utility, the proverb is : — 
 
 Seven years for my brother, 
 Seven years for my self, and 
 Seven years for m.y enemy. 
 
 Whatever may be the result of such early breaking, 
 there is no doubt but that it finds great favour \vith 
 the Arabs. Besides common testimony, and that of 
 Abd-el-Kader on the subject, Daumas brings forward 
 that of the Kalif of Mekjana, chief of one of the most 
 illustrious families of Algeria, who says : " Durino- 
 my long career, I have seen reared by my tribe, 
 friends, and servants, more than 2,000 colts, and I 
 affirm that all those whose breaking wa*s not begun 
 
86 THE ARAB HOUSE. 
 
 early, and on the principles contained herein, have 
 always turned out intractable, disagreeable, and 
 useless for war. I further affirm that when I have 
 made long and rapid marches at the head of 1,200 or 
 1,500 horsemen, that the horses without fat, thin 
 even, but early used to fatigue, have always stuck to 
 my standard, whilst those which were fat, but had 
 not been broken whilst young, were always left 
 behind. 
 
 "My conviction on this head is the result of such 
 full experience, that, when being lately at Cairo, and 
 requiring to purchase some horses, I refused without 
 pity all such as were offered to me that had not been 
 
 early broken. 
 
 " ' How has thy horse been brought up ? ' was 
 always my first question. 
 
 " ' Sir^ replied an inhabitant of a town, ' this 
 horse has always been reared like one of my own 
 children ; well fed, well looked after, and not 
 overworked, for I did not mount him till he was 
 four off See how fat he is, and how clean his 
 legs ! ' 
 
 " ' Very w^ell, my friend, keep him ; he is thy 
 pride, and that of thy family ; it would be a shame 
 to my grey hairs to deprive thee of him.' 
 
 " ' And thou,' said I, turning to one whom I knew, 
 so dark and sunburnt was he, to be a child of the 
 desert, ' how has thy horse been reared ? ' 
 
 I 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 87 
 
 " ' Sir,' said he, ' early I accustomed liis back to 
 the saddle and his mouth to the bit ; with him I 
 have often fallen on my foe who dwelt far, very far 
 off ; many are the days he has passed without water, 
 and nights without food ; his ribs in truth are bare, 
 but if you are waylaid on the road he will not leave 
 you in trouble. This I swear by the day of 
 judgement, when God will be Cadi, and his angels 
 witnesses.' 
 
 " ' Picket the grey before my tent,' I would say 
 to my servants, ' and satisfy this man.' " 
 
 Daumas gives us also a pretty full account of the 
 turf meetings in the desert, on which gambling and 
 betting are forbidden, the horses only running for 
 honor and the stakes. Forty days is the period used 
 for training and reducing the horse, after he has 
 been first allowed to fatten gi-adually on barley. The 
 .prophet, who appears to have regulated all the affairs 
 of his people, has also fixed the limits of their races. 
 To cock- tails he allots a course of one mile, and to 
 pure horses seven miles ; he does not appear to have 
 made any provision for a Jockey Club, (indeed how 
 could it exist Vvithout betting ?) or, probably all 
 this would have been altered long since ; the 
 distances, no doubt, being curtailed very much, and 
 the horses not ridden as they now are by men, but 
 to lighten their loads, by monkeys. 
 
 Colour in horses is regarded in a much more 
 
88 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 serious manner by the Arabs than it is by us, and 
 according to my experience, with good cause. All 
 light and ill-defined colours are despised as soft, 
 whatever the build of the animal may be. Very 
 dark chesnut is thought to be the colour usually 
 borne by fast horses, and together with dark bay 
 and black, is most esteemed for speed, courage, and 
 bottom. Grey, which is supposed by us to be the 
 Arab color, is esteemed handsome, but not thought 
 to denote good stuff ; '' in the sun," say they, '' he 
 melts like butter, and in the rain like salt," which I 
 think is quite true. The dun and roan are also 
 held to be very inferior, and of the piebald, they 
 say, " avoid him like the plague ; he is brother to 
 the cow." 
 
 On the subject of the " evil eye," and the forty 
 signs of good and bad augury, the general gives us 
 ample imformation. The latter superstition has, at 
 least, one happy result, which is, that horses of rare 
 excellence may sometimes be bought cheap, as I can 
 bear testimony, whose only fault is one of those 
 unpopular marks, which would prevent any Arab of 
 distinction from riding him, as he is esteemed 
 unlucky, and sure to bring his rider to grief, sooner 
 or later. 
 
 The great test of perfect formation in a horse and 
 that his proportions are as they should be, is his 
 being able to drink from the level of the ground 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 39 
 
 without bending either of his knees, keeping his 
 legs firm beneath him. The mountain horse is pre- 
 ferred to that of the plain, and the horse bred on 
 swampy ground is thought only fit for the pack- 
 saddle, '' prefere le cheval de montagne an cheval de 
 Ijlaiiie, et celui-ci an cheval de marais, qui n'esf 
 hon qiia 'porter le hat'' 
 
 Daumas in his book bears testimony to the rare 
 qualities of the Sahara horses, and thus speaks of 
 them in his Avant Propos to the Fourth Edition. 
 " In the Crimea, where we had four magnificent 
 regiments of Chasseurs d'Afrique mounted on the 
 Barb horse, he was well tried, and if, as the song 
 says, he could ' endure hunger and thirst,' he can 
 also, which has been strongly denied, endure exile 
 and the rigours of a cold and wet climate." Again, 
 comparing them with the horses of France, he says, 
 ''The European horse has disappeared from our 
 army in Africa, of which he could bear neither the 
 impetuous charges nor the incessant marches. He 
 has been replaced by the horse of the country. The 
 first care of an oflicer coming from France is to farnish 
 himself with horses bred in the country. He takes 
 good care not to venture into the desert, still less 
 into the mountains, with such horses as would be 
 very much esteemed at Chantilly, on the Champ-de- 
 Mars, or at Sartory." (Where, in fact, English 
 liorses are most admired and much ridden.) 
 
90 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 Having thus touched concisely on what is principally- 
 interesting, and what bears on my subject in '' Les 
 Ghevaux du Desert" I will leave my reader to form 
 his own conclusions as to the value of the work, and 
 the soundness of the principles and practices ad- 
 vanced in it, only adding that so highly do the Arabs 
 esteem their own horses, that the admixture of any 
 foreign blood is accounted a degradation, and that, 
 when the Emir was in power, the sale of a horse by 
 an Arab to a Christian was punished with death. 
 
 Since then, however, he appears to have somewhat 
 relented in this particular, as it is not long since he 
 presented to his majesty. Napoleon III., three cele- 
 brated horses, carefully chosen from amongst 
 thousands, and which were accompanied by a letter 
 thus translated : — 
 
 " Ever since my residence was fixed at Damascus 
 I have never ceased to look out for stallions for the 
 emperor's stud, which, in point of purity of blood 
 and those other quahties which my experience and 
 special knowledge enable me to judge of, should 
 come up to the standard of my ideas. Whenever I 
 heard of a stallion among the tribes bounded by 
 Egypt, Irak, and Hedjex, I never failed to make the 
 most particular inquiries about him. I was long, 
 however, before finding any horse combining that 
 purity of blood and perfection of form and qualities 
 which I had set my mind upon. I went myself 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 91 
 
 among tlie Arab tribes of Nedj and Mesopotamia, at 
 the time when they were in the neighbourhood of 
 Damascus, but could not meet with what I wanted. 
 At length, however, I have found a dark bay stallion 
 with black mane and tail, rising seven years old, 
 such as is not to be matched in all the tribes of the 
 desert. His reputation is so great that the Bedouin 
 Arabs would take twenty days' journey, and more, 
 to take a mare to him. I have besides selected a 
 three-year-old colt, who, for beauty and noble race, 
 is unequalled. The Arabs can trace his family for 
 fifty generations, pure from any crossing. Desiring 
 to present these horses to his majesty, I beg your 
 excellency to send the necessaiy orders to the French 
 consul at Beyrout to have them embarked with the 
 grooms in charge of them, in order that they may 
 be taken to his imperial majesty. Salutation on 
 the part of your devoted Abd-el-Kader, son of 
 Mahhy-Eddin. Abd-el-Kader." 
 
 The following description of these horses I have 
 cut out of the Melbourne Argus : — 
 
 " Abd-el-Kader's Present to the Emperor of 
 
 THE French. 
 
 " The following letter appears in the Field : — - 
 
 " Sir,- — A charming drive through the Bois de 
 
 Boulogne takes one to the Port St. James, outside 
 
 which is the new Imperial stud establishment, to 
 
92 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 which the public are 9.dmitted from one to five 
 o'clock daily, without cards. The visitor will see 
 there the Flying Dutchman, Fitz-Gladiator, and 
 other horses of less notoriety, as also the three 
 Arabian horses that were given by Abd-el-Kader to 
 the Emperor. 
 
 "Those Arabians, as you may suppose, are the 
 attraction of the day ; and no wonder that they 
 should be so, when we learn, from the extracts which 
 have been published of the ex-Emir's letter, all the 
 time and trouble it has cost him to select those three 
 high-bred horses. To get possession of one of them 
 (Emir) he spent four years in the desert amongst 
 the tribes ; and when we consider the value those 
 people set upon their best horses, and examine this 
 horse attentively, we become impressed with the 
 notion that he must have cost a fabulous price — 
 perhaps his weight in crowns ; or, if paid for in 
 lands, they might represent a territory as large as a 
 kingdom ; but, whatever the price, the gift is worthy 
 of Abd-el-Kader, and the thanks of the Emperor. 
 I do not suppose the equal of this horse, as a high- 
 caste Arabian, has been brought to this country or 
 England from the desert in our day. How his 
 stock may turn out, time alone will tell ; but I shall 
 be very much disappointed if he does not materially 
 improve the breed of horses in this country, if he 
 only gets good mares. In a paragraph, as translated 
 
THE -ARAB HORSE. 93 
 
 to me, of the ex-Emir's letter, he speaks in the lan- 
 guage of the desert ; it is so remarkable that I give 
 it to you word for word. He says, ' Good horses 
 are like friends ; a man meets with only a few in his 
 lifetime. As one man is worth a thousand other 
 men, so one horse is worth a thousand others ; and 
 a thousand bad horses are not worth a single good 
 one.' This horse Emir, they say, proved himself a 
 good one at all distances. He is of the Kohel-Obaian 
 race, was bred in Trac ; his pedigree is known to be 
 of the best and purest blood for twenty generations. 
 He is eight years old, colour brown, with a very 
 silky skin, three white fetlocks, some white, but not 
 too much, about his face. He has some white spots 
 about the size of a small pea on his neck and shoul- 
 der. He stands fourteen hands one inch high, has a 
 good, long, lean head, well set on, ears slender, his 
 eye mild and intelligent, his mane and tail light and 
 the hair fine, a handsome straight strong neck, longer 
 than one generally sees with other Arabs ; his 
 shoulders are long and well laid in, each of those 
 points showing much quaUty. He has great legs 
 and quarters, ribs and back wide to a degree ; hoofs 
 black, strong, wide at the heels, and deep ; joints 
 large ; knees and hocks very good. He is all over 
 a remarkably strong, thick-made horse, but to my 
 taste, too short to be speedy, and sinks a little too 
 much upon his fetlocks, but we cannot have perfec- 
 
94 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 tion ; his action is more elastic than might be ex- 
 pected from a horse of his build and strength. He 
 is as gentle as a sheep without being dull ; he looks 
 like what we would call a craving but very aristo- 
 cratic animal. 
 
 " Ismael is ^ve years old, a very dark brown, two 
 hind fetlocks white, stands fourteen hands one inch 
 high ; has a fair shaped head, forelegs rather light, 
 feet good and wide, quarters long, back level, loins 
 free, shoulders plain and somewhat thick, mane and 
 tail heavy and coarse. Taking him altogether, he is 
 a loose, lengthy-looking horse, but not showing much 
 quality. 
 
 "Moor is four years old, chesnut, two fetlocks 
 (near side) white, stands fourteen hands high ; he 
 will grow another inch. His head and neck are 
 stiffly set on ; his shoulders, legs, and feet are good, 
 so are his back and ribs. His hocks are also good, 
 but he sinks too much upon his fetlocks. His action 
 is gay and free ; he is a wiry-looking colt. Abd-el- 
 Kader informs us that there is no horse in the desert 
 whose blood is purer than that of the Moor, and no 
 pedigree better known for fifty generations. His 
 condition is very low, he appears to have suffered 
 much more than his companions upon the passage. 
 He is much cut up, but when he recovers and is a 
 year older, I make no doubt he will have many 
 admirers. 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 95 
 
 " All the horses are very gentle ; no biting or 
 kicking out when they are handled by the grooms 
 or visitors, which is too often the case with such 
 horses under our management. Why it should be 
 so I am at a loss to conjecture ; could it be that we 
 bully them with our voice and action ! I observe 
 the French grooms are always teaching their horses 
 some simple equestrian tricks ; this leads to a bit of 
 sugar or a carrot as a reward. 
 
 *' Paris, June 10. " Farmer." 
 
 But the part of'Les Chevaux du Desert" which is 
 most easily separated from the rest, as well as that 
 which will perhaps be most interesting to the reader, 
 is the Emir's celebrated letter to General Daumas, 
 which, with its introduction, I have translated as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Having known the Emir Ald-el-Kader whilst I 
 was French Consul at Mascara, from the year 1837 
 to 1839, and having again met him at Toulon, when 
 sent there on service, at the period of his arrival in 
 France, I have been able, in my numberless inter- 
 views with him, to appreciate his profound know- 
 ledge of everything relating to the equine history 
 and science of his country. This has led me without 
 hesitation to ask his opinion on matters which, 
 though purely scientific, embrace nevertheless, fea- 
 tures of very great interest, not only to the future 
 
96 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 of oiu' Algerine colony, but to the very capital of 
 France as well. 
 
 " Annexed is the letter which I received in reply 
 from him, dated 8th November, 1851, (23rd of 
 Moharnem, first month of 1268.) 
 
 *' ' Glory be to the one only God — His reign 
 is alone eternal. 
 
 " ' Greetings to him who equals in good qualities 
 any man of his day, who seeks but good, whose heart 
 is pure, and who keeps his word, to the wise intelli- 
 gent and illustrious General Daumas, from his friend 
 Sid-el- Hadj Abd-el-Kader, son of Mahhi Eddin. 
 
 ** ' Below are my answers to your questions. 
 
 '' ' 1st You ask me how many days the Arab 
 horse can travel without rest or becoming too much 
 jaded ? 
 
 " ' Know then that a perfectly sound horse, having 
 as much barley as he needs, will do all that his rider 
 may require of him. The Arab saying on this sub- 
 ject is — 
 
 Allef ou Annef, 
 Donne de Vorge et abuse. — Daumas. 
 
 " ' Fill him with barley and ride him as you like. 
 But without what may be termed abusing your 
 horse you may ride him 16 parasangn daily (60 
 miles). This is the distance from Mascara to 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 97 
 
 Koudiat Aghelizan on the Mina river, and has 
 been measured in draa (cubits). A horse doing 
 this distance every day, and having as much barley 
 as he requires, can keep on at this task without 
 being overworked, for three or even four months 
 without resting a single day. 
 
 '' ' 2nd. You ask me luhat distance can a horse 
 travel in a single day ? 
 
 "'This I cannot tell you precisely, but the distance 
 should be about 50 parasangs (187 miles), as from 
 Tlemen to Mascara. But the horse that has per- 
 formed this journey should be spared the day 
 following, on w^ich he would be able to perform a 
 much shorter distance. The generality of our 
 horses used to go from Oran to Mascara, and would 
 have been able to repeat the performance two or 
 three days following. We once started from Sa'ida 
 at 8 o'clock to fall upon the tribe of Arbaa which 
 was encamped at Aain Toukria (in the country of 
 the Oulad Aiad near Taza) and we reached it at 
 daylight. You know the country and the distance 
 we should have to perform. 
 
 " ' Srd. You ask me for instances of abstemious- 
 ness in the Arab horse and for proofs of his poiver 
 of enduring hunger and thirst. 
 
 "'Know then that when we were encamped at the 
 mouth of the Melouia, we made hostile excursions 
 into the Djebel Amour by way of the Sahara, push- 
 
98 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 ing our horses on the day of the attack for five or 
 six hours without drawing bridle, accomplishing our 
 inroad, going and returning in 20 or at most 25 
 days. During this period our horses had no barley 
 but such as they could carry with their riders, say about 
 eight ordinary feeds ; neither had they straw, but only 
 alfa and chiehh joined to a little grass in spring. 
 Nevertheless on our return to our people we were 
 caracolling our horses on the very day of our arrival, 
 and even performing festive caprioles with a certain 
 number from amongst them. Many, however, which 
 could not have gone through this latter exercise 
 were yet fit for active service. i 
 
 " ' Our horses could remain one or two days with- 
 out drinking, once even passing three days Avithout 
 obtaining water. But the horses of the Sahara do 
 still more than this. They remain three months 
 without tasting barley. They never taste straw 
 except when we come to the Tell to buy grain, and 
 in general eat nothing but alfa and chiehh, or some- 
 times quetof ; chiehh is preferable to alfa, and 
 quetof to chiehh. The Arabs say — 
 
 A If a fits for the march, 
 
 Chiehh for the fight, 
 
 And quetof is better than barley. 
 
 " ' Some seasons when the tribes have not been 
 received into the Tell, a whole year passes without 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 99 
 
 the horses of the Sahara tasting one grain of barley. 
 On such occasions dates are sometimes given the 
 horses. This food fattens them and enables them 
 both to fight and to march. 
 
 " ' Mh. You ask r}ie hoiv it is that though the 
 French only break in their horses as four-year- 
 olds, the Arabs ride theirs whilst very young. 
 
 " ' Know then that the Arabs say, that the horse, 
 like man only learns easily whilst young ; their 
 proverb on this head is — 
 
 The lessons of childhood are graven on stone ; 
 the lessons of maturity disapioear like 
 birds' nests. 
 
 And again — 
 
 The young branch can easily be straightened ; 
 the thick limb can never be made straight. 
 
 " ' In his first year the Arabs teach the horse to 
 lead with the reseitm, which is a sort of cavesson. At 
 that age they call him djeda and begin to tie him 
 up and bridle him. When he comes to be teni, that 
 is, when he enters his second year, they ride him a 
 mile, then two, then aparasang, and when he is 18 
 months old they no longer fear to tire him. 
 
 " * When he becomes rebda telata, that is, when he 
 enters his third year, they tie him up, refrain from 
 f2 
 
100 THE ARAB HORSE, 
 
 riding him, cover him up with a good cloth (cljelale), 
 and fatten him. Of this practice they say — 
 
 In his first year (djeda) tie him up so that no 
 accident befall him. In his second year 
 (teni) ride him till his hack bend. In his 
 third year (rebda telata) again tie hirti 
 up, then if he jails to please you, sell 
 him. 
 
 " 'If a horse is not ridden until his third year, it is 
 certain he will be good for nothing, unless it be to 
 gallop, for this is not to be taught, it is the original 
 faculty, on which subject the Arabs say — 
 
 El djouad idjri be adselouh. 
 
 The djouad gallops in accordance with his blood. 
 (The horse of noble blood gallops without teaching.) 
 
 " ' oth. You ask why our mares are more costly 
 than our stallions, if it be true, as lue affirm, that 
 the foal inherits more of the qualities of the sire 
 than of the dam ? 
 
 " ' The reason is this, he who buys a mare hopes, 
 whilst he rides her, to have many foals from her ; 
 whilst he who purchases a stallion can only ride 
 him ; for the Arabs make no charge for the use 
 of their sires, but lend them free of cost for stud 
 purposes. 
 
 "'Qth. You ask me if the Arabs of the Sahara keep 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 101 
 
 regular registers as guarantees of the pedigrees of 
 their horses, 
 
 '' 'Know then that the people of the Sahara take no 
 heed of such registers any more than do those of the 
 Tell. Notoriety is a sufficient guarantee for them. 
 The pedigrees of their pure horses is as well known 
 to them as is their own. I have heard, it is true, 
 that some families have written genealogies, but I 
 cannot point them out. Such books, however, are 
 in use in the East, as I mention in the little treatise 
 which I am about to dedicate to you. 
 
 " ' 7th. You ask ivhich of the Algerian tribes are 
 the most celebrated for their noble horses. 
 
 " ' Know then that the best horses of the Sahara 
 are, without exception, those of the Hamyane. They 
 have none but good horses, as they keep none for 
 draft or packing, using them only for expeditions 
 and the battle-field. It is these horses that best 
 support hunger, thirst, and fatigue. After the 
 horses of the Hamyane come next in quality those 
 of the Harar, of the Arbaa and the Oulad Nayl. 
 
 '' ' In the Tell the horees most distinguished for 
 noble blood, height and beauty, are those of the people 
 of Chelif, principally those of Oulad-Sidi-Ben-Ab- 
 dallah (sidi-el-Aaribi), near the Mina, as well as those 
 of the Oulad-Sidi-Hassan, a branch of the tribe of 
 Oulad-Sidi-Dahhou, who dwell in the mountains of 
 Mascara. The fastest on the race-course, and of 
 
102 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 beautiful figure, are those of the tribe of 
 Flitas, the Oulad Cherhif and the Oulad Lekrend. 
 Those which travel best on rocky ground without 
 shoes are the horses of the Assassena, in Yabroukia. 
 To Moulaye-Ismail, the celebrated Sultan of Morocco, 
 is attributed this saying — 
 
 May my horse have been fed in Mdz, 
 And watered in the Bidz. 
 
 The Maz is a country belonging to the Assassena, 
 and the Biaz is a brook, which under the name of 
 Foult inins their territory. 
 
 " ' The horses of the Oulad-Kaled also are re- 
 nowned for these same qualities. Sidi-Ahmed-Ben- 
 oussel has said on the subject of this tribe — 
 
 Long tresses and long djelals shall he found 
 with you even to the day of resurrection. 
 
 Thus passing a eulogium on their women and 
 their horses. 
 
 " ' StL You tell me that the horses of Algeria are 
 said not to he Arah hut Barh horses. 
 
 " ' This is an opinion that recoils on its authors. 
 The Barbary tribes are of Arabic origin. A cele- 
 brated author has said — 
 
 The Barhs inhabit the Mogheh ; they are all 
 soils of Kais-ben-Ghelan. We are assured 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 103 
 
 that they co^ne of the two great tribes of the 
 Hemearites; the Seiuikdja and the Kettama 
 came into the coivntry at the epoch of the 
 invasion of Ifrikech the Malek, 
 
 '' ' After these two opinions there is no gainsaying 
 that the Barbs are Arabs. The historians, besides, 
 give the genealogy of the Barbary tribes, and trace 
 their descent from the Senahdja and Kettama tribes. 
 The advent of these tribes was anterior to Islamism. 
 Since the Mussulman invasion, the number of Arabs 
 who have emigrated to the Mogheb is incalculable. 
 When the Obeidin (the Fatimites) were masters of 
 Egypt, immense tribes went on to Africa, amongst 
 others the Reahh. They spread themselves from 
 Kaironan to Morocco. From these tribes are de- 
 scended in Algeria, the Douaouda, the Aiad, the 
 Maded, the Oulad-Madi, the Oulad-Ihaonb-Zerara, 
 the Djendel, the Attof, the Hamis, the Braze, the 
 Sbeha, the Fleta, the Medjahar, the Mehal, the 
 Beni-Amer, the Hamian, and many others. There 
 can be no doubt but that the Arab horse was dis- 
 seminated with the Arabs themselves. In the time 
 of Ifrikech-ben-Kaif, the Ai-ab empire was all power- 
 ful ; it extended on the west to the furthest outside 
 limits of the Mogheb, as in the days of Chamar the 
 Hemiarite, it reached as far as China, as Ben- 
 Kouteiba relates in his book called El Marif 
 
104^ THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 " ' It is true, however, that if all the horses of Al- 
 geria are of the Arab breed, that many, from being 
 used for draft, harness, the pack-saddle, to drag bur- 
 dens, and other such work, and from the mares having 
 been put to the ass, none of which things were for- 
 merly done amongst the Arabs, that they have fallen 
 from their pristine nobility. On this subject, it is 
 said, that it is enough for a horse to walk even on 
 ploughed ground to lose some of his worth. On 
 this subject the following story is traditional : — 
 
 *' ^ A man was riding a horse of noble breed. He 
 met his enemy mounted as well on a noble steed. 
 One of them pursued the other, and the pursuer was 
 distanced by the pursued. Hopeless of overtaking 
 him, he shouted out at the top of his voice, 
 
 / ask thee, in the name of God, has thy horse 
 
 ever been in the 'plough t 
 He has ploughed for four days. 
 A II right ! Mine has never ploughed. By the 
 
 head of the Prophet I am sure to overtake 
 
 thee. 
 
 The chase continued. Towards sundown the fugi- 
 tive began to lose ground, and his pursuer to over- 
 take him, and at last closed with him whom he had 
 despaired of catching. 
 
 '' ' My Father, God have mercy on him, luas accus- 
 tomed to say there has been no blessing on our 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 105 
 
 country since we have packed and harnessed our 
 horses. Bid not God create the horse to ride, the 
 ox to plough, and the camel to carry the pack ? 
 There is no gain in swerving from the paths of 
 God! 
 
 '"9th. You ask me what are our precepts touching 
 th^ feeding and keeping of our horses in condition. 
 
 " ' Know then that owners of horses begin with 
 giving their horses at first but little barley, increas- 
 ing the feed gradually, then diminishing it again 
 until the horse leaves a little of it uneaten. He is 
 then restricted to this quantity. 
 
 '' ' The best time to feed is the evening. Except 
 when travelling, it is useless to feed in the morning. 
 It is a saying on this subject — 
 
 The barley of the morning is found in the dung, 
 The barley of the evening re-appears in the croup. 
 
 " ' The best way to feed with barley is when the 
 horse is saddled and girthed, as it is best to give 
 him water with his bridle on. 
 
 '' ' On this subject we say — 
 
 Water with the bridle, 
 Barley with the saddle. 
 
 '' ' The Arabs place great store on a small-feeding 
 horse, provided he be not weakened by it. He is, 
 they say, a priceless treasure. 
 F 2 
 
106 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 " ' Water in the morning makes a horse lose flesh, 
 
 " ' Water in the evening fattens, 
 
 " ' Water at mid-day preserves condition. 
 
 " ' During the great heats, which last 40 days, the 
 Arabs only water their horses once eveiy two days. 
 They say that this custom produces the best results. 
 In summer, autumn, and winter, they give an aim- 
 ful of straw to their horses ; but their chief article 
 of food, as well as that which they prefer to every- 
 thing else, is barley. 
 
 " ' The Arabs on this subject say — 
 
 If tve had not seen that horses siwing from 
 horses, we should have said, it is barley that begets 
 them. 
 
 " ' They say, 
 
 Find a large horse and buy him, barley ivill 
 make him go. 
 
 " * They say. 
 
 Of forbidden meats choose the lightest 
 
 That is, choose a light horse ; horseflesh being a 
 forbidden food to the Moslems. 
 " ' They say. 
 
 One becomes not a horseman till after many 
 falls. 
 
 '' ' They say, 
 
 The pure horse has no vice. 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 107 
 
 *' ' They say, 
 
 The horse in readiness is the honor of his 
 master. 
 
 " ' They say, 
 
 Horses are birds without wings. 
 "'They say, 
 
 Nothing is far for the horse. 
 " ' They say, 
 
 He vjho overlooks the beauty of the horse for that 
 of women will never prosper. 
 
 '' ' They say, 
 Horses know their riders. 
 
 "'The holy Ben-el- Abbis, may he find iavour with 
 God, has said also, 
 
 Save your horses and have a care of them, 
 
 Spare not your attentions, 
 
 On them depend honor and beauty. 
 
 Were horses abandoned by men, 
 
 I would take them into my family, 
 
 And share with them the bread of my children. 
 
 My luives clothe them vjith their veils, 
 
 And cover themselves vjith their djelales. 
 
108 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 Every day I lead them 
 
 To the field of adventure. 
 
 Borne forward in their ini'petuoxis course, 
 
 I do battle with the most valiant. 
 
 " 'I have completed my letter, which our brother 
 and companion, the friend of all, the Commandant 
 Sid-bou-Senna, will cause to be put into your hand. 
 Greeting.' 
 
 " This letter was written by the hand of Abd-el- 
 Kader, the original is still in my possession, &c." — 
 Daumas. 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 109 
 
 THE AEAB HOESE 
 
 IN INDIA, SYRIA, MESOPOTAMIA, AND PERSIA. 
 
 " Veritable buveur d'air 
 II noircit le coeur de nos eniiemis"—Daumas. 
 
 It is probable that the reader will turn but a deaf 
 ear both to Abd-el-Kader and Daumas' estimate of the 
 Arab horse. For this reason I hasten to place before 
 him the views of some English writers, who have had 
 good oppoiH^unities of becoming acquainted with 
 and testing his qualities in foreign lands ; and let 
 me remark I have met with no rebutting evidence 
 to the facts and opinions which are advanced by 
 these writers. All Englishmen who have really 
 tried the Arab at work, seem to come to one con- 
 clusion — that he has no equal. Let us begin with 
 the Arab horse in India. 
 
 Of the Arab in India I know but little per- 
 sonally, never having been in that country. I 
 
110 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 have seen about twenty Indian Arabs in Australia, 
 which were said to be, and as they were brought 
 here as sires would probably be favourable specimens 
 of their class. These few specimens had all a 
 decided family resemblance, and appeared to me 
 weedy when compared with the Arab of Syria. 
 Their descendants here have not added to their fame 
 in Austraha. From these censures I must except 
 " Satellite," whom I never saw, but whose stock, 
 twenty-five years ago, were in high repute in New 
 South Wales. Descriptions, however, of the Indian 
 Arab, by writers who knew him well, are numerous, 
 and his characteristics well determined. None that I 
 have met with are di^awn so graphically, and by 
 such a master hand, as that which is to be found in 
 the supplementary chapter to the " Wild Sports of 
 India," by Captain Shakespeare, which is headed — 
 '* On the different breeds of horses in India." 
 
 " In the first place," says Captain Shakespeare, 
 " the Arab horse is the very best horse under saddle, 
 for all general purposes, that can be had in India. 
 If anything besides general opinion is required to 
 corroborate this, it is found in the fact, that in the 
 market the Arab horse invariably commands the 
 highest price, whether he is bought for a racer, a 
 charger, a hunter, or a hack. He is the soundest 
 horse, the most enduring, the most beautiful to the 
 eye, the most docile, and the most courageous, and 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. Ill 
 
 he is more easily broken in than any other. . . . 
 . . . Bombay and Bangalore are the chief marts 
 for the Arab horse, and in the stables at the former 
 place, from November to February, you may see as 
 many as a 1,000 fresh horses for sale. Out of these, 
 50 perhaps are high caste horses, either Nedjd — 
 which is the pure Ai^ab : rarely standing above four- 
 teen, and more commonly only fourteen hands, or 
 under — or the Aneezah Arab ; the highest form of 
 which is bred by a tribe of Aneezahs that inhabit 
 the Desert, some two marches from Bagdad. . . . 
 . . . It is worthy of notice, that with reference 
 to carrying weight, the Arab horse runs in exact 
 contrast to the thorough-bred English, tvhose best 
 
 blood is derived from him In India, 
 
 the low Arab horse cannot compete with the taller 
 horse at heavy weights, either on a race-course or 
 across country : thus we have many races weight for 
 inches. To look at these low sturdy built horses, 
 you would think that they could gallop under any 
 
 weight, but the trial will undeceive you 
 
 On the whole the chesnut and dark chesnut are the 
 most courageous. The dark coloured are also not 
 fiery, and they are also more generally weight 
 carriers. There are more gi*ey Arab racers than of 
 any other colour." 
 
 The following picture of the Arab horse is so 
 interesting, and drawn with so masterly a hand, that 
 
112 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 I insert it without excuse, though not bearing 
 directly on the subject : — 
 
 " The points of the high caste Arab, as compared 
 with the English thoroughbred, are as follows : The 
 head is more beautifully formed, and more intelli- 
 gent ; the forehead broader ; the muzzle finer ; the 
 eye more prominent, more sleepy looking in repose, 
 more brilliant when the animal is excited. The ear 
 is more beautifully pricked, and of exquisite shape 
 and sensitiveness. On the back of the trained 
 hunter the rider scarcely requires to keep his eye on 
 anything but the ears of his horse, which gives 
 indications of everything which his ever- watchful 
 eye catches sight of The nostril is not always so 
 open in a state of rest, and indeed looks often thick 
 and closed ; but in excitement, or when the lungs 
 are in full play from the animal being at speed, it 
 expands greatly, and the membrane shows scarlet, as 
 if on fire. The game-cock throttle — that exquisite 
 formation of the throat and jaws of the blood-horse — 
 is not so commonly seen in the Arab as in the 
 thoroughbred English race-horse ; nor is the head 
 quite so lean. The jaws, for the size of the head, are 
 perhaps more apart, giving more room for the 
 expansion of the wind-pipe ; the point where the 
 head is put on to the neck is quite as delicate as the 
 English horse : this junction has much more to do 
 with the mouth of the horse than 'most people are 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 113 
 
 aware of, and on it depends the pleasure or other- 
 wise of the rider. 
 
 '' The bones, from the eye down towards the 
 lower part of the head, should not be too concave, 
 or of a deer's form : for this in the Arab, as in the 
 English horse, denotes a violent temper, though it 
 is veiy beautiful to look at. Proceeding to the 
 neck, we notice that the Arab stallion has rarely the 
 crest that the English stallion has. He has a strong, 
 light muscular neck : a little short perhaps compared 
 to the other, and thick. In pure breeds, the neck 
 runs into the shoulder very gradually ; and generally, 
 if the horse has a pretty good crest, comes down 
 rather perpendicularly into the shoulder ; but often, 
 if the horse is ahttle ewe-necked, which is not uncom- 
 mon mth the Arab, it runs too straight and low 
 down into the shoulders. The Arab horse, however, 
 rarely carries his head, when he is being ridden, so 
 high in proportion as the English. He is not so 
 well topped, which I attribute to the different way 
 he is reared, and to his not being broken in regularly, 
 like the English horse, before he is put to work. 
 His shoulders are not so flat and thin, and he is 
 thicker through in these parts generally, for his size, 
 than the English thoroughbred horse. His girth 
 does not show so deep, that is, he does not look 
 so deep over the heart ; but between the knees and 
 behind the saddle, where the English horse very 
 
114 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 often falls off, the Arab is barrel-ribbed, and this 
 gives his wonderful endurance, and his great con- 
 stitutional points. This also prevents him getting 
 knocked up in severe training, or under short 
 allowance of food, and in long marches. 
 
 '' His chest is quite broad enough and deep 
 enough for either strength or bottom. The scapular 
 or shoulder blade, is both in length and backward 
 inclination, compared to the humerus or upper bone 
 of the arm, quite as fine in the high-caste Arab as 
 in the English horse, while both bones are generally 
 better furnished with muscles, better developed and 
 feel firmer to the hand. But some of the very 
 fastest Arabs have their forelegs very much under 
 them : so much so, indeed, that no judge would buy 
 an English horse so made ; yet, whether it be that 
 this form admits of the joints between these bones 
 becoming more open when the horse extends him- 
 self, or whatever be the cause, it is a fact that blood 
 horses thus made, are almost always fast horses. 
 The upper part of their shoulder blade seems to run 
 back under the front part of the saddle, when they 
 are going their best. 
 
 " This formation is most common in the lower- 
 sized Arab, and apparently makes up for his defi- 
 ciency in height : the very finest Arabs have this 
 peculiarity of form. They are rather apt to become 
 chafed at the elbow-points by the girths, and almost 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 115 
 
 require to have saddles made for them. The elbow- 
 point, that essential bone, which, for the sake of 
 leverage, should be prominent, is free in the Arab, 
 and generally plays clear of the body. The fore- 
 arm is strong and muscular, and is pretty long ; the 
 laiee square, mth a good speedy cut for the size of 
 the animal, equal to the English horse ; while below 
 the knee, the Arab shines very conspicuously : having 
 a degree of power there, both in suspensor 
 ligaments, and flexor tendons, far superior in pro- 
 portion to his size to the English horse. These are 
 distinct and away from the shank bone ; they give 
 a very deep leg, and act mechanically to great 
 advantage. 
 
 *' The bone looks small, but then it is very dense : 
 the hollow which contains the marrow being very 
 small, and the material solid, more like ivory than 
 bone, heavy and close-grained. The flexor tendons 
 are nearly as large and thick as the cannon bone. 
 The pasterns and their joints are quite in keeping 
 with the bones above them, and are not so lonec, 
 straight, and weak, as those of the English horse. 
 The feet are generally in the same proportion ; but 
 the Arabs themselves appear to be very careless in 
 their treatment of them. The body or centre-piece of 
 the Arab horse has rarely too great length. This is a 
 very uncommon fault in the pure breed ; and there is 
 no breed of horses that are more even in this respect 
 
116 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 than the Arab. Behind this, we come to a great 
 peculiarity in the breed— his croup : I might say, 
 an Arab horse is known by it : he is so much more 
 beautifully made in his quarters, and in the way his 
 tail is put in, than most other breeds. His loins 
 are good : he is well coupled — his quarters are 
 powerful, and his tail carried high : and this even 
 in castes that have little more than a high bred 
 stallion to recommend them. The straight-dropped 
 hind leg is always a recommendation, and almost all 
 racing Arabs liave it ; and this, when extended, 
 brings the hind foot under the stirrup, and the pro- 
 pellers being of this shape, give a vast stride, 
 without fear of over-reach. The thighs and hocks 
 are good ; the latter very rarely know either kind 
 of spavin or curbs. The joints and processes are 
 preeminently well-adapted for the attachment of the 
 muscles, while the flexor tendons of the hind les^ 
 generally correspond with those of the fore. The 
 hocks are not much let down, nor the hind leg so 
 greyhound-like as in the thoroughbred English horse. 
 In stride, too, he is somewhat different, inasmuch as 
 it is a rounder way of going, and is not so extended 
 or so near the ground, but is more like a bound. 
 However, there are exceptions, and I have bred 
 pure Arabs whose stride, for their size, was very 
 extended, and quite like that of English race 
 horses."- 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 117 
 
 In reading this, Captain Shakespeare's admirable 
 description of the Arab horse, I cannot help noticing 
 a sort of Avorkmanlike handling of the subject, which 
 is nowhere to be found in the pages of Daumas, for 
 instance, or in any other of the writings of the — 
 as I must call them — unequestrian nations. In fact, 
 this sort of knowledge, and this style, seem only to 
 be found amono-st Enoiish, at home and abroad, and 
 would, I am quite sure, be Greek to the generality 
 of foreigners. 
 
 In speaking of several of the best breeds of India, 
 the author ascribes their superiority to strains of 
 Arab blood, notwithstanding which the Arab appears 
 to be under a cloud in that country. " With the 
 tide," says Captain Shakespeare, "now turned 
 against Arabs for stallions, at the Cape and in 
 India, I will, nevertheless, prophesy that at no very 
 distant date he will again come into favour." 
 
 My purpose in making the above extracts is to 
 present my readers with a view of the Arab in a 
 country where he is to be found working side by 
 side with various other imported horses, and this in 
 a chapter advocating the propriety of breeding 
 cavalry horses in India. Here the writer prefers 
 him to all other horses, and says, that of horses not 
 bred in the country, the Arab and the gulf horse 
 can alone support the climate and work in the sun 
 of India. In his category the Australian horse is 
 
118 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 particularly mentioned. As a carriage horse and 
 racer lie is said to shine, but in no other way. He 
 is held to be exceedingly vicious. 
 
 Having said so much of them, there still remains 
 a point to be considered before passing on, and a 
 question to be asked. Are these Arabs of India 
 real Arabs, or is it only an inferior cock-tail Arab 
 that is so immeasurably the first horse in India ? 
 There can be no doubt, I believe, on that head ; he 
 is not the real Simon Pure. High caste Nedjd horses 
 could be purchased before the mutiny, says Captain 
 Shakespeare, for £70, and now they range as high as 
 £200. About 50 of them, he says, come yearly to 
 Bombay. If a horse could be brought from Nedjd 
 and sold at Bombay for £70, what could he be 
 bought for where he was bred ? The price and 
 the abundance of the article both point it out as 
 spurious. Though it is no secret that the Indian 
 Arab is a second class article, I am still glad to 
 bring forward some authorities on the subject ; and 
 let the reader recollect that a great many of the 
 Nedjd horses, which though small are of high caste, 
 are sold in Syria. Colonel Churchill, in his Mount 
 Lebanon, says, speaking of Daher, who was shot at 
 Sidon, " The greatest expense he incurred was in 
 blood mares, for some of which he paid nearly £800." 
 Wellsten, in his travels in Oman, says that the 
 Jmaum of Muskat has stallions worth from 1,500 to 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 119 
 
 2,000 dollars, or £400. Layard, in his " Ruins of 
 Nineveh and Babylon," comes right to the point. 
 He says : — 
 
 *' The Indian market is chiefly supplied by the 
 Montefik tribes inhabiting the banks of the lower 
 Euphrates ; but the purity of their stock has been 
 neglected, in consequence of the great demand, and 
 a Montefik horse is not valued by a true Bedouin. 
 Horse dealers, generally of the mixed Arab tribe of 
 Agayl, pay periodical visits to the Shammar and 
 Aneyza, to purchase colts for exportation to India. 
 They buy horses of high caste, which frequently sell 
 for large sums at Bombay. The dealers pay in the 
 desert from £30 to £150 for colts of two, three, and 
 four years. The Agayles attach less importance to 
 blood than the Bedouins, and provided the horse has 
 points that suit the Indian market, they rarely ask 
 his pedigree. The Arabs, hence, believe that the 
 Europeans know nothing of blood, which, with them, 
 is the first consideration. The horses thus purchased 
 are sent to Bombay by native vessels at a very con- 
 siderable risk, whole cargoes being lost or thrown 
 
 overboard during storms ever year The 
 
 Arab horse is more remarkable for its exquisite 
 symmetry and beautiful proportions, united with 
 wonderful powers of endurance, than for exti-aordi- 
 nary speed, / doubt whether any Arab of the best 
 blood has been ever brought to England. The diffi- 
 
120 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 culty of obtaining them is so great that they are 
 scarcely ever seen beyond the liviits of the desert. . 
 . . . Their average height is from 14 to 14|, 
 rarely reaching 15 hands. I have only seen one 
 
 mare that exceeded it It is only the 
 
 mare of the wealthy Bedonin that gets a regailar 
 feed of about twelve handfuls of barley, or of rice 
 in the husk, once in the twenty-four hours. . . . 
 The Shammar Bedouins give their horses, particu- 
 larly when young, large quantities of camel's milk. 
 I have heard of mares eating raw flesh, and dates 
 are frequently mixed with their food by the tribes 
 near the mouth of the Euphrates." 
 
 The reader will observe that the lirst few lines of 
 this extract concerning the sort of horses sent to 
 India involves a contradiction. This I notice fre- 
 quently ! The meaning of the author, however, on 
 the whole, is clear enough, which is, in two words, 
 that the Indian Arabs are not of good pedigree, that 
 a first class Arab has probably never reached even 
 England, and is rarely seen beyond the limits of the 
 desert. 
 
 Ten years ago, I met El Signor Angelo, an emissary 
 of the French Government, who had come to Syria 
 to purchase stallions for the Emperor. We parted 
 at Beirout. I heard afterwards that he had succeeded 
 in procuring ten pure stallions for the Emperor, for 
 which he paid £1,000 per head. And after all were 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 121 
 
 they first-class horses ? Those who best know the 
 Bedouins say that they never have sold a first-class 
 horse to any unbeliever. On the subject of the 
 difficulty of obtaining first-class Arabs, I will make 
 one more extract, from the many testimonies I have 
 met on the subject. It is from a " Pilgiimage to El 
 Medinah and Meccah," by R. F. Burton, in 1856, 
 who says, " Abbas, the late Pacha (of Egypt), did his 
 best to buy first-rate Arab stallions ; on one occasion 
 he sent a mission to El Medinah for the sole purpose 
 of fetching a rare work on farriery. Yet it is 
 doubtful whether he ever had a first-rate Nedji. 
 A Bedouin, sent to Cairo by one of the chiefs of 
 Nedjd, being shewn by the viceroy's orders over the 
 stables, on being asked his opinion of the blood, 
 replied, greatly to the great man's disgust, that they 
 did not contain a single thoroughbred (Arab). He 
 adds an apology on the part of his laird, for the 
 animals he had brought from Arabia, saying, that 
 neither Sultan nor Shaykh could procure colts of 
 the best strain. 
 
 " For none of these horses would the staunch 
 admirer of the long-legged monster called in England 
 a thoroughbred give £20. They are mere rats, short 
 and stunted, ragged and fleshless, with rough coats 
 and slouching walk. But the experienced glance notes 
 at once the snake-like head, ears like reeds, wide 
 and projecting nostrils, large eyes, fiery and soft 
 
 G 
 
122 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 alternately, broad brow, deep base of the skull, wide 
 chest, crooked tail, limbs padded with muscle, long 
 elastic pasterns ; and the animal put out to speed 
 soon displays the wonderful force of blood. In fact, 
 when buying Arabs there are only three things to 
 be considered — ^blood, blood, and again blood . . . 
 It is said that the Zu Mahommed and the Zu Husayn, 
 sub-families of the Beni Yam, a large tribe living 
 around and north of Sanaa, in Yemen, have a fine 
 large breed] called El Jauf, and the clan El Aulaki 
 rear animals celebrated for swiftness and endurance. 
 The other races are stunted, and the Arabs declare 
 that the air of Yemen causes a degeneracy in the 
 first generation. The Bedouins, on the contrary, 
 uphold their superiority, and talk with the greatest 
 contempt of the African horse. 
 
 " In India we now depend for Arab blood on the 
 Persian Gulf, and the consequences of monopoly 
 display themselves in an increased price for inferior 
 animals. Our studs are generally believed to be 
 sinks of rupees. The Governments now object, it is 
 said, to rearing, at a great cost, animals distinguished 
 by nothing but ferocity." 
 
 When it is borne in mind that aU the best breeds 
 of horses, not only of the East, but of the world, all 
 trace their best virtues to Arab descent ; and when 
 I recollect the many persons weU able to estimate 
 their qualities who have pronounced in their favour, 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 123 
 
 it seems unnecessary, and that there is but little 
 occasion for my adding my humble testimony to 
 that of so many. And yet as a Bedouin would not 
 give a piastre for the opinion of any one, concerning 
 a horse, who was not a Bedouin, so an Australian 
 may not be displeased to hear the opinion of an 
 Australian, and to this end only I will say my say. 
 About ten years ago, I had many opportunities of 
 seeing Arab horses in Syria, Turkey, the Holy Land, 
 and Egypt, and before I saw them I had already had 
 some experience of the horses of England, France, and 
 Spain, besides those of Australia and Tasmania, in 
 none of which countries I had resided less than 
 a year. I had also seen those of Greece, Italy, 
 Flanders, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, and other 
 places too numerous to mention, so that I may be 
 said to have approached the examination of the 
 Arab after having seen most of the best breeds in 
 existence. Since then I have had an opportunity of 
 again reviewing them, and if necessary of revising 
 my first impression. In all these countries I have 
 ridden more or less, and had originally in Tasmania 
 and Australia been so unceasingly in the saddle, that 
 it is not to be wondered at that I acquired a habit 
 of glancing my eye over every horse that came in 
 my way, and involuntarily daguerreotyping his figure 
 upon my memory. Neither is it surprising that as 
 I went along I made myself acquainted with any 
 
124! THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 little peculiarities in their treatment, as well as an 
 estimate of their capabilities. At the same time, as this 
 was but the same species ofhabit which all have more 
 or less in connection with any pursuit that may in- 
 terest them, I made no notes of my observations, as 
 at that time I had not the remotest idea that I 
 should ever write on the subject, or turn the know- 
 ledge thus picked up to any practical purpose. 
 
 Of Arab horses, though I have seen many belong- 
 ing to Pashas and royal personages, to rich men and 
 to wandering Bedouins, I am not sure that I have 
 ever seen one of the most esteemed castes. But, if 
 not, I have seen many that had been purchased at 
 respectable prices, seen many of them at work, and 
 ridden a few of them. A gardener soon forms an 
 opinion of a spade, and a woodcutter of an axe, and 
 so one who has lived in the saddle soon makes up 
 his mind about horses. Mine, at all events, was not 
 long in being satisfied. Instead of seeing anything 
 to object to in the Arab as a saddle-horse — ^his size 
 excepted — all that I did see, and all that I was 
 enabled to glean concerning him in his native land, 
 only led me the more decidedly to endorse the 
 opinions of those numberless very competent judges 
 who had gone before me. I never met a man who 
 had tried him and did not like him. I found him 
 in speed inferior to the horse of England, but in 
 tractability, constitution, durability, soundness, ab- 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 125 
 
 stemiousness, temper, courage, and instinct, eclipsing 
 and surpassing all other horses that it has been my 
 chance to meet with. In that quality so pleasant to 
 the horseman, sagacity, I think he has no equal. 
 Even half-breeds sprung from him are remarkable in 
 this point. When in Syria, I bought a little horse 
 which was no beauty, but had evidently got a good 
 deal of Arab blood in him. He stood 14.2, and was 
 six years off. I had him about three months, and rode 
 him, perhaps, a thousand miles. He was never fed 
 more than twice a day under any circumstances. At 
 sunrise his breakfast, which consisted of two double- 
 handfuls of barley, was given to him in his nosebag. 
 This took him, as I often noticed, about twenty min- 
 utes to eat. Two hours after this he was allowed 
 about four quarts of water. Three hours before sun- 
 down he was taken to water and allowed to drink 
 his fill. Two hours later, ten double-handfuls of 
 barley, sometimes mixed with three or four handfuls 
 of chaff, were given to him. Such were the habits 
 in which he had been brought up, and such tlie 
 amount of food which proved in every way sufficient 
 for him even when at work. Once on my journey, 
 at Tyre, I took it into my head to alter all this, and 
 after a long day to give him, when I pulled up, as 
 much water as he chose to drink, followed by his 
 barley, without allowing any interval to elapse. The 
 result^ as might be expected, was, that next day he 
 
126 THE AKAB HORSE. 
 
 was unwell. However, a day's fast, and a return to 
 his old regimen, set all right again. On this he 
 looked as round as if he had eaten as much as our 
 Australian horses are accustomed to do. For 20 
 days I rode him 30 miles a day. He had fifteen 
 stone on his back — the country was mountainous 
 and rocky, but he never made a false step, and I 
 think he improved in condition. I never remember 
 to have found him weary. 
 
 His intelligence was quite beyond any single 
 instance I have ever witnessed in an Australian 
 horse. To say that he recognised his master as one 
 man does another, would hardly be doing justice to 
 his sagacity : he rather seemed to recognise me as 
 the detective does his man. If, as was sometimes the 
 case, he was in a stable with a hundred others, where 
 many persons would be constantly passing to and 
 fro at all hours, he seemed to be constantly on the 
 watch for me. My voice, of course, he knew at 
 once. The sound of my footsteps seemed as familiar 
 to his ear as was my appearance to his eye. He 
 would greet me with his voice when I was several 
 hundred yards from my tent. 
 
 I might adduce a thousand instances of instinct, 
 such as one would rather look for in a dog than a 
 horse — but as this is apart from my subject, I will 
 spare the reader my reminiscences. 
 
 It has commonly been supposed of late years that 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 127 
 
 the difficulty of acquiring first-class Arab horses and 
 mares has been exaggerated, and, notwithstanding 
 the authorities I have adduced on that head, I feel 
 that there may be a lurking incredulousness, which 
 perhaps actual contact with the Bedouin can alone 
 dispel. But, besides his fondness for his mare, his 
 customs, religion, and self-interest are all against the 
 sale of liis best horse. To ask a Bedouin, who has 
 not volunteered to sell, to part with his horse, is no 
 less an insult than it would be to ask an English 
 nobleman, under the same circumstances, to put a 
 price on the haUs of his ancestors. " It is a great 
 offence," says Daumas, " to say to an Arab, * Will 
 you seU your horse ? ' before he has himself made 
 known his desire to sell : ' I am thought to be in 
 great misery,' says he, " when you dare to make me 
 such a proposal.' " But a still greater difficulty in 
 the way is, that to no one is a good horse so neces- 
 sary as to the Bedouin. " L'Arahe," says Daumas, 
 " Tie pent mener que la vie d deux, son cheval et 
 lui." Layard puts this in a clear light, where he 
 says : " To understand how a man, who has perhaps 
 not even bread to feed himself and his children, can 
 withstand the temptation of such large sums, it 
 must be remembered that, besides the affection pro- 
 verbially felt by the Bedouin for his mare, which 
 might perhaps be not proof against such a test, he is 
 entirely dependant on her for his happiness, his glory. 
 
128 THE ARAB HORSK 
 
 and, indeed, his very existence. An Arab, possess- 
 ing a horse unrivalled in speed and endurance, 
 and it would only be for such that prices like those 
 I have mentioned would be offered, is entirely his 
 own master, and can defy the world : once on its 
 back, no one can catch him. He may rob, plunder, 
 fight, and go to and fro as he hsts. He believes in 
 the word of his Prophet : " That noble and fierce 
 horses are true riches." Without his mare, money 
 would be of no value to him : it would either be- 
 come the prey of some one more powerful and better 
 mounted than himself, would be spent in festivities, 
 
 or be distributed amongst his kinsman • 
 
 No one has a heartier hatred of restraint than the 
 true Bedouin : give him the desert, his mare, and 
 his spear, and he will not envy the wealth and 
 power of the greatest of the earth. He plunders 
 and robs for the mere pleasure and excitement 
 which danger and glory afford.*' 
 
 Such is the Arab horse, and such are the ways of 
 his master. I do not know where you will have to 
 go to find such another ! Such he is now, and if we 
 may trust the accounts of old travellers, such he has 
 long been. In the "Voyages de Monsieur Le 
 Chevalier Chardin, en Perse, 1709," we have a 
 description of him, which singularly tallies with 
 that of General Daumas : " J'ai dit," says he, 
 speaking of the Persian horses, " qu' ils sont les 
 
THE ARAB HORSE. 129 
 
 plus beaux de V Orient ; metis pour cela Us ne sont 
 pas les meilleurs, ni les plus reclierchez. Ceux 
 d' Arable les passent et sont fort estimez en Perse a 
 cause de leur legerte, car ils sont, quant a la forme, 
 semblables a de vrayes Rosses par leur taille seche 
 etdecharnee." 
 
 But though mentioned last, not the least item of 
 the glory of the Arab still remains to be spoken : 
 the renown of his descendants in foreign lands ! 
 Where is there a horse excelling those around him 
 who does not trace his virtues to some strain of 
 Eastern blood ? To him England owes all her 
 equine glory ; to him are indebted for their best 
 blood — North America and Australia, France, Spain, 
 Italy, Russia, Circassia, and India. 
 
 Such is the Arab horse, who, as Youatt says 
 of the Barb, " Presents the true combination of speed 
 and bottom ; " and whilst we remember that he 
 wants but two inches in height to be the perfection 
 of horseflesh (which want, I firmly believe, more 
 plentiful food would radically supply in three gene- 
 rations), let us not forget his renown as a sire, 
 his sure-footedness, docility, beauty, speed, abste- 
 miousness, stoutness, and courage — where shall we 
 find his peer ? All honour to the little horse ! 
 
 Who will contradict me when I assert, that no 
 breed of saddle-horses has shone, which has not 
 possessed some strain of Arab blood ? Who will 
 g2 
 
130 THE ARAB HORSE. 
 
 show me that I am incorrect, when I say, that the 
 virtues of European breeds are in exact relation to 
 their affinity to the Arab ? 
 
 Who that has known the Arab has not preferred 
 him to all other horses ? 
 
THE ANDALUSIAN HOKSE. 13] 
 
 THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 
 
 " Yo no quiero criados que tengan un aspecto tan 
 virtuoso, porque estoy escarmentado de ellos." 
 
 an Bias. 
 
 Andalusia was long celebrated throughout Europe 
 for its excellent breed of horses. From that king- 
 dom the Spanish knight and soldier got his charger, 
 and the Hidalgo his jennet. After a considerable 
 but gradual falling off in the quality, and deteriora- 
 tion in the figure of these horses, the studs whence 
 they were drawn were seized for cavalry remounts, 
 and entirely broken up by Soult and other French 
 marshals in the great Peninsular war. 
 
 The best blood of the Andalusian horse was that 
 of the Barb, imported by the Moors, and from it our 
 thoroughbreds are partly descended. Some vessels 
 also of the celebrated Armada, with Barb horses 
 on board, were shipwrecked on the coast of Scot- 
 land and the Scottish Isles, whence sprung the 
 
132 THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 
 
 Galloway, and several other breeds of cobs and 
 ponies, which long showed traces of their Eastern 
 blood, and were justly celebrated for speed, bottom, 
 and beauty. 
 
 Of the Spanish horse, but little is said, either 
 by Youatt or Stonehenge. The latter author 
 attributes great courage to him, which he is said to 
 evince at the Bull fight, meeting his horned 
 antagonist without flinching. Flinch, indeed, the 
 poor living skeleton who is condemned to the 
 Corrida does not : whether this be from courage, or 
 that he feels his life to be too miserable to be worth 
 the preserving, I know not ; but at all events his 
 off eye is always bandaged, so that he cannot see his 
 antagonist, who is always received on that side, 
 which may in part account for his valour. From 
 two to ten of these miserable scarecrows, according 
 to the state of the funds available for the purpose, 
 are served out to each bull, and are slaughtered 
 by him in the most cold-blooded, unresisting man- 
 ner, and fonns, in fact, the disgusting part of the 
 exhibition. 
 
 No one catches the eye sooner, or looks more 
 gay, showy, or attractive, on his horse, tlian the 
 young caballero of Andalusia. In all the great inland 
 cities of that province, you still see him take his 
 daily ride in his national costume ; he still reins 
 back his steed with his long Eastern curb ; el imso 
 
THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 133 
 
 is still liis chosen gait. The swarthy complexion of 
 the rider, the stately tread of his horse, his Moorish 
 saddle and shovel-stirrups ; the gorgeous shawl that 
 falls across his knees, the many coloured housings, 
 and horse-tail tied up with ribands, irresistibly 
 recall to memory, as he passes dowTi the narrow, 
 cartless streets of Calle Francos or el Zacatin, the 
 days of his Moorish predecessors : the stormy days, 
 when Bobadil el Chico sallied out of the gate of 
 Elvira to avenge the fall of Alhama, at the head of 
 all the chosen chivalry of Granada, mounted on their 
 celebrated bay mares. 
 
 " Por esa puerta de Granada 
 Sale muy gran Cabalgada 
 Cuanto del hidalgo moro, 
 Cuanto dela gegua baya." 
 
 With his love of display, something too of the 
 Mahometan love for his horse has been bequeathed 
 to his conqueror, whom some one has termed " an 
 Arab in a house," and, as in the desert he shares the 
 tent of the Arab, so in Andalusia he is lodged in the 
 house of his master. The houses of Andalusia are 
 usually quadrangular buildings, with no back yard 
 of any sort, and with but one entrance, which is 
 through a large iron or bronze gate, fronting the 
 street, in the centre of the fa9ade, and at the en- 
 trance of the spacious hall, on each side of which is 
 a sort of anteroom, where the horses are stabled : 
 
134 THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 
 
 hence the stranger is surprised when he sees, 
 for the first time, the saddle-horse, not led out of a 
 stable, hut out of the front door of some palatial 
 edifice. A few steps onwards takes you into the 
 Patio or court, which is the centre of the house, and 
 forms the summer sitting-room. The external edges 
 of the Patio are overhung to about the depth of ten 
 feet all round, by the projecting balconies of the first 
 story, and the rest of it is shaded in summer from 
 the sun by a rich awning. It is a very pleasant 
 place in the hot weather ! A sparkling fountain in 
 its centre — another legacy from the Moors — drops 
 with silvery sound into a marble font, cooling and 
 bedewing the air, and the tesselated floor, on which 
 stand here and there statues, and orange-trees, 
 flowers, and green shrubs, growing in pots. Under 
 cover of the overhanging balconies are paintings, 
 tables, piano, and guitars ; books, and work-boxes, 
 rich carpets, and sofas, on which, as you walk by, 
 you may see seated the dark-eyed ladies of the 
 house, under the same roof, and but a few yards 
 from the family steed, whose neigh is often heard to 
 answer the voice of his master. The bath is close 
 at hand ; and many a gay lamp lights the scene at 
 
 night. 
 
 " Sostenian los ricos arquitraves 
 De sus claros moris-cos corrideres 
 Columnas ligerisiraas. Sus naves, 
 Adornaban arabigas labores, 
 
THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 135 
 
 Sutiles ciial la pluma de las aves 
 Tan brillantes como ella en sus colores ; 
 Fnitales desde el huerto a las ventanas 
 Alargando limones y manzanas. 
 
 " Sus patios, que en albercas espaciosas 
 Reciben unas aguas cristalinas 
 Al cuerpo gratas y al beber sabrosas 
 Pilas eran de bano alabastrinas 
 Sembrado el borde de arrayan y rosas, 
 Donde las bellas moras granadinas 
 El seco ardor de la mitad del ano 
 Ahuyentaban di si con fresco bano." 
 
 Ill bringing before my readers the horse of Anda- 
 lusia, I have a very special purpose. It is not, as 
 may be imagined, to point out any paii^icularly good 
 qualities that he may possess — and he is not without 
 several, for in good specimens he is still healthy, 
 vigorous, and a weight carrier, abstemious, and but 
 little subject to disease, and, in fact, still before 
 many of the other horses of Europe — nor in any way 
 to hold him up to admiration. It is rather to specu- 
 late on his decline and debasement, and how it came 
 about ; how he is now so altered from what he was 
 when the last King of Granada led back his Moors 
 to Africa. When I first landed in Spain I was 
 surprised to see so little of the Arab figure about 
 the horses ridden by the gentry, and to find that 
 any of it that still existed was to be met amongst 
 those but little esteemed, and put to the meanest 
 
136 THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 
 
 drudgery. In talking with Spaniards on the sub- 
 ject, I soon discovered that their taste in horseflesh 
 was quite at variance with an Englishman's or an 
 Australian's ideas on that subject ; and that the 
 form and action of the thoroughbred, whose speed 
 they made no difficulty in allowing, were both 
 equally disliked in Spain. I had at first some 
 difficulty in believing that the opinions which I 
 heard expressed could be those of connoisseurs. 
 That such was the case, however, I soon had an 
 undeniable opportunity of learning. This happened 
 on the occasion of a great show of saddle-horse siresj 
 at Seville, which took place in the Corrida cle Toros. 
 Curiosity led me that way, and being in the boxes 
 I had a good opportunity of seeing the horses as they 
 were led round the circus. Being in company with 
 a gentleman who knew one of the judges, who stood 
 in the arena, I got introduced to him, and through 
 his kindness was allowed to descend and inspect 
 the horses with the judges. Here I heard all their 
 points discussed, and heard our old adage that " like 
 begets like," which Cervantes expresses, " cada cosa 
 engendra su semejamte" pretty freely made use of, 
 and saw the prize awarded. The whole affair 
 amused me a good deal, and I recollect the discus- 
 sions on the subject well, though I made no memor- 
 anda of the matter, as I had not at that time, nor 
 till long after, the remotest idea of ever writing a 
 
THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 137 
 
 line about the Andalusian or any other horse. Here 
 I found the great contrariety of their opinions and 
 those of Englishmen ; that what we prize they often 
 dislike, what is valued by us is often held cheap by 
 them. Thus, to our light and somewhat lengthy 
 neck, they prefer one short, high-crested, and thick ; 
 a lean, fleshless head, and an open, intelligent eye, 
 are not in the category of their beauties. We esteem 
 a light, firm, and active walk, they the paso. The 
 shape of bone, whether flat or round, cleanness of 
 sinew, and proper formation of joints, are little 
 thought of They are much less observant of points 
 than we are, being rather inclined to restrict their 
 criticism to the carriage, action, and tout ensemble 
 of the appearance of the animal ; not deducing from 
 experience, that certain make and forms are excel- 
 lent for certain purposes, but as embodying their idea 
 of a sort of pompous or parade beauty, arbitrarily 
 agreed upon, and fixed by fashion amongst them, 
 as being the beau-ideal of perfection. If the horse 
 is high, say from 15 J to 16 hands, a good colour, 
 bay being preferred as of old, luxuriant mane and 
 tail, short back and neck, body rather round than 
 deep, wide chest, with strong arm and gaskin, good 
 sound feet, wide hips and muscular coupling, per- 
 forms the pa^o to their satisfaction, carries heaps of 
 flesh and a good coat, is quiet, but proud and fiery 
 in his gait, he quite comes up to their idea of what 
 
138 THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 
 
 a horse should be. Something, perhaps, of the figure 
 that a Suffolk-punch mare might throw to an Arab 
 sire. His shoulder straight and heavy, his neck 
 short and thick, his pastern straight, his bone 
 round, his leg fleshy, and his head coarse, will not 
 be seriously objected to, or in fact noticed. 
 
 He is ridden with a strong heavy curb, which 
 cannot be denied, his head is held high, and his 
 chin forced close to the lower part of his neck. Held 
 in this posture, a long spur applied to his sides, 
 produces the gait known as el paso, in which the 
 horse seems to walk with his hind legs, and lift his 
 fore feet as if at a jog-trot, but very high and with 
 a very awkward turn of the foot, throwing up the 
 dust and mud ; but being restrained by the bit, he 
 plants it quickly and with a blow, but very little in 
 advance of where he raised it from. This action of 
 the fore feet is much admired by the initiated. 
 Here, then, were before me the fact and its explana- 
 tion. What sort of horse is admired in Andalusia, 
 and how he has been brought to his present shape 
 and action from what he once was. The metamor- 
 phosis presents but small difficulty in the solution. 
 Once fix on a certain configuration as a beau-ideal, 
 horses of that figure become saleable ; the breeder 
 anxiously seeks for sires embodying the desired 
 characteristics ; stallions of that stamp, rare perhaps 
 at first, become more plentiful from selection, as the 
 
THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 139 
 
 offspring of those that exist, and the figure sought 
 at length becomes general. I am well aware that 
 there are limits set by nature to this principle, but, 
 as I am treating the subject practically and not 
 scientifically, there appears to me no occasion for 
 entering on the discussion of that point. Neither 
 must my reader imagine that I mean to state that 
 the present Andalusian horse has been produced 
 without any crossing. Crossing with base blood, is, 
 of coui^se, the high road to deterioration, and has, 
 no doubt, facihtated the change effected here. I 
 will, however, add, that I have no doubt but that by 
 a skilfal use and selection of climate, food, and sires, 
 the little Shetland pony, might, after perhaps a 
 hundred or two generations, without any cross, be 
 brought to rival the size of our large brewer's horses, 
 or that mighty animal be dwarfed down to the 
 diminutive height of the Shetlander, or to almost 
 any existing intermediate configui^ation, just as 
 food, climate, and customs, have given us, in 
 our own race, the pigmy Astec and the gigantic 
 Patagonian. 
 
 So much for the saddle-horse of Andalusia. The 
 more humble nag of the caleso, stage coach, &c., 
 whilst retaining more of the figure of his Moorish 
 ancestor, has been reduced by hardships and neglect 
 to a very contemptible condition. Still, however, I 
 have noticed that he is more spirited, more abste- 
 
140 THE ANDALUSIAN HORSE. 
 
 mious, and more stout, than a horse of equal figure 
 would be in England, Belgium, or France. 
 
 Encouraged by the taste of the English garrison 
 at Gibraltar, a few somewhat Arab-like looking 
 horses are bred in that neighbourhood for sale, and 
 as they have been most brought under the observa- 
 tion of Englishmen, their figure has often been sup- 
 posed to be that usual in Spain. Such, however, as 
 1 have said, is not the case, for the old Arab blood and 
 figure may be now said to have been perfectly and 
 systematically debased in that country, and a very 
 second-rate animal to have occupied his place, offer- 
 ing another proof, if it were needed, of how com- 
 pletely a wrong aim in breeding may ruin the best 
 race of horses. 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 141 
 
 THE 
 
 AUSTEALIAN SADDLE-HOESE. 
 
 " Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable."— Gadshill. 
 
 . We now come to the horses of our own country. 
 To Austraha, as to America, the horse was not indi- 
 genous. He was first imported into New South 
 Wales from England. Mares were subsequently 
 brought from the Cape of Good Hope, from Val- 
 paraiso, and pony mares from Lombock and Timor, 
 and have now increased to very large numbers. 
 Thoroughbred su^es have been imported from England 
 in constant succession, and in considerable numbers, 
 some few of them being of good quality, the rest 
 mere weeds, which have only served to deteriorate 
 our breed. Arab sires, with one exception of low 
 caste, have also frequently been introduced from 
 India and the Cape, but not in numbers sufficient to 
 have had much effect on the breed here. Such as 
 
142' THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 have come have been chiefly Gulf Arabs of the 
 racing-type ; greys, of little bone and low caste. 
 
 In the early days of New South Wales consider- 
 able care was used in the breeding of saddle-horses ; 
 sires were selected with some judgment, and fillies 
 allowed to arrive at a fit age before they were sent 
 to the horse. It also happened that several of the 
 stallions of the early days proved themselves to be 
 much more fitted to be the sires of saddle-horses 
 than any which have been since imported. This I 
 have heard remarked by many competent judges, 
 and have myself witnessed to a certain extent. 
 Amongst the most fortunate of our early sires were 
 Whisker, a thoroughbred, and Satellite, an Arab, 
 in New South Wales ; and Peter Finn, a thorough- 
 bred, in Tasmania. These horses, compared with 
 what we have since had, got excellent stock. There 
 were also one or two good stallions in Sydney still 
 earlier than those just mentioned, but their names I 
 am no longer able to recollect, nor do I know that 
 it is of much importance. The horse has increased 
 rapidly since his first introduction to Australia, and 
 is now found in large numbers (in many places 
 neglected, wild, and unclaimed) in all the settled 
 districts. Though, as might be expected, in coun- 
 tries so dissimilar in position, climate, and pasture, 
 as those now settled in New Holland, some pecu- 
 liarities in his quahties have begun to manifest 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 143 
 
 themselves in relation to these causes, and certain 
 distinct characteristics to spring up in various 
 localities, yet on the whole, a great similarity still 
 exists in all, management everywhere having been 
 much alike, and on these points I wiU first speak. 
 
 On the first importation of horses into New South 
 Wales, the animal was too valuable to be neglected, 
 and the demand being limited held out no induce- 
 ment to owners to sacrifice quality to quantity by 
 too early breeding. As the animal increased in 
 numbers, a degree of stoutness and capacity for 
 work quite unknown in England began to manifest 
 itself in the colonial-bred horses, and the English 
 emigrant was surprised to find that the horse he had 
 bred in the country of his adoption was remarkable 
 for a vigorous health and freedom from sickness and 
 disease, and would endure fatigues and perform 
 journeys on grass-feed alone, which would have over- 
 taxed the parent stock in England on the best 
 stable keep. This robust health he still possesses 
 in a remarkable degree. His stoutness was still 
 further increased by the importation of thoroughbred 
 stallions, who, be their pedigree what it might, have 
 had no equals as foal-getters amongst those since 
 introduced. The racing and Ai'ab blood of Whisker 
 and Satellite seemed at their meeting to flow with 
 fresh vigour in the land of the South. As our 
 horses increased in number they stiU continued not 
 
144 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 only to uphold, but even to add to their early repu- 
 tation, thus substantiating their first testimony as 
 to the fitness of the Australian pasture and climate 
 for their full development and perfection. The 
 gentry now, both in town and the bush, rode horses 
 of rare stamp, whose performance surpassed even 
 what their figures promised. The Mounted Pohce 
 and Border Police, heavy men frequently, with 
 heavy accoutrements, bestrode chargers such as no 
 horse-regiment m England could or can turn out, 
 and have been frequently known, as I have been 
 informed by credible persons, to do their 70 miles for 
 four or five consecutive days without difficulty. Of 
 course I mean on grass-feed alone, without hay or 
 corn. To this day, it may as well be said, after 
 leaving town and passing through what may be 
 called the country districts, the horseman enters the 
 bush, where artificial forage of any sort may be said 
 to be unknown. Hence, when speaking of riding 
 in the bush, it must be understood that the horse 
 gets nothing to eat but what he can pick up, which 
 is often but a very scanty allowance. 
 
 A reputation at last begun to be established by 
 the horses of New South Wales, or, as it was then 
 better known as. Botany Bay, and they began to be 
 exported for the use of the British cavalry in India. 
 These I have been told by the late Sir George 
 Arthur, Governor of Madras or Bombay, I forget 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 145 
 
 whicli, and other officers, fully kept up in India 
 the character they had brought with them from 
 Australia, both on the road and on the turf ; and 
 being weight-carriers, large and well-bred, bringing 
 to mind the chargers of the old country, were pre- 
 ferred to all others at that time in India for that 
 purpose. But these days of early glory were not 
 destined to be of long continuance. Colonization 
 began to progress, and the town or farm -reared Eng- 
 lishman began to learn a little bush ci^ft. He had 
 already burst through the Blue Mountain barrier, 
 which had so long held him back. The sheej) and 
 cattle originally imported had increased rapidly, 
 and fresh pasture had become necessary. The ser- 
 vices of the horse began now to be more requisite, 
 and he had fallen into the hands of breeders, who, 
 however they might excel as horsemen, knew little 
 of the rules necessary to his production, or the 
 preservation of his good qualities. As his position 
 became remote from civilization, the services of 
 imported, thoroughbred, or picked sires, became 
 unattainable and expensive, and colts often of the 
 most indifferent descriptions were substituted in 
 their stead, and ran loose with the little mobs of 
 mares and fillies which began to be found about the 
 homesteads of the settlers ; fillies of from two years 
 to thirty months old began regularly to rear their 
 foals, and the- horse stock, as a consequence, rapidly 
 
1-iG THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 to deteriorate. Then fresh settlers and more capital 
 began to find their way into the colony, and Victoria 
 (then Port Philip), and Adelaide, new settlements, 
 offered good investments to the monied, and the ex- 
 citement of emigTation and adventure to the young 
 stock-holder. Horses that at this day would not 
 realize over fifty shillings, were then eagerly caught 
 up in these new markets at £70, £80, and £100, 
 and their production as a consequence was at once 
 pushed to the utmost. 
 
 This brings us to the year 1840, when the author 
 first landed in Melbourne. Horses were then coming 
 slowly from the Sydney country to Victoria, gener- 
 ally poor, stunted, miserable wretches, the culls of 
 that district, whose degeneracy weedy race-horses 
 had begun, and early breeding and haphazard sires 
 had completed. But, in those days, from time to 
 time came into Victoria an occasional veteran Satel- 
 lite horse, sinewy, of exquisite make, and of great 
 utility and power ; the remnants of the original 
 horse, the had-been of other days. The young stock 
 had become leggy, girthless, boneless abortions, that 
 had dwarfed down to from fourteen hands to fourteen 
 hands three inches, whose only value was their 
 market price, for intrinsically they had none. Even 
 this value soon disappeared, for before 1843 had 
 passed away, three of the former £60 horses had 
 become equivalent m the market of New South 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 147 
 
 Wales to tlie price of one saddle. In fact they 
 became almost valueless. 
 
 When this commercial crisis had pased away, and 
 the wool and tallow brought into the market had 
 again made the country solvent, stock of all sorts 
 reaped the benefit of improved management, with 
 every other interest. The horse amongst the rest. 
 The hack now rose in value, from a mere song to 
 about £12. People, however, began to find that 
 they had got into a bad sort, that the little weeds 
 now in use were unable to carry them, and the old 
 settlers and Sydney natives looked back with regret 
 to the old days when they rode those fast, up-stand- 
 ing, strong, and fiery horses, far inferior, it is true, 
 to the Ai'ab, yet whose like were now nowhere to 
 be obtained. More substance ! big horses ! began 
 to be the cry. Away with these woolly-legged 
 wretches ! Let us have the tall bony horse of the 
 old day ! Breeders prepared to supply the demand. 
 The weedy, delicate, washy, unsound, imported 
 thoroughbred began to be put to the heavy cart 
 mare. The produce of his cross was to be the sire 
 for the future, and great results were expected. 
 This sire showed an increase in size, his bone mea- 
 sured more than did that of his sire, he had some 
 go, but still he failed to satisfy the public. For 
 "no breed can be improved," says Captain Shak- 
 speare, "by -so great a disparity in the sexes ; the 
 
148 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 produce will be entirely misshapen, and their bodies 
 and limbs out of all proportion." The broken kettle 
 had been patched with wood and not with iron. 
 The sire himself proved but a poor saddle-horse, his 
 get was ill-descended on both sides, and of the 
 wrong sort. How could it be otherwise ? This 
 large bastard sire was put to undersized, unroomy, 
 mares. Sometimes the result was a heavy carcase 
 and insufficient bone ; at other times a light carcase 
 and soft unwieldy legs, with narrow chest and short 
 shoulder, small girth, and delicate constitution. 
 Each a disappointment, both bad ! What was 
 termed the substance of the sire, and the speed of the 
 weedy dam, did not manifest themselves. Fingers 
 had been fixed on the table, but it would not turn ! 
 Spirits had been called from the " vasty deep," but 
 they only whistled and looked another way ! 
 Whatever might have been effected, which is not 
 much, by more gradual crosses, had been entirely 
 frastrated by the extreme and sudden measures of 
 the breeder. He had forgotten that if the Austral- 
 ian is always in a hurry, nature keeps on at her old 
 established pace ; she improvises nothing ! With her 
 the superstructure is always in relation to its base ; 
 perhaps he did not know that the tree centuries old 
 may be uprooted, cities rise on its ruins and become 
 magnificent and powerful, and, I had almost said, 
 decay again, in less time than nature has fixed as 
 
tHE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 149 
 
 the possible period in which a debased breed of 
 horses can be reared to the acme of perfection. 
 For, whatever is to be real and effectual in 
 this matter, must be gradual. The oak that is 
 to endure for ages, must not be forced like the 
 mushroom ! 
 
 The cross tarned out a failure, and some breeders 
 imported, in place of weedy racers, thoroughbreds of 
 more bone and substance. But where do we notice 
 the anticipated results? Besides, our horse-stock 
 had become so numerous, that to provide good sires 
 in numbers requisite to re-establish our breed was 
 impossible. 
 
 In the meantime, the great English specific for 
 the improvement and perfection of saddle-horses, 
 namely, races, haxi not been neglected. The purchase 
 of thoroughbreds in England for this purpose had 
 been frequent, and the animals imported of consider- 
 able pretensions. Jockey clubs in Sydney, Mel- 
 bourne, and Adelaide, offered prizes for excellence 
 with no niggard hand ; the betting rings were well 
 attended, betting brisk, and black legs, &c., I believe 
 became acclimatized and flourished. Races, too, at 
 the country towns were frequent and well attended, 
 and the breeders of thoroughbreds numerous. In 
 fact, I know no country where racing is, and has 
 been, carried on so extensively in proportion to its 
 population as in New South Wales ; none where it 
 
150 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 forms so general a subject of conversation and of 
 interest. In that district you cannot find a town- 
 ship where there are but half a dozen huts congre- 
 gated together that does not boast its annual races ; 
 hardly a roadside bush-public-house that has not 
 its rude course. I have seen races run over stony 
 ground, hilly ground, hard plains rent with wide 
 fissures, and over country so heavily timbered — 
 where no better was to be had — that many a new 
 arrival in the country would have found it un- 
 pleasantly close to ride to hounds through. The 
 time of our races has always I beheve been respect- 
 able, and certainly the speed of our racer has been 
 acknowledged in India, the only country to which 
 he has been exported. 
 
 If such has been the system of our horse-breeding 
 for the last forty years, it will now be possible to 
 say something definite respecting its results. We 
 have had racers and Arabs of a certain class, and 
 hunting sires ; we have seen crossing and re-crossing 
 in every imaginable way ; a thousand breeders have 
 tried every blood, from that of the diminutive Timor 
 to the gigantic Clydesdale, in many different pro- 
 portions. Each favorite nostrum has been fairly 
 tried, and with what result ? A constant and pro- 
 gressive degradation of our stock. Has anything 
 been left untried ? How comes it that whilst breed- 
 ing a pm^e racer for the course, it has never occurred 
 
TRE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 151 
 
 lo US to breed a j9ii7'e saddle-horse for the road or 
 the bush, as the Saharian or Bedouin does ? 
 
 As regards the racer, it may be stated, that his 
 condition has not undergone any decided change, 
 either for good or bad, since his introduction here ; 
 neither has any particular stud or stable been re- 
 markably in the ascendant. If any race-horse has 
 attained pre-eminent celebrity in Austraha, it was, 
 perhaps, old Jorrocks in his day, whose stoutness 
 and long lasting quahties, and the number of years 
 over which his winnings extended, joined to a fair 
 degree of speed, are not unworthy of notice, and I 
 insert for the benefit of my readers an account of 
 him from Bell's Life in Bydney. 
 
 "Near the sequestered township of Mudgee, in 
 New South Wales, in the October of '33, Matilda 
 dropped a bay horse foal to Wliisker, both sire and 
 dam being then the property of Mr. Henry Baley, 
 of Baley Park, an influential and highly popular 
 magistrate of the territory, who, in conjunction with 
 other members of his family, for a seiies of years 
 devoted large pecuniary resources, and multiplied 
 experience, to the improvement of the breed of 
 colonial horse stock. Their success was happily as 
 eminent as their endeavours were philanthi^opic, 
 
 " The pedigree of this quadrupedal phenomenon, 
 whose extraordinary racing powers, hke those of 
 the Eclipse, so long remained in embryo, may thus 
 
152 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 be quoted : — Jorrocks by Whisker^ out of Matilda, 
 by Steeltrap ; grandam Vesta, by the Arabian Model ; 
 great grandam Caraboo, by Old Hector; great 
 great grandam by Rockingham,etc. Whisker (imported 
 by Mr. Henry Baley) foaled in 1829, was got by 
 Whisker out of Woodbine, sister to Fortuna by 
 Comus ; grandam by Patriot ; great grandam by 
 Phenomenon out of Czarina by Babraham — Blank, 
 etc. etc. 
 
 *' Matilda once occupied a prominent position on 
 the local turf, and Yesta, bred by the late Nicholas 
 Baley, Esq., proved herself staunch in a severe race 
 of two-mile heats, snatching the laurel from the 
 following high-pressure nags, viz. : — Mr. W. C. 
 Wentworth's Currency Lad, by Stride ; Sir John 
 Jamieson's Abdallah, by the Arab of that name ; 
 Mr. Icely's Alraschid, by ditto ; and Mr. Lawson's 
 High-flyer, by Old Hector. The mare took the sweep, 
 after a terrific struggle of four heats. 
 
 " Jorrocks is a bright bay, with black points, 
 stands fourteen hands two inches, shows rather a 
 short head with a broad forehead, full and beautiful 
 eye, a somewhat close nostril, handsome racing neck, 
 slightly swayed, fine oblique shoulder with great 
 depth, wide powerful chest, good muscular forearm, 
 rather long knee, short thence to the fetlock, by no 
 means a long pastern, round handsome barrel, very 
 deep girth, short back, which dips near the setting 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 153 
 
 on of the couples — an extraordinary depth of rib 
 — very broad across the loins — a tail well set on — 
 powerful buttocks — strait hocks — round feet, and 
 remains perfectly free from sparvin, splint, curb, or 
 corn. His tout ensemble displays the lengthy slop- 
 ing angular shapes of the English blood-horse, with 
 much of the wiry elasticity of the desert born. 
 Honest, courageous, and highly timetable, as he ever 
 proved, we cannot help regretting that the colony 
 should have been deprived of his valuable services 
 for stud purposes ; but so it is, and regTet is use- 
 
 " Thus, having as freely as seems necessary 
 alluded to his pedigree aud appearance, his perform- 
 ances seem to be the next thing that demand retro- 
 spection. 
 
 " What induced the owner of Jorrocks to keep 
 him so long out of work does not appear ; but it 
 is certain that till the close of the year 1836, he 
 was allowed the parole, undisturbed by the cham- 
 ion of the snaffle, and unruffled by either the whip 
 or the currycomb. About this period he was broken 
 in, and kept upon easy duty till he had well-nigh 
 completed his fifth summer, when he was sent to a 
 cattle station on the river Barwan, and in the humble 
 drudgery of a stock-horse and hack alternately, he 
 continued for the four following years. During 
 this pilgTimage, in occasional sallies after the 
 
154 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 bounding denizen of the Australian forest, his 
 untiring speed became apparent ; for, though never 
 stabled, rarely groomed, and almost always exposed 
 to that unenviable concatenation of anti-conditionals, 
 of which our ever fluctuating seasons are pro- 
 ductive, to wit absence of pasture and of water, 
 made more agreeably conducive to health by burn- 
 ing winds, brobdignag mosquitoes, and bush fires, 
 though not perhaps absolutely suffering from this 
 quintette of grievances, the gallant son of Whisker, 
 with twelve stone on his back, could frequently 
 turn a flyer. 
 
 " Thus encouraged to the belief that the horse 
 knew how to put his ' best foot foremost,' Mr. 
 Charles Baley entered him in a sweepstakes of 
 twenty-five sovereigns each, h ft, which he carried 
 away from four less fleet competitors. The race 
 came off on Coola Plains ; but no notice has been 
 taken of the event by persons who have hitherto endea- 
 voured to trace his performances. Stronger proof 
 of the racing capabilities of the debutant was deem- 
 ed necessary, and arrangements were accordingly 
 made for the purpose of testing to a nicety the 
 extent of his pace. He was placed under surveil- 
 lance of Old Brown, i\\Qfidus Achates whose graven 
 image considerably adds to the interest of our 
 sketch. Brown then had Helena and others in 
 training at the stables of a gentleman near Windsor, 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 155 
 
 SO that abundant opportunities offered for affording 
 trials either against time or blood. That the result 
 of these gallops was in accordance with favourable 
 surmises, may be gathered from the fact of Mr. 
 Eouse's anxiety to possess the horse — a desire which 
 he speedily succeeded in accomplishing, as Mr. Baley, 
 in the commencement of '41, was induced to part 
 with Jorrocks, taking in exchange for his valuable 
 gelding eight springing heifers, equivalent to about 
 the sum of forty pounds sterling. No time was 
 now lost in preparing the horse for the ensuing 
 Homebush Meeting, where on the 16th of the 
 succeeding March, he was brought to the post for 
 the Ladies' Purse of £50, open to all horses canying 
 eleven stone — three miles. Chesnut Prince, Slasher, 
 Creeping Jane, Tom Thumb, and Paddy were oppos- 
 ed to him — running a good second, he was defeated 
 by the Chesnut. 
 
 " On the 30th of the same month he was found at 
 Bathurst contending with Kate Nickleby and Elea- 
 nor for the Town Plate of 100 sovereigns, where, 
 racing under the mysterious name of Jollop, he met 
 with a similar physicking. The following day, 
 however, hailed him the winner of the Town Plate 
 of £50, though opposed to Theorem and the Nickle- 
 by mare. Theorem broke down whilst running up 
 the distance, and Kitty bolted from the start. On 
 the same day he ran second for the Ladies' Purse, 
 
156 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 which was taken by Skeleton ; Jorrocks being 
 second in both heats, Lushington, Glaucus, and the 
 bolting mare being also in the struggle ; Miss Kate 
 served her Jock as in the preceding race. At 
 Parramatta on the 27th April he won the Town 
 Plate of 100 sovereigns, beating Flirt, Prince, Euca- 
 lyptus, and Stranger. * Jollox will be a trouble- 
 some nag to beat at long distance in heavy ground ,' 
 was the astute remark committed to the broad 
 sheet by the prophetic reporter of the day. Re- 
 turning to the Hawkesbury, he bore away in triumph 
 a plate of 100 sovereigns, but defeat was early in 
 attendance, as at Homebush on the 24th of August 
 the Australian Stakes were easily taken from him, 
 Plutus, and Eucalyptus, by Mr. Charles Smith's Bees- 
 wins:; the Ladies' Purse of £50 on the 26th set 
 him again a-foot, but Mentor proved more than his 
 match ; yet the Beaten handicap served somewhat 
 to console his owner to the disaffection of the 
 stables of Gohanna, Prince, Plutus, and Planet. 
 His next appearance was at the Parramatta Spring 
 Meeting, September 14th, where he achieved a 
 victory over Plutus, Tory, Planet, and Gohanna, for 
 the Union Purse of 100 so vs., and satisfactorily 
 closing his career of '41 by walking over for the 
 Members' Purse of 50 sovs. on the 14th of the same 
 month. 
 
 " The campaign of '42 opened brilliantly for the 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 157 
 
 old horse, at Homebush, for the Metropolitan 
 Stakes of 75 sovereigns. The Quail, Tranby, 
 Planet, and the Marquis, had to succumb to him, 
 and two days after this signal and easy conquest he 
 also rewarded Mr. Rouse with the Cumberland Cup 
 of 100 sovereigns value, added to a sweepstakes of 
 10 sovereigns each. Ten horses had been entered, 
 but the winner. Eclipse, and Eucalyptus, only came 
 to the post. This splendid and massive vase was 
 manufactured in Sydnej" by Messrs. Cohen, of 
 George-street. Then followed a rapid succession of 
 good fortune — to wit : The Mudgee Plate of 50 
 sovereigns, on the 17th May — the Settlers' Purse of 
 50 sovereigns, on the 20th, taken from Grimaldi, 
 and the Inkeepers' Purse of 40 sovereigns, on the 
 same day — the Hawkesbury Turf Club Purse of 
 100 sovereigns, on the 27tli of July, when he ran a 
 dead heat with Beeswing for the first heat ; but 
 eventually took the race with ease. At starting, 
 lots of money was laid at five to three on Beeswing. 
 Allowing one day to intervene, he again did the 
 needful for his lucky proprietor, taking the Rich- 
 mond Purse of seventy-five sovereigns, with a 
 sweep of five sovs. added, although an extra 71b. 
 had been imposed. Beeswing, Quail, Jerry Sneak, 
 and the Marquis were in the affair, but the fii-st 
 named broke down in the second heat and was 
 much injured^, the Marquis also fell lame while 
 
158 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 running a good second to Jorrocks. Early in 
 August, he was defeated by Sir Charles at Parra- 
 matta for the Union Purse, and on the 7th, at the 
 same meeting, the Quail deprived him of the Town 
 Plate. The severity of his work at Windsor, but a 
 few days previously, accounts in some measure for 
 the want of temporary success — ' the old horse had 
 evidently had much of it lately, and his condition 
 being decidedly bad,' so wrote the sporting chroni- 
 cler of the day. He was next entered at the Cham- 
 pagne Stakes at Homebush, in September, but was 
 drawn to let Quail walk over. From this period a 
 considerable spell was allowed him, not having been 
 called on — 
 
 " To gambol o'er the grassy floor " 
 
 till the 11th of April, 1843, when he was beaten 
 by Eucalyptus, for the Members' Purse of 100 sovs. 
 The Beaten Purse was all that fell to his lot. At 
 the meeting at Homebush, on the 22nd of May, his 
 star became once more ascendant. The Metropo- 
 litan Stakes of 1 00 sovereigns, falling to his stable, 
 in defiance of the efforts of Sir Charles, Tranby, 
 Blacklock, and Eucalyptus, and on the day but one 
 following he took the Cumberland Cup, of 100 sovs., 
 from Blacklock and the Quail. At Parramatta, in 
 the following July, he experienced another reverse, 
 being beaten by the Marchioness, Harry LoiTequer, 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 159 
 
 and CEclipus, for the Union Stakes, but it was 
 thought by many, that had his jockey, Higgerson, 
 made play earlier in the race, he would have had a 
 much better place. 
 
 " The Town Plate of 70 so vs., with a sweepstakes 
 of five sovs. (a single event of three miles seven 
 hundred and fifty yards, run in 6 min, 58 sec), 
 July 14, tended to resuscitate his fame, to the dis- 
 paragement of Lorrequer and Quail. On the 12th of 
 September the veteran visited his favourite arena at 
 Homebush, where he triumphed over Lottery, 
 Marchioness, and Harry Lorrequer for the Cham- 
 pion Cup, Lottery running second in the three mile 
 gallop. The Champagne Stakes of this year were 
 also awarded him. In the November following he 
 honoured Penrith with his presence, and, after a 
 dead heat with Sir Charles, took the Town Plate 
 easily. The Baronet was subsequently more foilu- 
 nate, and snatched the Publicans' Purse. (Jorrocks 
 was now running under the o^vnership of Higger- 
 son.) Thus finished his exploits of the year ; nor 
 did his name adorn the Calendar till the middle of 
 April '44^, when at Windsor he was thrashed by 
 Harry Lorrequer in the Town Plate Race on the 
 10th, but took the Richmond Purse of sixty sovs., 
 on the 11th, Lorrequer and Election also being candi- 
 dates for the emolument. At Homebush, July 
 23rd, he ran second to Lottery for the Metropolitan 
 
160 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 Stakes, when the three miles was done in 5 min. 
 50 sec, JoiTocks losing by half a length ; but on 
 the 25th the tables were turned, Lotteiy playing 
 second fiddle to the Old'un for the Cumberland 
 Stakes of fifty sovereigns. He next was to have 
 been met with at Berrima, where none dared oppose 
 him, and the easy task of cantering in solitary 
 grandeur round the heath secured him the Town 
 Plate of forty sovereigns. Hence he proceeded to 
 Goulburn, where his determined antagonist Lottery 
 was in waiting to draw a prize of £40 — viz. the 
 Innkeepers' Purse ; heats, two and a half miles. 
 They next met at Penrith at the close of October, 
 where Jorrocks again drew blanks. Lottery winning 
 the Town Plate on one day, and Election beating 
 him on the next for the Publicans' Purse. The 
 Beaten Handicap flung a few crumbs into Higger- 
 son's hat. 
 
 *' Under somewhat brighter auspices the season of 
 '45 opened at Homebush May Meeting, where he 
 licked Lottery in a three-mile race for the Metro- 
 politan Stakes of sixty sovereigns ; Lottery went on 
 the wrong side of a post, supposed to have been so 
 contrived intentionally. But in return Jorrocks 
 was beaten by Blue Bonnet for the Bungarrabee 
 Purse. Heavy sums exchanged hands, the odds 
 having ranged as high as five to two, and in some 
 instances three to one, the Old'un against the field. 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 161 
 
 In August he was again beaten by the mare at 
 Maitland, where he appeared as the property of Mr. 
 James Doyle. The annual account was closed at 
 this meeting. 
 
 " In April, 1846, he took the Hawkesbury Town 
 Plate of fifty sovs. ; on the day following the Publi- 
 cans* Purse of twenty-five sovereigns fell to his lot* 
 At Homebush May Meeting, for the All-aged 
 Stakes of fifty sovereigns, he distanced the great 
 southern crack, Petrel, although Munchausen ru- 
 mours had been circulated as to the wonderful 
 capabilities of the Port Philip favourite. The 
 Australian Plate of fifty sovereigns next came to 
 his owner's share, in defiance of a large field, includ- 
 ing Lottery, Green Mantle, Tamarind^ Emerald, and 
 Blue Bonnet. After running second to Emerald for 
 the Town Plate at Maitland, he surprised the widos by 
 taking a Purse of sovereigns from the Irishman and 
 Meteor, and further receiving an accession in the 
 shape of the Hunter River Stakes. At Five Dock 
 he walked off" with the Ladies' Purse of forty sovs. 
 in March, and shut up shop for the season. 
 
 '' The March of '47 brought the Bathurst Town 
 Plate of 50 sovs. and the Publicans' Purse of 30 
 sovs. April, too, added the Members' Purse of 60 
 sovs, and the Richmond Purse of 40 sovs., both at 
 Windsor. In May, the Australian Plate of 60 sovs., 
 at Homebush, brought more grist to the mill, and 
 
162 THE AUStEALIAN SADDLE-HORS^. 
 
 June yielded fruits of increase — viz., the Paii^amatta 
 Town Plate of 60 so vs., snatched from Whalebone 
 and Blue Bonnet ; and on the 2nd of July he won 
 the Cumberland Turf Purse of 60 so vs. Dull 
 December had also its attractions, as he was allowed 
 to walk over for the Ladies' Purse (25) at Peters* 
 ham, and on the same day he took the Hunters' 
 Stakes of 20 so vs. In 1848 his prowess was re* 
 warded with a score at the Drapers' Club ; £50 
 (Publicans' Purse) at Bathurst, in March ; a like 
 amount at Windsor (Members' Purse); £50 (Town 
 Plate) at Parramatta, in April ; and £70 (Austra* 
 lian Plate) at Homebush, in May. Early in March. 
 '49, we find him walking off with the Carcoar Town 
 Plate of £50, and at the close of the same month a 
 similar amount was awarded him at Bathurst. 
 Then followed, in April, the Richmond Purse (£50) 
 and the All-aged Stakes at Homebush ; a sweep of 
 5 so vs. each, with 50 added in May ; allowing one 
 day to intervene, he bore off the Australian Plate of 
 £70, with a sweep of 5 sovs. each, (a dead heat 
 between the Old'un and the Plover, when the lat- 
 ter and other horses were drawn, and Jorrocks 
 walked over for the second heat). The Cum- 
 berland Turf Meeting next came to the relief, in 
 the shape of the Parramatta Town Plate (£50), 
 with a sweep of 5 sovs. In the following month he 
 walked over for the Wellington Plate (£20), and the 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 163 
 
 Ladies' Purse of £20, and closed the year at Mudgee, 
 on the 15th of August, by carrying off a plate of 30 
 sovs. ; and thus he closed the year '49. 
 
 " 1850 — February 27th, ran second for the Town 
 Plate of £50 at the Bathurst Meeting, being beaten 
 by Little John — winning the first heat, running a 
 dead heat the second, being beaten for the third, 
 and then drawn. 
 
 *' March 15th, at the Carcoar Meet, won the 
 Publicans' Purse of 30 sovs., beating Little John 
 and Zingaree. 
 
 " April 10th, at the Hawkesbury Turf Club Meet, 
 won the Members' Pui'se of 50 sovs., ridden by Cutts^ 
 carrying 9st. 31bs., beating Humming Bird and 
 Pastile. 
 
 '' May 29th, at the Homebush Meet, ran second 
 to Sultan for the All-aged Stakes of £50, beating 
 Little John and Plover. 
 
 "May 31st, same meet, won the Australian Plate 
 of 60 sovs., with a sweep of 5 sovs. each, beating 
 Plover, Little John, Lola Montes, and Sultan. 
 
 " 27th June, at the Campbelltown Meet, ran 
 second to Plover for the Campbelltown Plate of 50 
 sovs., beating Pasha, Sultan, Pastile, Sir Charles, 
 and Jenny Lind. 
 
 "August 6th, at the Singleton Kaces, won the 
 Patrick's Plains Purse of 40 sovs., beating Sultan, 
 Death, and Cyrus. ■ 
 
164 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 "August 20th, at Maitland Meet, ran second to 
 the Queen of Hearts for the Maitland Town Plate 
 of 50 so vs., and on the 22nd, same meet, ran second 
 to Sultan for the Town Plate, which wound up his 
 career of 1850. 
 
 " 1851 — Feb. 26, at Bathurst Races, ran second 
 to Little John for the Town Plate. 
 
 " Feb. 28, same meet, won the Publicans' Purse 
 of £40, with a sweep of £3, beating Little John. 
 
 " April 25, at Hawkesbury Races, was beaten by 
 Plover and Muleyson for the Richmond Purse. 
 
 " May 28, at Homebush Meeting, for the Australian 
 Plate ran third, being beaten by Cossack and Muleyson. 
 
 " Jorrocks then left the Turf, and after several times 
 being raffled, became the property of his now owner 
 Mr. A. Thompson, who once brought him to the 
 post, on the 7th of Oct., '52, for the Metropolitan 
 Handicap, at the Drapers' Homebush, when he was 
 beaten. A most marked manifestation of interest 
 was displayed as the *' old horse " was led upon the 
 course, and three deafening cheers made the welkin 
 ring again as he passed before the stand. Poor old 
 horse ! the spirit of other days was unextinguished — 
 is unextinguishable ; but no new trophies may be 
 gathered for his laureled brow. His fame is 
 imperishable, and the records of past years will 
 advance his undisputed claim to the first niche in 
 the Gallery of Australia's Winning Horses." 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 1G5 
 
 But Racers as racers form no part of my subject ; 
 as to their adaptability to be sires of saddle-horses, 
 I have already shown it to be against all principle ; 
 but principle aside we can judge of the fruit 
 without any discussion about the tree. 
 
 Taken as a whole, the saddle-horses of Victoria, 
 New South Wales, and Queensland, of which I 
 can speak from personal observation, and to which, 
 I believe, those of Adelaide offer no exception, are 
 not difficult to describe. On the whole, they are in 
 height decidedly below those of England. In their 
 appearance in the streets of our principal cities, 
 there is nothing that particularly strikes the English 
 eye, except it be their unvarying inferiority of 
 figure and utter want of quality. Year by year 
 they have been subsiding and settling down to a 
 dead level, and the bright exceptions which, twenty 
 years ago, were frequent amongst them have now all 
 but totally disappeared. This is more strictly the 
 case in Melbourne than in Sydney. In Melbourne 
 there may remain a few stylish pairs of carriage 
 horses, but amongst the scores that are sold by 
 auction every day in the week, perhaps even one 
 tolerably good colt could hardly be picked out. 
 Those waiting private sale are only a degree or two 
 better, and, if enquiries are made for good-looking, 
 weU-bred sound hunters, or hacks, up to fourteen 
 stone, in the places where such used to be met with. 
 
166 THE AUSTRALIA^r SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 the enquirer will at once be told that such horses 
 are now never to be met with. What is noticeable 
 in the capitals is but the reflex of the whole colonies, 
 and in corresponding degrees. Thus the horses of 
 New South Wales are more presentable than those 
 of Victoria. 
 
 A cessation of this decline, and a gTadual but 
 permanent rise to excellence, has been foretold, 
 beheved in, and hoped for by many. Twenty years 
 ago I used to hear that Cornborough, Patchwork 
 (who died on landing), and other horses whose 
 names it is useless to mention, were to regenerate and 
 bring up our breed to the old mark and higher. 
 This delusive hope has always found its votaries — 
 at present they are dreaming of Indian Warrior 
 and Fisherman. They, it is confidently asserted, 
 will inaugurate the millennium — and when they have 
 passed away, and effected no more than their pre- 
 decessors, fresh phantoms will no doubt replace 
 those that have fled, and beguile with a hope which 
 will certainly never be realized. Though, were it 
 realized, it would still, I maintain, be far less, both in 
 degree and extent, than what is easily possible 
 under a proper system of breeding. Passing from 
 the figure to the qualities of the Australian horse, 
 it will be found, that in comparison with the Eng- 
 lish horse, he is ill-broken, his temper cross, and 
 his paces disagreeable ; that, if compared to the 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 167 
 
 horses of the Ai-abs, or those of Southern Italy, 
 Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, or Egypt, he will be 
 found to be, besides, sluggish in temper, unsound in 
 his legs, soft in his hoof, and wanting in stamina. 
 
 After all, however, there is one favourable feature 
 still noticeable amongst our horses, and it is a most 
 imjDortant one ; it corroborates what we hear of 
 them in the past, and gives us confidence in the 
 future. I mean their great capacity for luork, as 
 compared to their figure. In this they still, and 
 always will, rank high, for it rests on what is un- 
 changeable, and beyond our control, as I shaU 
 endeavour to make clear in the sequel. In this 
 quality they .surpass many others of even a better 
 figure than themselves, and I feel no hesitation 
 in saying, that if an English horse in England, 
 for instance, of a certain figure and breeding, was 
 found on trial to perform say thirty miles a 
 day for a fortnight, with stable feed, as the maxi- 
 mum of his capabilities, that an Australian horse 
 of exactly the same figure and breeding, with no 
 other feed than gi^ass, would ceii^ainly perform forty- 
 five miles a day for the same period. This superior 
 stoutness of the Australian horse according to his 
 figure, as compared with the English horse, is pretty 
 generally acknowledged by those who have had 
 experience of the horses of the two countries. 
 Thus, a hundred miles, on an emergency, are 
 
168 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 frequently being done in Australia, by very misera- 
 ble looking Rossinantes, in fifteen hours, without 
 preparation and off grass. Eighty miles two days 
 consecutively, and seventy miles three or four days 
 following, are constantly being done in the routine 
 of business, in like manner. I myself have done 
 these things and more. 
 
 In a journey of 400 miles, which I have several 
 times had to perform, I have started with two fat 
 horses unused to work (so far, that though well 
 seasoned, neither of them had probably been backed 
 for a month previous), riding one and leading the 
 other, with a small pack on his back, changing the 
 saddle occasionally from one to the other. The 400 
 miles were always accomplished without trouble in 
 eight days, and after three days' rest, the horses 
 were quite fit to return at the same speed. My 
 business, however, usually detained me from a week 
 to a fortnight in town, when I returned as I came, 
 always doing the last 50 miles by one o'clock, a.m., 
 and turning out my horses somewhat weary, but 
 with plenty of fat and flesh about them, ready to 
 repeat the same journey after a week's rest. At 
 night, they were hobbled out, usually on very 
 scanty grass, and never tasted artificial feed of any 
 sort. The object in -taking two horses, which, in 
 New South Wales, as at the Cape amongst the 
 Boers, is frequently done, was because such pad- 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 1G9 
 
 docks as existed at the stations on the road were 
 quite destitute of grass, which obliged me to camp 
 out, and in camping out few horses, when fresh, 
 will stop alone. Two in company usually stop well, 
 whereas one, however tired, will often wander ten 
 or fifteen miles during the night, even in hobbles, 
 and perhaps not be found for a week. Even when 
 camped out, the grass for the first 250 miles was 
 excessively scarce, much more so than is ever known 
 in Victoria, for instance. 
 
 These I give as instances of ordinary work on fair 
 horses. One of those which I rode was in appear- 
 ance little better than a cart-horse, the other an old 
 mare, well bred, but, as it turned out on the last 
 occasion, four or five months gone with foal. This 
 mare, Nettle, one of Mr. Wyndham's, of the 
 M'lntyre's breed, would have done the whole 
 journey alone at the rate of 70 miles a day, 
 in her palmy days, I feel no doubt. I rode 13 J 
 stone on these occasions, and could have done 
 100 miles the last day in fifteen hours, had 1 
 desired it. 
 
 In overlanding with cattle, it is usual to allow the 
 men employed to drive the cattle, two horses each. 
 The work is done at the slowest possible walk, the 
 merest crawl, but the horse is under saddle at least 
 12 hours on the stretch, and is ridden and spelled 
 alternate days. This often lasts for six months 
 
 I 
 
170 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 incessantly, and if the feed is good, the horses will 
 fatten ; if bad, they become very poor. 
 
 Twelve yeai-s ago a pack of foxhounds used to be 
 kept on the Murray, not far from Moama, with which 
 I occasionally hunted. We all, except the whip, rode 
 grass horses. The wild dog generally Kved eight or 
 ten miles before the hounds ran in to him. There 
 was seldom more than one check, and I never saw 
 a horse left behind, or appear very much distressed. 
 What the pace would be I cannot say ; the country 
 was a dead level, and there were no jumps ; in some 
 parts the ground being very hard, at others deep 
 and loose sand ; the scent was often all that could be 
 desired, and I believe there can be no doubt that 
 the wild dog is more speedy than the fox. He 
 makes no turns in his course, if he can avoid it ; but 
 goes right ahead. 
 
 For a couple of seasons, if the reader will pardon 
 a digression, the author kept eight or ten coarse 
 greyhounds or kangaroo dogs. Probably none of 
 them were quite pure, though they were generally 
 pretty well bred. In point of speed, in a straight-on- 
 end run of two or three miles, such as the kangaroo 
 and emu generally give, I do not think they would 
 have been easily passed by any gTeyhounds. These 
 dogs, kennelled like foxhounds, soon learned to hunt 
 in a imck, and by i^ractice, ivith the nose quite as 
 well as by sight, and were not slow in acquiring that 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 171 
 
 quick perception of each others' movements, when 
 hunting a cold scent, which is so noticeable in the 
 foxhound. The finer or more greyhound-like the in- 
 dividual, the more acutely developed, I noticed, 
 when cultivated, became the sense of smell. Their 
 noses arrived at a degree of perfection which quite 
 surprised me, having always understood that the 
 greyhound is almost devoid of that sense. They 
 stood about four inches higher than the generality 
 of English greyhounds, the largest pups having 
 always been selected from each litter, for several 
 generations, and their food, which was always meat, 
 given without stint. 
 
 These kangaroo dogs killed 60 wild dogs the last 
 year I had them, besides many kangaroo and emu. 
 Their pace on the scent was considerably better than 
 that of foxhounds, the only difference perceptible in 
 their mode of hunting, under any circumstances, 
 being that they were of course silent. I often fol- 
 lowed them seven miles, in all sorts of weather, hot, 
 cold, and dry, over thick sheep tracks, as hard as I 
 could rattle, before sighting the quarry, and some- 
 times as much as ten miles, blowing my horn from 
 the start ; my grass horse was never violently dis- 
 tressed, always less so than the dogs, if the weather 
 were hot. After killing I took a few minutes' rest, 
 and sometimes had a second run on my way back. 
 On reaching home, the saddle and bridle were at 
 
172 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 once removed, and the horse allowed to return to 
 grass and water. Were greyhounds in England to 
 hunt by scent as well as sight, they would soon ex- 
 terminate the hare, for there is no doubt that if the 
 use of the nose was cultivated in the pure descen- 
 dants of the finest greyhounds in England for a few 
 generations, they would rival the foxhound in his 
 line. Such is found to be the case with the slougui 
 of the Sahara. 
 
 I saw these dogs of mine run the scent of an 
 emu in blazing hot weather, twenty-four hours 
 after he had passed over dusty ground, entirely devoid 
 of grass : when they had become adepts in their 
 trade, no beast in the bush, with half an hour's 
 start, either could or did ever escape them. On the 
 plains, they used to amuse themselves with hunting 
 quail, which were exceedingly numerous, as I 
 allowed them to hunt anything but sheep. They 
 seemed to scent them quite as well as a pointer, 
 ran their trails, and sometimes caught them in their 
 mouths as they rose. These kangaroo dogs were not 
 remarkable, that I am aware of, over others, but 
 being much hunted, and having much blood, they 
 became very resolute, and would spare no pains 
 with a dull scent. They were well known in the 
 neighbourhood where Echuca now is : mai's revenons 
 a nos moutons. 
 
 Having said this much of the Australian horse 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 173 
 
 in general, I must now hasten to direct the attention 
 of my reader to the distinctive features of our horses^ 
 bred in different localities. As the horse is found 
 here, inhabiting districts extending through many 
 degrees of latitude, with much diversity of climate 
 and pasture, it is natural to suppose that some 
 results have already arisen from these causes, and 
 become apparent, and such, in fact, is the case : 
 thus, horses hred on the sea coast, it is very ivorthy 
 of remark and important to recollect, perform 
 less, for their make or figure, than similar 
 horses hred at a distance from the sea. They 
 are doubly indifferent where the country so 
 situated is richly and heavily grassed : they then 
 become tall, large, and fleshy, but are soft, and can 
 support neither hunger, thirst, nor long journeys. 
 In riding them to fox-hounds they require stable 
 feed, and even then do not always see the finish. 
 If taken into the interior country, which is infi- 
 nitely hotter than the sea-coast country, they are 
 almost incapable of work for two or three years, 
 when they improve very much, but still remain in 
 ferior to those bred on the spot. Neither do they 
 endure cold better than the horses bred in the hot 
 country. Of these facts I have had plenty of 
 experience in Victoria, New South Wales, and 
 Queensland. 
 
 Of a distinct class, and a deerree better than these, 
 
174 THE AUSTEALIAN SADDLE-HORSE, 
 
 are the horses bred in the mountains, at the heads of 
 the rivers, and upon or near the dividing range, 
 as hkewise on the table-land of New England. 
 These districts are known as " green grassed " or 
 " sour " countries. Neither sheep nor cattle fatten 
 well in them : hence they are used as breeding, and 
 not as fattening countries. The horses bred in such 
 situations have usually a greater show of muscle 
 than those bred on the plains. They are sure- 
 footed from habit, and accustomed to hills, but soft, 
 great drinkers, and shy of the hot suji. They can- 
 not perform long journey s^ or support continuous 
 work, like those of the interior. With these must 
 be classed those of my native land, Tasmania, as 
 well as the majority of the New Zealand horses. 
 
 The worst horse in Australia is the Queensland 
 sea-coast horse, and the nearer the tropics, the 
 damper the locality, the more indifferent he be- 
 comes. 
 
 The best of our horses in proportion to his figure, 
 the most abstemious, stout, and sound, and the most 
 neglected in his breeding, drinks of the waters that 
 flow into Lake Alexandrina : that is, the horses bred 
 on the rivers Darling, Lachlan, Bogan, Murrum- 
 bidgee, and other tributaries of the Murray, after 
 they leave the mountains, and before the Murray 
 approaches the sea. These things I say from personal 
 experience, except in the case of the Darling, on 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSR 175 
 
 which river I have not been, and which I only 
 speak of from report. I feel no doubt but that this 
 will one day be well known, and that the time will 
 come when the arid plains and burning hill sides of 
 Central AustraKa, will produce a horse that will be 
 famous all over the world, and perhaps surpass even 
 the Arab of the desert. But on this head I shall 
 touch more frilly in the chapter on Climate. 
 
 Without, however, receding long distances from 
 the coast, there are districts in which admfrable 
 horses will probably one day be bred. Victoria, for 
 instance, from its salt^bush plains, lying between 
 the Campaspe, Murray, and Richardson, will furnish 
 itself with excellent horses, and New South Wales 
 from similar country adjoining. From personal 
 experience of these countries, I have no hesitation 
 in saying that they are as certain to produce long- 
 winded, stout, generous horses, whenever proper 
 means shall be used to that end, as that such a 
 result is in an equal degree impossible in the coast 
 districts. Another and a bad characteristic of our 
 horses is, the frequency of vicious tempers which is 
 noticeable amongst them. On this subject. Captain 
 Shakspeare, in his " Wild Sports of India," remarks : 
 " They (the Cape horses) appear to be severally 
 good tempered, much more so than the Australian 
 and New South Wales horses, which used to be 
 quite unbroken and almost unmanageable when fii'st 
 
176 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HOKSE. 
 
 sent over. They have very mtich distinguished 
 themselves as racers and carriage-horses, but other- 
 wise I consider them to be the most difficult horses 
 to break that can be found." 
 
 This is no matter of wonder, and proceeds, I am 
 inclined to think, from improper breaking, which, 
 continued from year to year, and from generation 
 to generation, amounts to nothing more than a 
 cultivation of vice, on just the same principle that 
 docility or any other quality is found and admitted 
 to be both susceptible of culture, and transmissible 
 from parent to offspring. '""For," says Stonehenge, 
 '' acquired qualities are transmitted, whether they 
 belong to the sire or dam, and also both bodily and 
 mental." 
 
 This defective breaking in Australia, which ag- 
 gravates and hardens the natural vice of our horses, 
 arises in part from the high price of labour, and the 
 ignorance of many of our breakers : for all who can 
 ride here consider themselves competent to break, 
 and do break when opportunity offers. In other 
 and very frequent cases, especially in the old bush 
 districts of New South Wales, this faulty breaking 
 comes from another cause : the pleasure experienced 
 by the rider in mastering a savage horse in his 
 angry mood. His object is not to quiet, pacify, and 
 break his horse, but to make him do his worst, and sit 
 him. Perhaps there are no people under the sun 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 177 
 
 who can sit a vicious horse like the Australian-born 
 Englishmen of the bush district of New South 
 Wales. After several generations, climate, food, and 
 habit have, as usual, left their impress on the figure. 
 The bush-born natives, as they are called, of New 
 South Wales, are, as a rule, tall, slight, and neat- 
 figured, and very rarely become corpulent. Their 
 arms and legs are wiry, and inclined to be long ; 
 shoulders and trunk light. They are muscular, 
 abstemious, and active, and decidedly a sober race. 
 Few of them use tobacco. They walk well when 
 practiced, and endure hunger, heat, and thirst better 
 than the emigrant, who surpasses them in his turn 
 in toils, where strength is a requisite, and weight 
 no detriment. They are taciturn, shy, ignorant, 
 and incurious — undemonstrative, but orderly, hos- 
 pitable, courageous, cool, and sensible. These men 
 ride like Centaurs. Ask one of them to ride the 
 horse that has just thrown you : he examines the 
 girths, crupper, and bridle. His face shows no 
 emotion of any sort. If the tackle is right, he lifts 
 his hat, lets the string fall under his chin as he 
 replaces it, carelessly gathers up the reins, and 
 mounts. When once in the saddle he sticks there, 
 and enjoys the row in his own quiet way, and dis- 
 mounts as unmoved as he got on, perhaps with 
 some quiet remarks upon saddles or horses. 
 
 It is the custom in Australia, in the bush, to ride 
 I 2 
 
178 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 vicious horses, as all others, in English saddles, and 
 with snaffle bridles only. A curb of any sort is 
 seldom seen amongst the natives. In breaking or 
 rough-riding, a crupper is always used, as without it 
 the saddle cannot be made to remain on the back 
 of the buck-jumping horse. In the case of a low- 
 withered horse, the saddle is forced on the neck, if 
 the wither be high, the girths are usually burst if no 
 crupper be used. Neither is the crupper strap, in all 
 districts, attached to the crupper-iron or staple, 
 which, in the event of a severe struggle, is certain to 
 be pulled out or broken ; but, being passed between 
 the saddle and saddle-cloth until it obtrudes before 
 the pummel, it is then passed two or three times 
 round a stick, about twenty inches long, and as 
 thick as the wrist, called the " kid," and there 
 buckled, which kid is strapped to two iron staples, 
 with which the saddle is provided, behind the pum- 
 mel. This kid comes across the horseman about six 
 inches above the knees, and adds very much to the 
 security of his seat. All those, however, who are 
 considered good horsemen will stick to the saddle 
 without this or any other aid, as long as the saddle 
 sticks to the horse. 
 
 One of the results of this excellent horsemanship, 
 added to the high price of labour, which would make 
 the English breaking more costly than the colt him- 
 self, is this, that many encourage their horses to 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 179 
 
 buck for the pleasure of sitting them. From 
 these several causes, the disposition has been 
 cultivated amonefst them, and has, of course, be- 
 come constitutional and hereditary. As a proof 
 that such is the case, if any were needed, it is 
 noticeable that the buck-jump is the favourite 
 gambol of the young foal, who goes through the mo- 
 tion admirably when he is six weeks old, and thus 
 practises from his infancy that which he exhibits in 
 such perfection when he comes to be backed. Every 
 species of vice, except buck-jumping, is quite disre- 
 garded in the bush, and a horse that does not buck 
 is consequently considered to be quiet ; kicking, 
 plunging, rearing, bolting, &c., clearly shoAving that 
 the horse, though excited, is only playful, or he 
 would at once have had recourse to bucking — as the 
 only way any sensible nag could expect to eject his 
 rider. 
 
 It was at one time supposed that the South 
 American Gaucho, so celebrated for his horsemanship, 
 would not only be able to sit our horses, but also to 
 render them quiet, in some wonderful manner, at 
 the end of a few lessons, and fit for the town 
 markets. With this object, some years back, a few 
 picked Gauchos were imported here, but not only 
 were they unable to break our then well-bred, 
 vigorous, sixteen-hand horses, as they do those of their 
 own country, but when our snaffles were put into 
 
ISO THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 their hands, instead of the jaw-breaking curbs which 
 they had been accustomed to, the falls which they 
 got were frequent and severe, and after some months 
 the trial was abandoned as a failure. 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to mention, that the 
 Australian aborigines, when practiced, become excel- 
 lent horsemen in some respects. Almost any black, 
 between the age of fifteen and thirty, will, at the 
 end of a month's practice on a quiet horse, sit any 
 unbroken colt, and most of them, at the end of 
 another month's practice with buck-jumpers, will 
 ride anything that can be produced. Their other 
 strong point is as scrub-riders, in which, on the 
 whole, perhaps they are unequalled. The univer- 
 sality with which they excel, when allowed to try, 
 is very remarkable. Where they are employed as 
 stockmen and rough-riders, they pride themselves 
 very much on their performance. The wonderful 
 part of the business is how they get on with their 
 horses. They are quiet, but not familiar — seldom 
 irritating, and never caressing them. A horse 
 broken by a blackfellow has always a wretched 
 mouth, will never lead, and is usually very shy of 
 objects with which he has not been rendered 
 familiar. His education is very limited. They all 
 ride with short stirrups ; rough-riding and scrub- 
 riding are the only points in which they excel 
 when mounted. As race-riders, in which, at 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 181 
 
 country meetings, they are a good deal employed as 
 light weights, they are very indifferent. They enjoy 
 the sport, ride with a loose rein, and are very apt to 
 make play with the spur from first to finish if 
 allowed. 
 
 Horses broken by them seldom walk well, and 
 rarely trot at all. They look well on their horse ; 
 and in the points spoken of, seem all to excel. With 
 us the reverse is the case — for many white men can 
 never learn to ride, however much practice they may 
 have. The fact is their figure and nerve suits the 
 occupation, but intellect, and above all care, are 
 wanting. 
 
 In all of the Australian colonies there are many pro- 
 prietors of large " mobs " (I cannot call them studs) of 
 horses which are allowed to go at large, and are all 
 but totally neglected. The stallions run loose with 
 them, as in the wild state : the utmost labor expended 
 on them is to run them into the stockyard now and 
 then when some of their number are needed for 
 work. Of studs (except a few small ones), round 
 the several capitals, in each of which a score or 
 two of racing stock are bred, there are not many ; 
 and several that have been famous have either 
 been broken up or allowed to deteriorate from 
 neglect. 
 
 The only stud of saddle-horses with which I am 
 personally acquainted is that of Mr. Wyndham, of 
 
182 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE, 
 
 the M'Intyre River, New South Wales, which bears 
 the reputation of being the second, if not the best in 
 these colonies. From this stud have come Lunelle 
 and Laurestina, winners at Homebush, and other 
 racers of note, which have been, however, as is pro- 
 per, only accidental in a race of saddle-horses. Their 
 blood being that of Snake, Scratch, Plover, &c., 
 thoroughbred horses of character and power, their 
 figures as a consequence are good, as times go, with, 
 however, a short shoulder as a family failing. 
 Having the legs, pluck, and other requisites of good 
 saddle-horses, as compared with the Arab horse, in a 
 moderate degree, they are, however, much wanting in 
 style. Their heads are somewhat coarse, the eye 
 often small and pigish. Having some years ago 
 been the purchaser of a hundred mares from this 
 stud, most of which, when broken, I sold at Nelson, 
 New Zealand, I had a fair opportunity of judging 
 of their merits as saddle-horses. Their legs, as I 
 have said, compared with other Australian horses, 
 were good ; they were high-couraged mares, with 
 pluck to face anything. They leaped readily 
 and well, were free, pleasant and easy goers, and 
 looked better when mounted than when loose ; they 
 were sure-footed and long-winded, excelling in the 
 canter and galop, ordinary at a walk, and bad trot- 
 ters. They carried fourteen stone well. Their tem- 
 pers were all hot, many of them cross, and not a 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 188 
 
 few unmitigated buck-jumpers, though considerable 
 trouble was taken in their breaking. Taking them 
 altogether they were decidedly, and by far, the best 
 100 saddle-horses I ever saw together in the colonies. 
 As regards soundness, they were much above the 
 average of our horses here, but as regards stoutness, 
 ill comparison with their figure, I cannot say so 
 much. Though decidedly very stout horses (much 
 above what any cavalry regiment in England could 
 turn out), they were quite as certainly not what 
 they should have been. This is not difficult to ac- 
 count for. Very old worn-out sires had been much 
 used, and mares retained in the stud ten years after 
 they should have been culled. Besides this, and 
 worse, they were bred in a cool, timbered, half-sour 
 granitic country. Horses from such soil and climate 
 are not the real grit, they never perform what horses 
 of their figTire are capable of in other climates, I 
 do not believe that one really first-class horse was 
 ever the product of a granite soil, or of a cool 
 climate, or ever will be. Be this as it may, I speak 
 of the mares as I found them. 
 
 In reading the Turf, by Nimrod, I could not be 
 but struck by the following passage, which at once 
 brought to my mind one of the same illustrious 
 family here spoken of, and attending here, almost 
 singly, to the legitimate end of racing. Should this 
 meet his eye, I trust he will excuse the liberty I 
 
184 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-ttOItSiS. 
 
 have taken with his name, and receive in a friendly 
 spirit my remarks on his stud. 
 
 "But we cannot say this of the noble earls, 
 amongst whom are some of the best judges of racing 
 of past or present days. We will begin with the 
 Earl of Egremont ; and not only by the rule of 
 seniores priores, but looking on him as one of the 
 main contributors to the legitimate end of racing — 
 the improvement of the breed of horses — his lordship 
 having always paid regard to what is termed stout, 
 or honest blood. Lord Egremont bred Gohanna, by 
 Mercury, by Eclipse, and purchased Whalebone from 
 the Duke of Grafton (the old Prunella sort), whose 
 stock have been invaluable to the turf, and will 
 continue to be so for many years to come, 
 although objections are made to their size — 
 made amends for, in great measure, by their sym- 
 metry. His lordship has likewise turned the 
 amusement — and such has been his main object in 
 the pursuit of it — to an excellent account, in the 
 liberal act of affording to his tenantry and neigh- 
 bours the free benefit of several of his stud-horses. 
 Among these have been two very fine animals, 
 Octavius and Wanderer, the latter not inaptly 
 named, as for many years of his life be was never 
 known to lie down, but was generally in action 
 in his box. He was a noble specimen of the 
 horse, and one of the best bred ones in the world, 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 185 
 
 for all the purposes for which horses of speed and 
 strength are wanted, being by Gohanna, out of a 
 sister to Cohbri, by Woodpecker, esteemed our 
 stoutest blood. The earl is likewise the breeder 
 of honest Chateau Margaux and Camel, ornaments 
 to the British turf, and sons of good little Whale- 
 bone. Lord Egremont won the Derby three times 
 in four years ; twice with sons of Gohanna, sub- 
 sequently with Lapdog, by Whalebone. He has also 
 been three times the winner of the Oaks, with 
 fillies from his own stud. But all this success is 
 not to be placed to his lordship's own account ; 
 he received great assistance in all his racing specula- 
 tions fi'om his late brother, the Honourable Charles 
 Wyndham, since whose decease the stable has not 
 been so successful." 
 
 In Australia, as in America, we have considerable 
 herds of wild horses, the offspring of such as have 
 at various times escaped from stations and remained 
 for years undiscovered or unyarded. It is, of course, 
 quite impossible to say to what their numbers 
 may amount, but it is probable that they do not 
 fall short of 25,000. In the neighbourhood of 
 stations where they exist, they have become a 
 serious evil, frequently enticing away the domesti- 
 cated horses, which are rarely recovered. As the rule, 
 wild horses that are captured are found to be small, 
 light-boned, weedy, and useless, the effects of early 
 
186 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSIl. 
 
 breeding and hap-liazard sires. In temper, they 
 lose some of the active vice of the domesticated 
 horse, manifesting in its stead a species of dogged 
 obstinacy and stupidity. In the terrible chase 
 which precedes their capture, they generally become 
 heart-broken, whence it frequently happens that a 
 horse which will gallop fifty miles before he will 
 allow himself to be yarded, can, when broken, be 
 neither persuaded nor coerced to carry his rider ^ve 
 miles, though if again let loose his ability to gallop, 
 and his determination to be free, will be found to 
 be undiminished. Resignation, generosity, and emu- 
 lation, seem frequently quite wanting in them. 
 They tremble when bridled, and resist and re- 
 sent all caresses, and every step they take when 
 mounted appears to be contre-coeur. 
 
 In figure they are small, ill-shaped, under-boned, 
 large-headed. As they are very shy, they seldom ap- 
 proach a river, except when compelled to do so, 
 frequenting as long as possible sequestered springs 
 and waterholes. When these are exhausted in dry 
 weather, and they are compelled to drink at the 
 rivers whose banks are inhabited, they usually do 
 so at night, making their approaches in scrubby and 
 rugged localities, coming and returning at a trot, 
 which the least alarm at once converts into a headlong 
 gallop. So great is their dislike to approach locali- 
 ties frequented by man, that their visits to the rivers 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 187 
 
 are habitually delayed, till their thirst can no longer 
 be borne. This habit of long abstinence from 
 water, has given them a tncked-up appearance, 
 which even when domesticated and allowed to get 
 fat, they never lose entirely. Amongst many other 
 places, there are large herds of them on the lower 
 Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers. In these districts, 
 on the flat, treeless, horizon-bounded plains, one 
 would suppose it an easy matter to stockyard them, 
 but it is not so. 
 
 In running them in, many foals and weakly ones 
 are left behind, knocked up, and it generally hap- 
 pens, especially in hot weather, tliat of those yarded 
 several die in a few hours from the effects of the 
 gaUop. 
 
 " Eunning" wild horses, as the process of gallop- 
 ing them into the stockyards is termed, is both 
 exciting and dangerous in the extreme, as well 
 as expensive ; and rarely remunerates the under- 
 taker, yet, hke other lotteries, some people find a 
 charm in it. The country which the wild horses 
 select as their haunt, is always the most broken 
 in the neighbourhood, if there be a choice ; and 
 if they should be found in more manageable coun- 
 try, they make off" at once, on being disturbed, at 
 headlong speed for their chosen retreat. That those 
 who pursue them should frequently come to grief, is 
 not to be wondered at, when the pace at which they 
 
188 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 must go, and the length of time they are often 
 obliged to keep it up, are considered ; hence acci-' 
 dents are very common. 
 
 The systems followed in running wild horses are 
 various ; the one adopted depends on the nature of 
 the country in question. In some situations, two or 
 more lines of fences, extending perhaps three or four 
 miles from the stockyard, and termed " guides" are 
 erected. These lines^ commencing at points two or 
 three miles apart, gradually converging, meet at the 
 gate of the yard. The fugitives once between the 
 guides, pursued closely by the riders, stock-whip in 
 hand, have no choice but to enter the stockyard, 
 whence there is no escape when the gate is once 
 closed. 
 
 Where there are no guides, relays of horsemen 
 are posted here and there in positions where the 
 herd is expected to pass, ready to take up the chase 
 with fresh horses. But, under the best arrange- 
 ments, it not unfrequently happens, that after a hard 
 gallop, two or three valuable saddle-horses are 
 broken down, and the whole wild herd effects its 
 escape. 
 
 Losses more serious than this, even, sometimes 
 occur ; as in the following instance. A person 
 wivshing to get a lot wild horses, having arranged 
 with the settler on whose run they were, for the 
 use of his stockyard, and permission to run them 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 189 
 
 (for they are usually claimed by some one, however 
 illegally, as I believe ownership can in no instance be 
 established), took his measures as follows. Having 
 hired half a dozen or more riders, he purchased some 
 superior saddle-horses, in the proportion of two or 
 three to each rider ; and besides these a mob of about 
 60 or 70 half-quiet, cheap, weedy horses, commonly 
 called craivlers, to be used as a decoy mob. The 
 country in which he was going to run the wild 
 horses consisted of flat plains of unlimited extent, 
 and almost without trees. All being ready, he 
 started mth his mounted men, driving his crawlers 
 before him. Having got eight or ten miles from the 
 stockyard he had left, and near the feeding grounds 
 of the wild herds, he put his crawlers in charge of 
 two of his men, who, remaining near them, allowed 
 them to feed, but kept them from leavhig the spot 
 selected ; he himself proceeding with the rest of his 
 party in search of a wild mob. Such he was not 
 long in finding, and luckily got them headed at 
 starting in the desired direction. Down they came 
 racing, and, sighting another mob before them, made 
 straierht for it, as their custom is. This mob was the 
 crawlers, and received the strangers without becom- 
 ing too much excited. The wild horses, finding that 
 their new comrades did not join in the flight, refused 
 to fraternise with them, and galloped through tliem 
 as they were spread out on the plain. Then came 
 
190 THE AUSTKALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 the time for action for the two men left in charge. 
 They, galloping a-head shouting and cracking their 
 whips, and whirling their long lashes over their 
 heads, stopped or " blocked " as it is termed the wild 
 horses, turning them back on the quiet ones. By 
 this time had arrived the rest ofthe party, who, circling 
 their horses round and round the frightened mob, now 
 neighing, biting, and galloping round amidst clouds 
 of dust, backing up their comrades, succeeded at 
 length m steadying and calming the disturbed body. 
 Finding escape impracticable, their flight blocked in 
 all directions, and a break impossible, the wild 
 gradually began to fraternise with the tame horses, 
 and after much trouble and time had been allowed 
 for their excitement to subside, the whole body was 
 put in motion, some horsemen riding a-head to re- 
 strain the leaders as much as possible. Reeking 
 with foam, and covered with dust, the stockyard was 
 fortunately gained, and, the most difficult point, 
 entered without accident. 
 
 On drafting the wild horses from the crawlers, it 
 was found that sixty had been bagged. These sixty 
 were kept in the yard two days without food or 
 water, in order that they might be weakened and 
 reduced to a more manageable state, for had they 
 been let out of the yard before they were much 
 exhausted, they would have been so excited by the 
 strange things they had seen, that they would have 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 191 
 
 broken away, mad with fear, in spite of opposition, 
 and regained their freedom. 
 
 A couple of days' hunger and thirst having 
 reduced them to reason, they were again joined to the 
 crawlers, watered, and taken out with them on to 
 the plains to assist in the capture of a fresh mob in 
 the manner before described. A fresh lot of about 
 fifty wild ones was not long in being got, joined to 
 the mixed lot, steadied without much trouble, they 
 readily taking up with their former friends in free- 
 dom ; which was the more easily effected, because 
 the more numerous the decoy mob, the sooner the 
 new arrivals lose their impetus, and get separated 
 and confounded with them. 
 
 In the meantime, a large herd of about 150 wild 
 horses had been seen, and the conductor of the hunt, 
 too eager for gain, instead of being satisfied with 
 what he had captured and taking them to the yard 
 to be subdued by thirst and hunger, as he had done 
 in the first instance, determined to take this other 
 lot also with him. Stead3dng his former captives 
 and leaving what men he could spare in charge of 
 them, he moved off with the rest of his party, and 
 was not long in falling in with and heading down 
 the other 150. Away they came in the direction 
 of his depot party, each as hard as he could rattle, 
 in a long string ; the stallions and strong horses lead- 
 ing; the mares, the old, the lame, and the foals, string- 
 
192 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 ing out, but following the lead at their best pace. 
 On their approach, those that had only just been 
 joined to the crawlers, now well in wind, began to 
 cock their ears, whinny, and become restless. Their 
 anxiety communicated itself to the lot first captured, 
 and, as these feelings of alarm are very contagious 
 amongst gregarious animals, even the wretched 
 crawlers began to get uneasy. In the mean time, 
 the tramp of feet grew louder, and the 150 drew 
 near, racing over the plain, mad with excitement, 
 their tails streaming in the air and clouds of dust 
 flying from their hoofs, with a thunder of feet that 
 might be heard miles off. Such was their impe- 
 tuosity, that the quiescent body of half, subdued 
 material was unable to stop them, and the whole 
 affair became a rout, and every horse there, to the 
 poorest crawler, joining in the rush was carried 
 away by the excitement of the moment. Round 
 went the two lots at meeting, in whirlwinds of dust ; 
 amidst its mantling clouds, the tossing of manes and 
 streaming of tails, a thousand incidents flash indis- 
 tinctly for a moment on the eye of the beholder ; the 
 tall grey that has run headlong against another in mid 
 career, rearing high above the rest, for an instant his 
 full height, tumbles backward with his neck broken ; 
 the vicious old mare, that hates a throng, with head 
 bowed to the ground, kicking all that come within 
 reach ; the foal, overthrown, rollijig amongst the feet 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 193 
 
 of the multitude ; the neigh — the savage yell — the 
 scream of terror — the thunder of hoofs — the rival stal- 
 lians meeting in the eddy, with outstretched neck, 
 snake-Kke head, and ears laid back, true to their nature, 
 springing with fury on each other, to satisfy in a 
 moment of mortal terror the jealousy and hate which 
 never brook postponement of battle ; all had been 
 and disappeared in an instant, for nothing could 
 restrain them. Bursting from their captors, blind 
 and deaf to danger, headed by some resolute stallions 
 refusing to be turned, the whole lot broke from con- 
 trol and swept over the plains. The yells and can- 
 non-like reports of the whips of the pursuers only 
 added fuel to the fire. The whole lot escaped, and 
 were soon out of sight behind the swells of the 
 plain, the cloud of dense dust floating in the dry air 
 marking the direction of their flight, the person at 
 whose expense the hunt had been got up having to 
 return home with his party, losing the whole of his 
 horses except those on which he and his men were 
 mounted, with the pleasant reflection that the do- 
 mesticated horse, once free and joined with wild 
 ones, is not a whit easier to recapture than the 
 wildest denizen of the plain. 
 
 In many parts of the country these large herds of 
 wild horses have become a serious inconvenience to 
 the settler, and is one which is always on the in- 
 crease. As a body they are much inferior in figure, 
 
 K 
 
194 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 symmetry, and quality to tlieir domesticated brother, 
 though a pretty good-looking animal has now and 
 then been got from amongst them. Their destiny 
 eventually, when the country becomes fenced in so 
 that they can be captured wholesale, will no 
 doubt be the boiling-down establishment and the 
 tallow-pot. For any other purpose they may be 
 said to be useless. I believe some have already been 
 boiled down, but with what results I am not able 
 to say. 
 
 Before closing this chapter, it may not be amiss 
 to say a few words concerning the export of 
 horses for cavalry purposes from Australia to India, 
 during the late mutiny. Whatever prestige our 
 horses may have heretofore enjoyed in that coun- 
 try will, it is more than probable, have been 
 entirely dispelled by this last export. It was a 
 necessary consequence, and to be expected, from 
 the degeneracy of our horses, that the late cavalry 
 remounts should in quality have faUen very far 
 short of what we once supplied, but there was still 
 no reason why the dearest and least fitted for the 
 climate of India should have been selected No 
 doubt, as compared with cavahy management 
 generally, it was congruous enough, and so fails to 
 be a matter of surprise. Sending to Australia for 
 horses is like sending to Europe. Australia em- 
 braces many climates, many soils, and horses of 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 195 
 
 various qualifications. Many, or I believe all, of 
 those selected, were from the neighbourhoods of 
 Sydney or Melbourne. They were horses of less 
 stamina than are found farther from the coast, 
 and, from the nature of the chmate where bred 
 particularly ill-suited to India. It is, frirther, not 
 unlikely that many of them are notoriously vicious, 
 and therefore useless for cavalry in action, whatever 
 they may be on parade. No doubt that a large pro- 
 portion of them will have been found to be unsound. 
 In my judgment, it must have been a mistake to 
 purchase broken horses at aU, excepting such as 
 might be required for immediate action. Then, in 
 what sort of vessels were they shipped, and what 
 was the quality of forage found for them ? I my- 
 self know an instance, where almost a whole cargo 
 was lost, from the nature of the fittings, which all 
 gave way on the first gale of wind, and the bad 
 quaKty of the hay ; and both of these circumstances 
 were pointed out to the officer superintending the 
 shipment before the vessel sailed. These facts were 
 afterwards proved at Calcutta. Would any private 
 speculator have been so careless and improvident ? 
 It would be interesting to know what our horses 
 cost the Government a-head on landing in India. 
 
 If the Indian Government ever again require 
 Australian horses, and they send an officer into each 
 of the interior districts, where horses are numerous, 
 
196 THE AUSTRALIAN SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 and stout in constitution, whose business it should 
 be to inspect at the various stations such horses as 
 are offered for sale, branding those that suit, and 
 allowing the owner to ship them to India at his own 
 risk and cost, payment to be made for them at a 
 fixed rate on delivery in Calcutta, I feel sure that 
 better horses would be obtained, and in better con- 
 dition, at half the cost of the late shipments. For it 
 it would seem quite clear, that individuals, having 
 hundreds of horses, cannot drive them to Sydney 
 and Melbourne for inspection, incurring the risk of 
 but few or perhaps none being purchased. To drive 
 200 or 300 horses, say 300 miles, is both troublesome 
 and expensive ; for an officer to ride that distance to 
 look at them should be a matter of small moment. 
 As things were managed, every detail of the trans- 
 action probably cost the Government twice the sum 
 that it would have done persons accustomed to busi- 
 ness and living on the spot. The horses which thus 
 reached India were neither a fair sample of our 
 horses, nor of the cost at which we can furnish them 
 to that countrv. 
 
PART 11. 
 
 " Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense 
 . . . . Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good 
 sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and 
 we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from 
 another." 
 
 Emerson. 
 
on BLOOD. 199 
 
 ON BLOOD. 
 
 " Blood is here synonymous with breed." 
 
 Stunehenge. 
 
 I shall now proceed, gentle reader, to speak of the 
 principles of which the foregoing pages are meant to 
 be the illustration. My reader is perhaps a breeder 
 of horses : has he ever cast aside received opinions 
 for the moment and quietly reflected on the subject 
 for hunself ? Has he ever weighed the fact that the 
 ra^er is the offspring of a racing sire and a racing 
 mare ; that no horse bred otherwise is a racer ; that 
 the racer can be bred in no other way ; and that a 
 iiorse bred in any other way cannot race ? Does he 
 know that experience has shown and writers told 
 us, that departure in practice, however slight, from 
 this theory has always ended in a marked failure ? 
 Has my reader noticed that good di^aught-horses 
 come only of stock long famous in the collar ? Is 
 he aware that Shetland ponies never come of Clydes- 
 
200 ON BLOOD. 
 
 dale mares, and that the thoroughbred mare never 
 drops a foal that grows to be a brewer's horse ? 
 Probably such facts may have glanced through his 
 mind, and he may have noticed in a general way 
 that each seems to produce after its kind, and as it 
 were transmit itself to its offspring. It may further 
 have struck him that this tendency is not an ex- 
 ception to, but rather a marked propensity and 
 fundamental law of, nature ; that it is evident in the 
 human race— is exemplified in every variety of the 
 animal creation, extending even to the lowest reptile. 
 That it prevails as well in the vegetable as in 
 the animal economy of nature, and is so constantly 
 being exemplified before our eyes, as to lead us to 
 anticipate it, and calculate on its recurrence as a 
 certainty. So we have come to reckon on the 
 growth of oak trees from acorns ; and the sight ot 
 olive trees springing from apple pips, or any other 
 such deviation from the worn path of nature, would 
 certainly fill us with wonder. And not only have 
 we seen these things, but some of man's actions have 
 from time immemorial been grounded on what he 
 has thus learned to expect. Hence he sows that 
 which he would reap. If he wants wheat he sows 
 wheat, and not barley, for he believes that wheat 
 will not grow from barley, nor from any other seed 
 or mixture of seeds, but from wheat only. 
 
 This truth, you will say, is threadbare — too trite 
 
ON BLOOD. 201 
 
 for repetition, assuring me that " like begets like " — 
 that everybody knows ''that what's bred in the 
 bone will appear in the meat," &c., producing, as it 
 were, fifty other rings in whose golden circlet is set 
 this jewel blood. How inexcusable, then, must be 
 the folly or ignorance of those who ignore this 
 truth ! 
 
 We admit, then, that wheat is grown from wheat. 
 We are aware that the racer springs from the racer, 
 the pony from the pony, the draught horse from the 
 draught horse, and that each so bred has long proved 
 immeasurably the fittest for his task. How then 
 is it, I must persist in asking, that our saddle-horse 
 alone is not bred from the saddle-horse ? Why is 
 our saddle-horse a bastard — systematically cross- 
 bred, and that the very name of a 2^ure saddle-horse 
 is unknown, unheard of, and amounts in the very 
 term to an incongruity in our language ? I should 
 like to hear this question answered. On what prin- 
 ciple have we acted ? Is any one bold enough to 
 say that our action in this matter is referable to any 
 principle of nature, or receives any support from 
 practice ; and if so, what principle is it which favors 
 this mode of action, or where are the results which 
 justify this departure from principle ? Has natui'e 
 in this instance departed from her rule, instituted 
 some exceptional law — some "act to amend an act" — 
 and refused to allow the saddle-horse, like others, to 
 K 2 
 
202 ON BLOOD. 
 
 bequeath to his progeny his excellencies or his faults ? 
 Or have we been so ill-advised as to seek, forsooth, 
 to improve upon nature, limiting and modifying her 
 enactments? Or is the practice part of the residuum 
 of kindred errors, which have one by one been pass- 
 ing away ? Is it not a gross folly and inconsistency 
 in our system, and can the length of time it has 
 been tolerated be reasonably held up as an argument 
 for its continuance ? Would it not be wise and con- 
 sistent to return to the natural laws on this matter, 
 and trust to judicious selection and the coupling of 
 horses themselves excelling in the saddle for a pro- 
 gressive amelioration and ultimate perfection of this 
 kind ? Would not this course be more consonant 
 to sound reason than the one now in vogue, the ex- 
 pectation of powers and fitness in the offspring which 
 are non-existent in the parents ? 
 
 But are saddle-horses, bred purely from saddle- 
 horses, really superior to those obtained fi'om a cross 
 of any description ? Do facts bear out what I ad- 
 vance ? I'll suppose my reader to say that " they 
 are not." My question to him will then be — Do 
 you speak of pure saddle-horses from experience ? 
 Have you ever tried those so bred — the Arab, the 
 Barb, or the Persian Horses ? If he says *' Yes," 
 which I deem very unlikely, I will beg him to weigh 
 his single opinion against those of many others. 
 But if he answers " No," I must then say, If your 
 
ON BLOOD. 203 
 
 opinion be worth anything, as it does not rest on 
 experience, it will probably be based on some evi- 
 dence, and if so, what is it ? produce it. I can only 
 receive evidence of one sort, the opinion of competent 
 judges who have fully tried the two classes of saddle- 
 horses, the pure saddle-horse and the bastard saddle- 
 horse at saddle-horse work ; for I can no more re- 
 ceive racing results as a test of saddle-hoi'se capabi- 
 lities, than I can estimate the flight of the swallow 
 by his speed of foot. If I prefer the pure saddle- 
 horse of the East to the cross-bred of England, I do 
 so fi'om strong reasons, which I have adduced. First, 
 as the result of well-known theory on the subject, 
 then on personal experience and trial, and still more 
 on the concurrent opinion, as far as I have been 
 able to learn, of all those, without exception, who 
 have tried the two sorts. Results, then, most fully 
 tally with the theory we all admit ; and are against 
 our practice. Were results other than they are, 
 what would become of our theory? I have accepted 
 our theory that " like begets like," and my facts 
 agree with it. The English saddle-horse, through 
 the thoroughbred, is in part an Arab. He surpasses 
 all such as have no Arab blood, and the pure Arab 
 surpasses him, simply because the whole is gi-eater 
 than a part. 
 
 Whatever, then, the reader may think of breed- 
 ing saddle-horses from other than the saddle-horse, 
 
204 ON BLOOD. 
 
 I cannot say. To my mind it is a folly, and I speak 
 coolly when I say that I do not beUeve that one 
 solitary first-class saddle-horse was ever bred in this 
 way. But, strange to say, though we neglect purity 
 of blood in at least one of our breeds, its necessity 
 in all is most distinctly and elaborately laid down 
 by most of our authorities on the subject. I have 
 already extracted, at page 34, what Stonehenge 
 says of blood, to which the reader will perhaps 
 turn. 
 
 By reference to the passage indicated, the reader 
 will see what Stonehenge says on the subject of 
 hlood when he addresses himself formally to the 
 subject. Here, though perhaps not as precisely as 
 mio'ht be desired, we find laid down for us the 
 following most important facts. 
 
 1st. — That purity of blood, or breed, call it what 
 you will, is only comparative, and means blood that 
 comes from one source only. 
 
 2nd. — That a horse may be a pure racer, or a pure 
 draft-horse, or a pure Naraganset, pure in fact of 
 any class, or as it were for any purpose ; and that 
 this purity of blood and particular adaptability for 
 any particular purpose is the result of constant unin- 
 terrupted selection of sires and dams suited for and 
 excelling in the performance sought. 
 
 3rd. — That this quality of hlood, which is the 
 result of selection, is of all characteristics in a horse 
 
ON BLOOD. 205 
 
 the most indispensable, the sine qua non; which 
 amounts to the full recognition of the fact, that any- 
 given qualities can exist in perfection in such indi- 
 viduals only whose progenitors and ancestors on 
 both sides have, without exception, been long emi- 
 nent for such certain qualities. 
 
 Now, if such is the case, any horse wanting in 
 pure blood must be imperfect, he lacks the sine 
 qua non, and, as a consequence, saddle-horses 
 bred on the English system of cross-breeding 
 must be, and are, imperfect. Applying the 
 principles laid down by Stonehenge, I should 
 describe thus a pure saddle-horse : A horse may be 
 said to be practically a pure saddle-horse, when it 
 can be proved that his ancestors for fifty genera- 
 tions, or thereabouts, have been selected for indi- 
 vidual excellence as saddle-horses, and from such 
 families only as have been known to have excelled 
 in the same particular. In two words, to produce a 
 race of pure saddle-horses, breed for fifty generations 
 with that design, strictly carrying out the principle 
 that like produces like, or the likeness of some 
 ancestor. This axiom embraces the whole science 
 of blood ; it is consonant to reason and experi- 
 ence, susceptible of proof, and though disregarded 
 by us in practice, admitted in the abstract, I believe, 
 on all hands. 
 
 Stonehenge, as we have seen, always supports the 
 
206 ON BLOOD. 
 
 propriety of rearing cross-bred saddle-horses, though 
 none other, as that measure is the only rational 
 excuse for the large sum annually squandered on 
 his darling the racer, and yet he tells us, '* The 
 fact really is, as proved by thousands of examples, 
 that by putting A and B together, the produce is 
 not necessarily made up of half of each." Again, 
 " Experience tells us, that it is useless to expect to 
 develope a new property or quality in the next 
 generation by putting a female entirely deprived 
 of it to a male which possesses it even in a 
 marked degree." To be consistent in the matter, 
 then, we must give up either our theory or our 
 practice. 
 
 Though these things are clear, it may tend in 
 practice to divest our minds of the very erroneous 
 idea, that we can, in matching horses of incongruous 
 powers and diverse fitnesses, fuse, as it were, and 
 conglomerate the qualities of both, producing a 
 useful combination in the offspring, if it be borne 
 in mind, that frequently neither of the parents 
 selected possess in reality any of the qualities sought. 
 Thus, the breeder mates the racer, as recommended 
 by Nimrod, with the draught mare, and anticipates 
 from the union a hack possessing in reality the qua- 
 lities of neither sire nor dam. For we must notice that 
 the speed of the racer is of quite another sort from 
 that which is required in a first-class saddle-horse, and 
 
ON BLOOD. 207 
 
 that it is a poverty of our language whicli makes 
 us express the two attributes by the same word. 
 Speed in the racer is necessarily excessive in amount, 
 and short-lived in duration ; in the other, it is 
 moderate in amount, but prolonged and lasting. 
 Economize the pace of the racer, and you are still 
 far from enabling him to work with the hack. 
 The fuel is not saved in the same ratio that the 
 steam is spared. Speed is cheap with the racer, 
 endurance dear. So well is this principle understood, 
 that Stonehenge tells us, that " It has been ascer- 
 tained by experience that a horse (speaking of the 
 racer) loses his pace for moderately short distances, 
 if he is strained to the utmost for three or four 
 miles." 
 
 Then, as regards the strength of the mare ; she is 
 strong enough to draw a ton and a half for twenty 
 miles at the rate of two miles an hour, and yet not 
 strong enough to carry herself along without en- 
 cumbrance at the very moderate pace of six miles 
 an hour, for three or four hours, or to gallop a mile 
 or two, or leap a fence, or to exhibit many other 
 proofs of strength which are found in the saddle- 
 horse. Hers is somehow a wi'ong sort of strength 
 for the saddle. 
 
 But in his estimate of blood, I find Stonehenge 
 wanting in some particulars which are impoitant ; 
 foi', I think, he should have noticed, that as the 
 
208 ON BLOOD. 
 
 health, stamina, and virtue of the horse, are in each 
 successive individual intimately affected by the 
 food, climate, and other circumstances in which he 
 exists, so the horse of one country, pure from long 
 continued selection, must still be inferior to those of 
 only equal purity in another country more favoured 
 in these adjuncts to perfection. 
 
 But in nothinsf are cross-bred horses so deficient 
 as in endurance, in which particular they only 
 illustrate a very general rule. For, whilst nature 
 manifestly repudiates in-and-in breeding, she not 
 less clearly sets her face against crosses. Her price 
 for crosses is want of stamina. Hence it has been 
 noticed in human races, as well as amongst animals 
 of every sort, that half-castes, whilst usually excel- 
 ling both parents in size, if not of too incongruous 
 a parentage, are soft and unenduring, and that their 
 offspring again diminish in size without proportionally 
 increasing in hardihood. Those who would have the 
 effects of pure blood without paying its price, loose 
 the substance whilst grasping the shadow of per- 
 fection. What they get is cheap and bad. Endur- 
 ance is pre-eminently the heritage of pure blood. 
 " I am strongly inclined to believe," says Stonehenge, 
 page 149, "that it is comparatively of little use to 
 look about for sires who possess those qualities in 
 which the dam is deficient." What I have advanced 
 is so much in accordance, so thoroughly a consequence 
 
ON BLOOD. 209 
 
 of the axiom of that acute author, that I can only 
 attribute his stopping short where he does, failing 
 to show the futility of crosses, to the influence of 
 strong prejudices and partiality, of which he has 
 been unable to divest his mind. 
 
 In seeking perfection in saddle-horse breeding, 
 as in every other undertaking, the end as well as 
 the means must be kept constantly in view, and in 
 this instance it would be Well to bear in mind the 
 amount of perfection which it is possible to attain. 
 An Australian does not know what a good horse 
 should be able to perform, an Englishman far less. 
 We look with distrust on tales of performances of 
 Arab horses, just as a Bedouin would turn a deaf 
 ear to our relations of railroad speed. He has never 
 seen a railroad, the Englishman has never ridden a 
 pure and good saddle-horse. Each is very ignorant 
 in his own way. Each believes that nothing can 
 escape him. Let those who hke the European horse 
 have their own way. I love the pure saddle-horse 
 of the Arab. He is not part of a horse — somewhat 
 of a monstrosity, and somewhat of a weakling — but 
 a fall horse, a well-balanced, a fit thing ! In him 
 the perfection of each limb, sinew, or muscle, though 
 unmatched, still yield in value, as in rarity, to the 
 symmetry and congruity of the whole structure. 
 This admirable fusion of each separate part, this unity 
 of the whole, is not, as it were, eclipsed, over- 
 
210 ON BLOOD. 
 
 shadowed, or humbled, by any too salient good 
 point, neither is it disgTaced, nor disfigured, by any 
 flaw or meanness in his combination. In him, 
 each proportionate perfection is hardly equalled by 
 the one special usurping excellence of any other 
 breed. Examine him as you please, and where is 
 he found wanting ? His head — what equals it in 
 beauty, much less in expression ? What steed has 
 his development of brain ? Where else so full, so 
 dark, so lustrous an eye? Wliere such courage, 
 such intelligence ? His middle piece — where, 
 together with slanting shoulders, and sufficient 
 neck, such rounded ribs, such room for heart and 
 lungs, such a strong, arched croupe ? His chest ! 
 How ample, how nervous ! His legs ! Wliat others 
 are so powerful, so sound, so lasting ? Where is 
 the sinew so devoid of flesh and fat, clear from the 
 shank, so cleanly strung ? Examine the texture of 
 his bone, close-grained, heavy, with diminished 
 orifice ; as compared to that of any other horse, it 
 is like oak beside deal. Descend to his hoof, and 
 you find it arched and open, tough, elastic, and 
 sound. 
 
 When put to the test, his many virtues more 
 than realise what his appearance promises. In the 
 speed of the turf he is not an unworthy antagonist 
 to the horse whose speciality it is. At long dis- 
 tances, a day's gallop, facile princeps, none can be 
 
ON BLOOD. 211 
 
 found to enter against him. In sure-footedness, the 
 mountain pony is thrown into the shade beside him 
 — as the daily drudge he stands alone — ^lie can slave 
 always — ^his abstemiousness is not surpassed by the 
 ass. In longevity and duration of service he is classed 
 with the mule. In docility, in spiiit, in saga- 
 city, in attachment to his rider, no one pretends 
 that he has a rival. He is the perfect horse — the 
 horse of most pure blood : in him there is nothing- 
 excessive, salient, nor exaggerated : he is a full horse, 
 in nothing mean or little : in no part wanting, in 
 nothing exaggerated. Of other horses it is said — 
 he is hardy, but ugly — fast, bub delicate — strong, 
 but without wind — a goodthriver, but faint in the sun 
 — pleasant, but unsound. The Arab horse alone needs 
 no qualification : he has no bane : there are no 
 *' buts " in his character. There is nothing about 
 him which one would enlarge or prune : aU is con- 
 gruous, sound, well-adapted, fitting, sightly, har- 
 monious, polished, and beautiful, in his mechanism. 
 No one feature about him is common or vulgar : he 
 bears the stamp of nobility, not less in each separate 
 point than in his whole frame. There is no 
 coveted quality which cannot be got in perfection 
 from his blood, by consecutive selections, to 
 the required end : he is the fountain head of 
 every saddle-horse good quality. He is a pure 
 saddle-horse. 
 
212 ON BLOOD. 
 
 What blood runs in the veins of yon steeds who 
 -have just passed the winning post, amidst the 
 shouts and cheers of the throng? The unmixed 
 blood of the Arab. Whence comes yon slashing 
 trotter of fabulous price, that rushes along the hard 
 road between the shafts, whirling the New-Yorker to 
 his country seat amongst the hills — where dwelt his 
 ancestors ? On the rocky hills of Araby. What is 
 yon docile, easy-paced Naraganset, caressed by fair 
 hands 1 What is yon steed, that, amongst the snows 
 of the rocky Caucasus, bears his rider clear from the 
 Russian sabre? What is he that, on the sultry plains 
 of India, faces the wild boar and takes off the spear of 
 honour ? What is the nag which the veteran on 
 leaving the East bequeaths with a tear to his friend, 
 as something which cannot be bartered for money, 
 endeared as he is by a thousand recollections of 
 pleasure and service — what are they all, but descen- 
 dants, more or less direct, from the pure-blooded 
 desert saddle-horse ? 
 
 To conclude : a breed of saddle-horses cannot be 
 released in the attainment of perfection from those 
 conditions which nature has affixed as its price to the 
 whole genus. A body of good saddle-horses should 
 cany their riders some eighty miles on five conse- 
 cutive days, rest three days, and return at the same 
 speed. To such excellence, however, there is no 
 short cut. What we would have, that we must pay 
 
ON BLOOD. 213 
 
 for. The price of perfection is puiity. High breeding 
 and pure blood are the result of selection, and not of 
 crossing. Perfection cannot be bettered — to purity 
 an addition is a stain. 
 
 I advocate in practice what we all admit as our 
 principle, that " like begets like, or the likeness of 
 some ancestors." 
 
214 SELECTION OF SIRES. 
 
 SELECTION OF SIRES. 
 
 Choisissez I'etalon et choisissez-le encore." — Proverbe Arale, 
 
 Whilst purity of blood in sire is a sine qua non, it 
 is not the only requisite, A horse may be quite pure 
 and utterly degenerate. Two horses of exactly the 
 same blood, own brothers, may be as dissimilar as 
 sires as in performance. Hence the horsebreeder 
 must be as rigid in his requirement of what 
 usually is found in a good sire, of personal 
 health soundness and stoutness, as he is of 
 pedigree. On this subject their remain a few 
 facts to be noticed. The reader will remark, that 
 there are many results in breeding quite beyond the 
 control of the breeder ; for, though good horses can 
 come of good blood only, yet it is clear that all so 
 bred will not necessarily be deserving that character ; 
 that in fact there will be excellence unaccountably be- 
 queathed in widely different degrees. So that, though 
 the sire A gets the colt B out of the mare X, and B 
 turns out superexcellent, it is not at all certain that 
 
SELECTION OF SIRES. 215 
 
 the colt Z from the same sire and dam will possess 
 the same characteristics in the same degree. Still 
 less, and this is important to consider, is it at all to 
 be calculated on, that if even the colts B and Z do 
 exhibit exactly equal virtues, that therefore each 
 will in his turn and with equal opportunity be alike 
 fortunate in bequeathing in full his own good 
 qualities to his offspring. Thus it has been known, 
 amongst Race-horses of the highest breeding in that 
 kind, that some stallions have shone on the Turf 
 more than in the Stud, and that others have been 
 more celebrated as the getters of winners than as 
 themselves horses of great speed. 
 
 In the mare the difference, in certain individuals, 
 between their own performance and that of their 
 offspring is still more decided and marked. Some 
 mares, from their excellent qualities as dams, have 
 thrown winners to any sire. And with reference 
 to this I may notice that mares which are eminent 
 in the stud, throw after the sire, whilst such as throw 
 after themselves, produce stock usually inferior both 
 to themselves and the sire. 
 
 Such being the case, it is necessary that the 
 breeder should qualify himself, as far as possible, to 
 discriminate between a good performer and a good 
 progenitor ; a mare that performs well, and one 
 fitted to throw good performers. On this head 
 it is exceedingly difficult to give specific directions, 
 
216 SELECTION OF SIRES. 
 
 nor do I find that the subject has been treated of by 
 any author with whom I am acquainted. With regard 
 however, both to sires and dams, the first requisites 
 (after purity of blood) which should be insisted on 
 are, without doubt, soundness and vigorous health. If 
 oUch are wanting, it will probably happen that theoff*- 
 spring will be less able than its progenitors. As regards 
 the sire, he should bear well-developed those several 
 points which distinguish him from the gelding and 
 the mare : whilst the mare should not less distinctly 
 possess those female shapes and characteristics which 
 are proper to her sex. A mare whose figure leaves 
 it for a moment to be doubted whether she be mare 
 or gelding will usually throw foals inferior to her- 
 self, she may even be barren ; whilst the sire that 
 might be mistaken for a gelding will seldom earn 
 much fame in the stud. In a perfect animal these 
 distinctions of sex are noticeable throughout his 
 whole make. 
 
 This, however, is one of the minutiae of horse- 
 breeding, and there remains to be pointed out to 
 stud-masters matters of greater import. 
 
 I am of opinion that one principal cause of the 
 inferiority of our own and other saddle-horses arises, 
 irrespectively of their bad pedigree, from the erroneous 
 system on which their sires are selected, for we 
 habitually choose rather from the presence of some 
 special good quality, than as we should from the 
 
SELECTION OF SIRES. 217 
 
 absence of faults, and the general harmony and per- 
 fection of the animal in his whole conformation. 
 Tlius, we are prone to use a sire if he be eminent in 
 one good quality, though he be below par in other 
 respects. We choose one because he can gallop, 
 another because his point is fencing, or because 
 he is a good thriver, satisfied with this 
 partial excellence, and overlooking, for its sake, 
 the want of soundness, the infirm hoof, the evil 
 temper, the want of wind, or some other deficiency 
 which should have damned the animal. One of the 
 results of this has been that the best of our horses 
 are deficient in evenness of character, and bear about 
 them, with some excellent points, others that are 
 very detrimental, the reverse of that perfection of 
 the whole frame and finish which I so value in the 
 Arab, which enables him to do all or anything that 
 his rider may require of him. 
 
 "The Arab horse," says Abd-el-Kader truly, "is the 
 result of the necessities of his rider ;" on his possess- 
 ing, in at least a moderate degree, all the great re- 
 quisites to perfection in a horse, may any day depend 
 the life of his rider." The exaggerated development 
 of any one good quality cannot compensate to him 
 for any flagTant deficiency. For instance, speed, so 
 transcendent as to enable an animal to overtake all 
 fugitives, or to bafile all pursuit, would be useless to 
 the owner if it were accompanied by unsound legs, 
 
 L 
 
2J8 SELECTION OF SIRES. 
 
 a flat hoof, an over-voracious appetite which the 
 owner could not fully supply, want of stoutness, non- 
 endurance of thirst, or any other radical defect ; 
 because, though speed might be all-important on one 
 occasion, at the next moment the life of the rider 
 might equally depend on the soundness, the stout- 
 ness, or the endurance, or even the temper of his 
 horse. 
 
 Thus, in the selection of sires, I hold it to be 
 necessary to make sure that there exists no radical 
 defect in the animal chosen, rather than to look 
 about for one famous in some points, but gi'ossly 
 deficient or defective in others. 
 
ON CLIMATE. 219 
 
 ON CLIMATE. 
 
 " The Arabs declare that the air of Yemen causes a degeneracy 
 (in horses) in the first generation." — Burton. 
 
 " La race chevaline, telle qu'elle existe aujourd'hui en Afrique 
 ofFre un hereux melange de tons les dons qui sont I'apanage du 
 cheval dans les pays de vastes espaces et d'ardent solei\."~I>aumas. 
 
 I am not aware that any author has treated of the 
 influence of climate on the horse. A few passing 
 unconnected remarks, let fall here and there, and 
 these often of a contradictory nature, are all that I 
 have met with on the subject ; and yet I have no 
 hesitation in saying, that there is nothing in the 
 matter of horse-breeding, with the exception of 
 ' blood,' which so imperatively calls for our atten- 
 tion. 
 
 Stonehenge alludes cursorily to the subject o 
 climate on two or three occasions. Thus, page 19, 
 he says : " It is probable that much of the wiryness 
 of leg and lightness of frame in the Arab is due to the 
 sandy soil in which the grasses of these oases take root. 
 
220 ON CLIMATE. 
 
 Besides this, the dry air may have something to 
 do with the development of muscle and tendon," 
 &;c. : and at page 55, speaking of the English horse, 
 he says, *' Much of this excellence is due to the 
 climate and soil of the country, which encourage the 
 growth of those fine grasses that exactly suit the 
 dehcate stomach of this animal/' Thus, we must 
 suppose that the very dissimilar climates of England 
 and of Arabia are both particularly well suited to 
 the production of the horse ! In a happier mood, 
 however, the same author speaking of stables, tells 
 us, page 187 : " The two most important points to 
 be regarded in the choice of a situation are, first, the 
 power of excluding damp ; and secondly, the best 
 means of keeping up a tolerably even temperature 
 in summer and winter .... It should not, 
 however, be forgotten, that the horse is a native of a 
 dry country, and cannot be kept in health in a damp 
 situation either in-doors or out. Nothing, except 
 starvation, tells injuriously so soon upon the horse 
 as damp ; when exposed to it he loses all life and 
 spirit, work soon tires him," &c. In this doctrine I 
 quite agree with Stonehenge ; I believe that nothing 
 is so injurious to the horse as damp. But England 
 has a damp climate, and England has not produced 
 the worst of horses. Are the good qualities of her 
 horses then attributable to her climate or to other 
 circumstances ? I have heard it said that the grapes 
 
ON CLIMATE. 221 
 
 grown in the green-houses of England are superior 
 to the best that hang from the vines in the open air 
 in the natural chmates of the grape. It may be so ; 
 but would this result, realized by skill, won from 
 nature as it were at much cost and to a very limited 
 extent, justify the assertion that England enjoys a 
 climate particularly adapted to vine-gTOwing ? And 
 can the annual production of a few horses, of foreign 
 blood, nursed with great care and at much expense 
 (even allowing that some of these are unequalled else- 
 where, which I am far from doing), entitle the climate 
 of their birth to be considered excellent for the pur- 
 pose of horse-breeding, when it is found on inquiry 
 that the whole process of their rearing has been a 
 constant struggle to nullify the effects of that 
 climate ? Or must we not rather regai'd them as 
 green-house plants ; a triumph of art, and not cer- 
 tianly the result of a favoured climate ? 
 
 General Daumas says still less about climate than 
 Stonehenge. I find, however, in his work the fol- 
 lowing remarks. He is speaking of transferring the 
 Earb to France. " The sun of Pompadour and 
 Limousin is certainly not such as is needed by the 
 natives of a hot country in the delicate years of their 
 youth." Again, '' The equine race, such as it is at 
 present found in Africa, presents a happy combina- 
 tion of all those gifts which are the heritage of the 
 horse in countries of vast extent and under a burn- 
 
222 ON CLIMATE. 
 
 ing sun. These noble animals will not, however, 
 come to meet us on the sea-shore ; we must seek 
 them in the interior and often far back." 
 
 " Prefer," says the Arab proverb, "the mountain to 
 the plain-bred horse, and the latter to the swamp- 
 bred horse, which is only fit to carry a pack." These 
 opinions d mon idee are quite correct as far as 
 they go. 
 
 My first experience of the horse was in Tasmania 
 and Australia ; there, on his back, through many a 
 ride, in heat and cold, by dayhght and starlight, on 
 the road and in the bush, broken, half-broken, and 
 unbroken ; grass-fed and stable-fed, well-bred and 
 ill-bred — I first made his intimate acquaintance. 
 Living amongst Englishmen, it is not wonderful 
 that I should have listened to their encomiums on 
 the horse of their father-land ; of how tall, how 
 fleet, how beautiful he was ; and, as a consequence, 
 become a true believer in the merits of that animal. 
 Whether I heard or read of him it was as the first 
 of his kind. The fact appeared as incontestable as 
 that Rome stands by the Tiber, and, unquestioning, 
 I believed one as firmly as the other. It was whilst 
 travelling in Europe and Asia that my orthodoxy 
 on this point became at first shaken and at last 
 upset. I was in search of no information concerning 
 the horse, but in riding or driving through various 
 countries, I could not, fi-om my former habit of the 
 
ON CLIMATE. 223 
 
 saddle, fail to remark, that which so soon attracts 
 the practised horseman, the qualities of the beast I 
 rode or drove. It first struck me that there were 
 certain general characteristics noticeable in certain 
 neighbourhoods or districts : in some, the horses 
 were all more or less stout ; in others, the reverse. 
 In some, their performances were better than their 
 figures seemed to promise ; in others, less. 
 
 In coaching through the swampy country between 
 Kome and Terracina, looking at the dank ground 
 and canal-like drains full of foetid water by the 
 roadside, I interrogated the coachman concerning 
 the health of the inhabitants of the district : he in- 
 formed me that the locality was so unhealthy that 
 neither the men employed there nor the horses on 
 the road could stand the climate for more than two 
 or three years. This incident was what first turned 
 my attention to the effects of climate on the horse. 
 As I proceeded on my wanderings, I had excellent 
 opportunities for making observations on the sub- 
 ject, as weU as an accumulation of instances ah-eady 
 witnessed to refer to, which at once presented them- 
 selves to my mind. The results of my observations, 
 as well as what I have been able to glean from other 
 travellers on the subject, are as follows : that the 
 horse, though of a very accommodating constitution, 
 and of a very wide habitat, like all other animals is 
 very materially influenced by the climate in which 
 
224 ON CLIMATE. 
 
 he exists. That a suitable one is as material to his 
 perfection as is blood or food. That the horse most 
 excels, in proportion to his size and figure, in a hot 
 and dry climate. That he is frequently, but not 
 necessarily, nor always, diminutive in such climates ; 
 where alone he reaches the full perfection of which 
 his nature is capable. That his utility is various 
 in various localities, and corresponds to the 
 fitness of the climate in which he lives. That in 
 the hot and moist climate he sinks to the deepest 
 debasement. That it is a fact — and one easy of 
 verification — that every race of horses, without ex- 
 ception, which has acquired any celebrity in the 
 saddle, is either bred in a hot and dry climate, or 
 traces its celebrity to strains of blood originally 
 derived from such climates. So also the horses of 
 all countries exhibit in their qualities a marked 
 relation to the humidity or dryness of the air in 
 which they have been reared. 
 
 Thus it appears, too, in support of what I have ad- 
 vanced, that you cannot breed as bad a horse, inch for 
 inch, in the Sahara as on the fenny banks of theHoog- 
 ley. The dry climate of the Sahara invigorates the 
 first, the damp climate at the mouth of the Ganges 
 undermines and impoverishes the constitution of the 
 other. The first will perform much more than the 
 Englishman would anticipate from his figure ; the 
 other, far less. In the one climate he is stout, 
 
ON CLIMATE. 225 
 
 abstemious, mettlesome, and hardy, in proportion to 
 his figure ; in the other, he is peevish, soft, washy, 
 relaxed, and unenduring, even in spite of a good 
 figure. In the latter, a good figure is difficult of 
 attainment ; in the former, a bad figure is the excep- 
 tion. In the dry climate, he agreeably surprises ; in 
 the damp, disappoints. In whatever country I have 
 been, in the old world or in the new, in the 
 northern or the southern hemisphere, these results 
 have forced themselves on my observation. Aus- 
 tralia, as I have before noticed, is an exemplification 
 of this remark. 
 
 The English thoroughbred horse is a tall fine- 
 looking animal, and unrivalled in speed of his sort. 
 Whatever excellence he possesses, he owes to his 
 Eastern blood, to the blood from an arid climate. West 
 Austrahan was a great horse ; I saw him win the 
 Derby ; but had he been bred in the desert, he would, 
 if my theory be correct, have been a faster horse, a 
 stouter horse, and a more valuable sire. It may be 
 remarked, that no horse of his size ever came from 
 the desert. Let us postpone that consideration to 
 the next chapter. I speak now of the performances 
 of given figures in various climates, rather than of 
 their production. The Enghsh-reared horse, that 
 would carry you up to hounds for forty minutes in 
 Leicestershire, would have performed the same 
 service for one hundred and twenty minutes had he 
 L 2 
 
226 ON CLIMATE. 
 
 been bred in Nejyd. The English horse exiled to 
 India, becomes ailing, enervated, diseased, and use- 
 less, from the effects of the humid atmosphere. 
 His importation there has ceased. Taken to Aus- 
 tralia, he enjoys at once a measure of health, and 
 becomes robust to a degree to which in England 
 he was a stranger. He immediately improves in 
 the dry, and deteriorates in the damp climate. 
 The Arab taken to India, whilst losing by 
 the change, outshines, from his great stamina, all 
 imported horses, and even those native to the 
 country. 
 
 The horse of Australia is another instance of the 
 correctness of my statement ; it is in the arid inland 
 districts that he shines, in proportion to his figure. 
 The difference between two horses equal in 
 appearance, one of which has been reared on the 
 coast and the other inland, is both very great and 
 well known ; and it is in the hot, damp, agnieish 
 districts on the sea-board of Queensland, where he 
 has been found most to deteriorate ; and it is far- 
 ther precisely at the season of the midsummer tro- 
 pical rains, that his health there is found to be 
 most feeble and his powers of endurance the 
 lowest. 
 
 Man has been brought to exist in all the climates 
 of the globe, — in some he retains or reaches the 
 maximum of his strength; in others he dwindles 
 
ON CLIMATE. 227 
 
 and deteriorates. We all know how susceptible he 
 is to the influences of climate. So powerful, indeed, 
 is the influence of climate on every living thing, that 
 its effects can hardly be over-estimated. Examples 
 of this truth are numerous. The sheep, for instance, 
 taken from one country, becomes larger or smaller, 
 — bears more wool or less, which becomes finer or 
 coarser according: to the nature of the climate to which 
 he is removed. The dog experiences similar changes. 
 Vegetables and fruits of every sort are subject to the 
 same law. If you have a vine in England, 
 which produces only acrid little berries unfit for food, 
 you have but to raise a glass-house over it and 
 create within the climate of Andalusia, and 
 you will grow a luscious fruit, from which you 
 may express the juice and manufacture Mansinilla 
 or Amontillado. 
 
 Man himself is notoriously subject to the same 
 influence. Thus, the Anglo-American, with his 
 European blood, food, education, and habits, has 
 already begun to show the tendency to the beardless 
 chin and hatchet face of his predecessor the Red 
 Indian. So also families resident a few generations 
 in the West Indies, have constantly and strikingly 
 exhibited an approximation to the type of the abo- 
 riginal of that climate. The case with the horse, if 
 not identical, is similar. 
 
 I have before remarked, that the most abstemious, 
 
228 ON CLIMATE. 
 
 vigorous, swift, and enduring horses are found be- 
 tween the 20th and 40th degrees of north latitude, 
 or thereabouts ; and from as far back as we can trace 
 the animal, he seems, as well as now, to have 
 flourished in the same localities. So when Hannibal 
 led his Africans into Italy, the horses from " Nume- 
 dia's burning sands," did not fail to prove their 
 virtue at Cannse and many another well-fought field. 
 So formerly, as now, Persia and Asia Minor were 
 famous for their cavalry horses; and all these are dry 
 and hot countries. 
 
 Now, in hot and humid climates, as in the vicinity 
 of Rio de Janeiro, for instance, the reverse of all 
 this is the case. Close on the southern tropic, this 
 city is situated in a moist, pluvious district, where 
 the deep verdure of the trees, the superabundant 
 vegetation, the yellow-fever, the hazy atmosphere, 
 and the lethargic habit of the inhabitants, alike 
 bear testimony to the excessive humidity of the 
 climate. Here we find the horse, as well as the 
 sheep and the ox, small, ill-conditioned, and infe- 
 rior. On one occasion I saw three or four cavalry 
 regiments collected near that city. In the whole 
 assemblage of horses, I doubt if there was one that 
 stood over thirteen hands high. In fact, it was the 
 ludicrous sight of cavalry soldiers mounted on 
 ponies. 
 
 From a long and attentive consideration, as well 
 
ON CLIMATE. 229 
 
 as from considerable experience on the subject, I 
 have come to consider climates suited to the horse in 
 the following order : — 
 
 1st. — Dry and hot. 
 
 2nd. — Dry and temperate. 
 
 3rd. — Dry and cold. 
 
 4th. — Damp and temperate. 
 
 5th. — Damp and cold. 
 
 6th. — Damp and hot. 
 
 It is on these premises that I have formed my high 
 estimate of the horse-breeding capabilities of inland 
 and central Australia. The probabilities of sparse 
 population, pastoral pursuits, and infrequence of 
 rail-roads in many of our arid central countries, 
 must also be considered another guarantee for the 
 future good qualities of our horses. 
 
 It is on this estimate of climate that I account 
 for the softness and delicacy of the English horse. 
 His future will, I believe (regard had to selection) 
 be in proportion to the Eastern blood employed 
 in the stud. 
 
 In this country we possess the great elements of 
 the amelioration of the horse, climate and food that 
 are admirably suited to his constitution. Starting 
 with the miserable beasts we now have, I believe 
 that, in the course of ages, by constant and judi- 
 
230 ON CLIMATE. 
 
 cious selection alone, and without the introduction 
 of pure blood, a breed of saddle-horses of much 
 virtue and distinction might be created. The use of 
 pure saddle-horse sires would, of course, much facili- 
 tate the undertaking, and will, I dare say, some day 
 be had recourse to. 
 
rooD. 231 
 
 FOOD 
 
 "Si nous n'avions pas vu que les chevaux proviennent des 
 chevaux, nous aurions dit : c'est Forge qui les enfante." 
 
 Sidi-TIamed-hen- Yonsseuf. 
 
 A full supply of good food, is, of course, essential 
 to the perfection of the horse. This, however, does 
 not interfere with the cultivation of abstemiousness, 
 a virtue quite unknown in our stables, where glut- 
 tony is more prized than sohriete. 
 
 If the quantity of food supplied to the horse is 
 habitually insufficient, or still worse, if the quality 
 is inferior, much less unwholesome, bad results 
 quickly become apparent. The consequences, 
 however, of insufficient food, and of inferior forage, 
 are very dissimilar. If the quantity of food for 
 several generations be somewhat insufficient, but of 
 good quality, the size and stature of the animal 
 becomes curtailed, whilst liis figure will loose none 
 of its proportions, and his stamina will coiTespond 
 
232 FOOD. 
 
 to his make, and be even increased. If the quality 
 of the food be very bad, the animal will suffer 
 proportionately both in size and stamina ; but if 
 the food, as grass, be merely somewhat too soft, too 
 sour, or wanting in nutriment, the animal, whilst 
 losing but little in bulk, will be found to be most 
 seriously deficient in stamina. Hence, a better 
 horse is grown on a limited dietary of good food, 
 than on a full allowance of indifferent forage. 
 " Between a racehorse reared on corn, and another 
 confined to hay and grass," says Stonehenge, " the 
 difference in value would be 1 000 per cent. ; and 
 in first-class hunters, though not so great as this, 
 it would be very considerable." 
 
 The effects of the quality of food allowed to the 
 horse will be apparent in his power of exertion, as 
 compared to his size, figure, and blood, in every 
 climate, and under all circumstances ; but the 
 quantities of food necessary to him vary according 
 to climate. He is most abstemious where he is 
 most perfect, in a dry and hot climate. He is 
 most voracious where the climate is damp and 
 temperate. 
 
 No Australian who has travelled far on horseback 
 can have failed to have noticed that his horse re- 
 quires, and eats a much greater quantity of gi'ass, in 
 a timbered, damp, and cold country, than he does 
 in a hot and dry one, which arises from the increased 
 
FOOD. 233 
 
 necessity of food, resulting from the effects of 
 climate, as well as from the actual inferiority of the 
 grass found in such climates. Thus, an English 
 horse will devour twice the weight in rye-grass 
 and clover that an Australian horse will consume 
 on the plains of the Campaspe, Loddon, or Lachlan ; 
 and yet, whilst the first, as shown by Stonehenge, 
 will barely live, the other will work hard. Climate, 
 as well as food, it is true, has its influence here. 
 But in contiguous enclosures, where the climate of 
 course is one, but, as is frequently the case, the 
 pastures diflerent, the truth of what I state is very 
 noticeable. One reason, perhaps, of the superior 
 quality of grass in hot and dry countries is this : 
 vegetation takes place rapidly in the short springs 
 of such climates, bringing the grass and seed quickly 
 to maturity ; the spring then finishes, as it were, 
 in a day ; the dry, hot weather arrives, at once 
 converting the grass, which is at its prime and has 
 had no time to deteriorate, into fields of sweet-scented 
 standing hay ; the virtue of which is gradually, 
 but seldom entirely lost, until the advent of the 
 autumn rains, which usher in the fresh winter 
 grasses. I believe firmly, however, that the intense 
 light of the sun is also favourable to the quality of 
 vegetation, in a greater degree even than is usually 
 admitted, and that the nutritive elements, not only 
 of grass, but of oats, barley, Indian corn, &c., grown 
 
234 FOOD. 
 
 in dry climates, are more perfect than are to be found 
 m the same cereals were such light is absent. 
 
 The com preferred by the Arabs to all others is 
 barley. I have already noticed that twelve double 
 handsful of this cereal daily is found to be abun- 
 dant feed for their horses. 
 
 I have heard it maintained, in conversation, that 
 the low stature of the Arab and Barb is attributed 
 to the dryness of the countries in which they are 
 found, but there are several facts which clearly mili- 
 tate against this idea. The Australian horse, from 
 the driest districts for instance, is only smaller than 
 that of England, when very good reasons for his 
 falling off in size can be adduced, independent 
 of climate. The low stature of Arab and Barb I 
 attribute chiefly, if not entirely, to the sparing sup- 
 ply of food on which he is reared ; and to which his 
 ancestors have been restricted for many generations. 
 Grass is scarce amongst the wandering Arabs, and 
 even when such is not the case, the value of the 
 animal and the fear of the gazzou, or raid, confine 
 him to the vicinity of the tent, and allow but a 
 partial use of what does exist. Neither is grain cul- 
 tivated amongst them, but sparingly received in 
 barter or exacted as tribute. Hence they are put to 
 many shifts for horse-feed, using milk, dates, &;c., 
 as most accessible in their circumstances. These, it 
 is true, they now prefer to grass or hay, but perhaps 
 
FOOD. 235 
 
 without any solid reason for so doing. Besides this, 
 well-grown horses are in fact to be met with fre- 
 quently in the arid climates where forage is more 
 abundant. I once travelled, for instance, with a 
 caravan of seventy-two Eastern, not Bedouin, horses 
 belonging to Abbas Pacha, then Viceroy of Egypt. 
 They were from the neighbourhood of Damascus, 
 and each about sixteen hands high. Stonehenge, in 
 speaking of the Turkish horse, says that he '' seems 
 merely the Arab developed by higher' food into a 
 larger size, and more massive proportions. The 
 horses of Constantinople are often sixteen hands in 
 height, and with very elegant proportions, and a crup- 
 per more highly developed than that of the Arab." 
 This bears out my experience in that city, having 
 often seen pachas, &c., in the street at a walk, 
 mounted on magnificent bay horses exceeding even 
 sixteen hands in height, attended by servants walking 
 before, beside, and behind them ; one holding by 
 the cantle of the saddle at each side. 
 
 By some, again, it has been supposed that the Arab 
 horse is a small species of horse ; that his diminu- 
 tive size, more frequently under than over fourteen 
 hands, is not the result of the sparing diet to which 
 for ages he has been subjected, but is a natural cha- 
 racterestic of a distinct and separate variety. This 
 position is, I certainly think, not tenable. First, it 
 would suppose him always to have been of unmixed 
 
236 FOOD. 
 
 blood, wMcli no one claims for him ; on which sub- 
 ject let me refer my reader to Youatt on the Horse. 
 Then we find the Arab horse himself varjdng in size 
 in different localities, and always bearing in this 
 respect an intimate relation to the quality and 
 measure of his diet. But it is, as I have before 
 stated, in England that this has been fully set at 
 rest, where the results of the full and even forcing 
 diet have gradually but surely become apparent. 
 "Out of 130 winners," says Stonehenge, ''in the 
 middle of the last century (since when the thorough- 
 bred horse may be held as uncrossed) only eighteen 
 were fifteen hands and upwards ; whereas now, a 
 winner below that height is a very great rarity in- 
 deed, even amongst the mares. . , . The 
 average at present may be fixed at fifteen hands 
 three inches," &c. 
 
 It is, however, very doubtful if nature has not, 
 except in rare instances, restricted the full powers 
 of saddle-horses for general purposes to a frame very 
 much smaller than that to which its oTowth is so 
 often forced amongst Englishmen. In Australia, 
 moderately heavy men find themselves better carried 
 on long journeys by a rather large than a small 
 horse. Where however, as here, horses are almost all 
 equally indifferent in blood and figure, the larger one 
 will be found preferable. But this is no reason why 
 a very much smaller horse, more carefully bred, should 
 
FOOD. 237 
 
 not surpass either. Equally bred, and of equal 
 figure, the larger will of course always be preferable. 
 Perfection of figure, however, is more rare in the 
 large than the medium sized horse. " Buy a large 
 horse," say the Arabs (who have not what we should 
 call a large horse), " and barley will make him go."* 
 In treating of the horse of all countries, as do 
 Stonehenge and Youatt, but few maxims for horse- 
 feeding can be adduced as universally applicable. 
 The subject of food is so mixed up, intimate, and 
 interlaced with that of the effects of climate, that 
 the two considerations become at every step merged 
 and inseparable. As with the human race, in obe- 
 dience to the laws of animal chemistry, it is known 
 that a regimen, excellent in some situations and cir- 
 cumstances, is and must be detrimental, excessive, 
 or inadequate in others ; as likewise, the grass that 
 is amply nutricious in one climate is absolutely in- 
 sufficient in another ; so no specific result, either as 
 regards health, size, speed, or vigour, is produced, 
 which is not attributable in strictness, in part at 
 least, to the joint rather than the separate action of 
 these causes ; since the very quality of every food, 
 as well as its adaptability, is one of the primary 
 consequences of climate. 
 
 * " Cherche-le large et achete 
 
 L'orge le fera courir." 
 
 Ahd-el'Kader . 
 
238 FOOD. 
 
 Almost all that we meet with of variety in the 
 physique of the horse, spread over the face of the 
 earth, whether it regard size, shape, or quality, has 
 resulted from the joint and united action of selection 
 (or its absence), climate, and food. 
 
RECAPITULATION. 239 
 
 EECAPITULATION 
 
 " Mark me, Jack."— Poms. 
 
 From the facts placed before the reader in the 
 foregoing pages I draw the following conclusions : — 
 
 1st. The saddle-horse has occasionally been bred 
 with considerable success in various climates. 
 
 2nd. A fitting cKmate is of the utmost import- 
 ance to the development of the full powers, 
 stamina, and utility of the saddle-horse. Certain 
 valuable characteristics in full perfection in him are 
 coexistent with certain climates only. The stoutest 
 saddle-horses of which we have any rehable records, 
 or traditions, appear heretofore to have existed and 
 to be still found between the 20th and 40th degi'ees 
 of latitude North, or thereabouts. Such breeds of 
 saddle-horses as have been famous outside these 
 limits have invariably traced their excellencies to 
 sires from within the said latitudes. 
 
240 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 3rd. The mental and physical qualities, both good 
 and bad, of the horse are susceptible of cultivation, 
 and transmissible to offspring ; hence the impro- 
 priety of breeding from unsound or unfit sires, 
 which is embodied in the axiom, that '' Like begets 
 like, or the likeness of some ancestor" On fitting 
 climate, food, and the strict application of this 
 axiom, must always depend the success of the horse- 
 breeder. 
 
 4th. The Arab or Eastern horse is a saddle-horse, 
 bred after the above axiom. 
 
 5th. The Arab horse is a pure saddle-horse, and 
 not a racer. His blood is pure, and possesses the 
 requisites to this title, as laid down by Stonehenge, 
 page 82, and already quoted. 
 
 6th. On the same principle, no horse of any breed 
 is so pure as the Arab. 
 
 7th. The thoroughbred of England is almost en- 
 tirely of Arab blood. So small has been the foreign 
 admixture that, practically, his blood may be called 
 Arab blood. The differences now noticeable be- 
 tween the thoroughbred and Arab are easily ac- 
 counted for, and are to be attributed to selection, 
 climate, and food. Selection, by the choice of mere 
 fast horses. Climate, by one moist, and encouraging 
 growth. Food, by being pampered, in place of 
 being judiciously stinted. 
 
 8th. The Arabs have never bred horses for racing 
 
RECAPITULATION. 241 
 
 alone. Hence, when the English horse races against 
 the Arab he puts to the test the only quality in 
 which he himself excels, and is proclaimed the 
 victor, and the best horse, leaving untried seve- 
 ral more necessary excellencies — all those points 
 which constitute, in fact, a good saddle-horse — 
 which it is well known he does not possess, but are 
 all preeminently the characteristics of his anta- 
 gonist. 
 
 9th. Health, vigor of constitution, abstemious- 
 ness, stoutness, soundness, and longevity, are points 
 in which the Arab horse is without a rival. '' He 
 presents," as Youatt says, " the true combination of 
 speed and bottom." 
 
 10th. The saddle-horse of England is bred con- 
 trary to the theory laid down for breeding by Stone - 
 henge and other writers, and contrary to that prac- 
 tice by which alone the best saddle-horses have been 
 obtained elsewhere. 
 
 11th. Englishmen claim for their saddle-horses 
 the merit of surpassing all others. I can find re- 
 cords of individual English horses having greatly 
 distinguished themselves. I can find no instance of 
 their ever having done so in a body. Where they 
 have been collected in bodies, as in the cavalry ser- 
 vice, all testimonies seem to agree, that their capabi- 
 lities for work are much below those of Eastern 
 horses. I can meet with no ^^Titer who has had 
 
 M 
 
242 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 personal experience of each who does not pronounce 
 in favour of the Eastern. 
 
 12th. The management and performances of 
 Eastern horses are but little known in England, and 
 seldom believed when recounted : the usual reply of 
 Englishmen being, " Our horses are the best in 
 the world ; they cannot do these things : therefore," 
 &c., &c. 
 
 13th. The sums of money expended on horse- 
 breeding, and trying to perfect the horse, in England 
 have been enormous. 
 
 14th. The saddle-horse of England is soft, un- 
 sound, and a failure. 
 
 15th. Racing in England, so far from being the 
 means of improving the saddle-horse, has been his 
 destruction. This fact is acknowledged and re- 
 gretted by several English writers, who loudly claim 
 Government interference on the subject. 
 
 16th. The saddle-horse can never be brought to 
 perfection until he be bred pure, as in the East. 
 
 17th. The soundest, stoutest, and purest of horses 
 is the Arab horse. He is a pure saddle-horse, un- 
 equalled in his performances, and unrivalled in his 
 desirability for this purpose. No saddle-horse is 
 excellent, except through his blood. 
 
PART III. 
 
 " Dehors, les etrangers, dehors ! 
 Laissez les fleurs de nos prairies, 
 Aux abeilles de notre pays. 
 
 Dehors, les etrangers, dehors !" 
 
SADDLE-HORSE BEEEDIKG. 2i5 
 
 SADDLE-HORSE BREEDING IN 
 AUSTRALIA. 
 
 '• Je veux un cheval docile 
 Qui aime a manger son mors 
 Qui soit familier avec les voyages 
 Qui sache supporter la faim 
 Et qui fasse dans un jour 
 La marche de cinq jours." 
 
 Le CJiamhi 
 
 " Nor is man's influence over many of the animals less marked. 
 The habits which he imparts to the parents, become nature, in 
 his behalf, in their offspring." — Testimony of the Rocks. 
 
 In the first part of this work I have laid before 
 inay reader, a collection of facts, which I hope will 
 be suggestive and useful to the breeder of saddle- 
 horses ; in the second part, I have made deductions 
 and laid down certain principles, which appear to me 
 to be based on those facts, and I will now proceed, 
 in conclusion, to show how it seems to me that 
 those principles should be reduced to practice. 
 
 Hitherto in Australia, breeders have neither bred 
 pure nor, as a consequence, good saddle-horses, nor 
 
246 SADDLE-HORSE BREEDING 
 
 brought to market at a remunerative figure such as 
 they have bred. This failure, as an investment, has 
 resulted in great measure from the want of manage- 
 ment which has always attended such speculations. 
 
 In all countries there are situations more favorable 
 than others to the production of the horse. In Vic- 
 toria, particularly, there are few sites for this pur- 
 suit which are perfectly unobjectionable, and unite 
 every requirement, and yet the selection of a fitting 
 field for this undertaking is quite as important as is 
 the site of his vineyard to a vine-grower. Both 
 vines and horses may be produced almost anywhere, 
 but the quality of the produce will be in both cases 
 widely different in different spots. New South 
 Wales offers greater facilities for this undertaking 
 than Victoria, and nearer the centre of this conti- 
 nent the requisites will be found both more general 
 and superior in degree. 
 
 Could I have a site and all facilities for saddle- 
 horse breeding in Australia, just cut out to my 
 fancy, I would have it in Ihis way : On a flat of 
 poorish, salty soil, I would grow oaten and barley 
 hay. This for nine months out of the twelve, should 
 be the food of the stud. Between the hay-racks, 
 where the horses were fed and the watering-place, I 
 would have a mountain, bare, rugged, rocky, and 
 steep ; over this the horses should travel daily to 
 water, and back again to their feed. The distance 
 
IN AUSTRALIA. 247 
 
 to be accomplished daily would depend in a great 
 measure on the steepness of the mountain, and be 
 graduated besides to the various ages of the horses, 
 ranging, say, between ten miles a day for the four 
 year old horses, and two miles a day for those under 
 a year. During the three spring months of the year, 
 I would indulge the stud with abundance of luxu- 
 riant grass and salty herbage, water easily accessible, 
 and almost a complete cessation from toil. The site 
 of my breeding-ground should be in the most favored 
 path of the hot wind, and in the most arid district 
 that could be found. 
 
 From the importance of a fitting site for this in- 
 dustry, united with other causes, it will be found 
 more easy and profitable to breed good horses in 
 herds, in chosen spots, than in ones or twos all over 
 the country. Breeding saddle-horses, on a large 
 scale has been frequently undertaken in Australia, 
 and with such unprofitable results as to be at last 
 considered an all but ruinous undertaking. This, 
 however, is not surprising, considering the bad 
 management which has generally been pursued, to ' 
 which cause entirely I attribute both its unsatisfac- 
 tory results and its unpopularity ; to which must, 
 indeed, in some degree, be added, the large outlay 
 first needed, and the necessity of four years passing 
 over before any retui-n for the outlay can be 
 realized. 
 
248 SADDLE-HOKSE BREEDING 
 
 In Victoria, at this day, really superior colts 
 weight carriers, handsome, of high-breeding, and 
 unbroken, would readily bring £15 in the market ; 
 while such colts, at four years old, and perfectly broken 
 to saddle and harness, would not be worth less than 
 £30 a-head. Were the average value struck of such 
 horses during the past twenty years, I believe it 
 would show not less than £12 for the colt, and £25 
 for the broken and made horse. The average value 
 of five year old fat cattle, of both sexes, is now 
 about £6 a-head, and it has not certainly exceeded 
 that figure as an average during the same period, 
 and yet cattle have been a favorite investment, and 
 horses almost always a very unremunerative one, 
 attributable entirely, I believe, to the bad style of 
 management which I have already described in my 
 chapter on the Australian horse. 
 
 The first point to be considered by the horse- 
 breeder, who seeks quality as well as quantity, is the 
 site of his breeding run. Its climate must be his 
 first care. This should be hot and above all dry, 
 and remote from the sea-board and the infiuence of 
 the ocean. A first-rate saddle-horse cannot be bred 
 in a damp atmosphere, or on a pasture too luxuriant 
 and fat. Besides this, the ground should be hilly, 
 and in places steep and rocky, that the muscles of the 
 animal reared on it may become enduring and well- 
 developed, his frame nervous and tolerant of labor; 
 
IN AUSTRALIA. 249 
 
 that his feet may be arched, hard, and tough, and 
 the useful habit of picking his steps and minding 
 where he places his feet early engendered. " Pre- 
 fere le cheval de montagne au c.ieval de plaine, et 
 celid-ce au cheval de marais, qui n'est hon qvJa 
 porter le hat" 
 
 Various defects are noticeable from breeding 
 horses in improper sites. As an instance, the horses 
 from the soft plains of the Lower Namoi, N.S.W. 
 have come to have feet of about the size and shape 
 of a soup-plate. Hence, when hilly and in part 
 rugged ground is not attainable, a hard soil should 
 at least be insisted on. Another feature in the 
 choice of a horse station should also be kept in 
 view. Though the grasses which grow on flat, rich, or 
 damp soils, always produce an inferior horse, yet to 
 be used as a change, and in some cases medicinely, 
 and as an occasional spur to the condition of the 
 animal, some portion of such country, where attain- 
 able, must prove a valuable adjunct to the poorer 
 country already described ; at the same time, it is 
 by no means indispensable. It may also be added, 
 that the more denuded of trees generally, and the 
 freer the action of the sun, the better will be the 
 country for this purpose ; a few patches of timber 
 only being necessary for shade and shelter. 
 
 In Victoria, I know of no hilly country which is 
 sufficiently dry and hot and removed from the in- 
 m2 
 
250 SADDLE-HORSE BREEDING 
 
 fluence of the sea air, and at the same time of a 
 saline quality, and producing a hard and tenacious 
 grass rather inclining to a tusic than a sward, so that 
 in this colony, for this purpose I esteem most the 
 sound and hard portions of the plain district lying 
 between the rivers Campaspe, Murray, and Kichard- 
 son, and it is on this country that I have always found 
 the stoutest horses of Victoria in proportion to their 
 figure, surpassing horses of a better figure bred on 
 the rich soils of the sea-board. 
 
 In this respect New South Wales offers greater 
 facilities than Victoria, and I know many admira- 
 ble sites in that colony, but none perhaps superior 
 to the station known as Uabba on the river Lachlan. 
 Here you have a dry and scorching climate, hot- 
 winds fierce and continuous, which leave nothing to 
 desire ; the steep rocky Uraral Mountains substan- 
 tially grassed, with an ample supply of hard plains 
 at their feet. From this country 300 excellent 
 horses might be turned ofi" annually. 
 
 The horse-breeder, having chosen a spot suitable 
 for his purpose, his first steps should be to fence 
 securely and subdivide it. Without this nothing 
 can be successfully undertaken, as the horse roaming 
 at large becomes wild ; resignation, that quality so 
 prized by Abd-el-Kader, and so necessary in itself, 
 becomes entirely a stranger to his composition ; the 
 foal and yearling get galloped to death to keep 
 
IN AUSTRALIA. 251 
 
 up with the herd, and frequent manipulation of the 
 young stock becomes impossible. Accidents are also 
 proportionably more frequent amongst large than 
 small bodies of horses, for which reason I think not 
 more than lifty should be kept in one paddock. 
 
 In the selection of brood-mares, where all are so 
 indifferent as in Australia, there is unfortunately 
 but small room for a choice. Were there a choice, 
 I should say select to breed from just what you 
 would select to ride. Let them, however, be as 
 stout, sound, active, good-tempered, and pleasant as 
 can be obtained. Of colour be particular : forswear 
 roans, sorrells, duns, and pie-balds. Light-coloured 
 horses of every hue, whether bays, chesnuts, 
 browns, or greys, are soft and inferior. The Arabs, 
 with reason, esteem deep colours only : if it be a 
 bay, let it be blood-red, golden, or a brown bay ; if 
 a chesnut, let it be of the darkest shade, which 
 looks like black in the distance, and is perhaps the 
 best of all colours, denoting the best constitution, and 
 as being more commonly allied with speed, temper, 
 and endurance. Size as well as colour is a matter 
 in which the Australian breeder will have no diffi- 
 culty in suiting himself; therefore let him start with 
 large mares, where action and soundness are united ; 
 with it one difficulty will be removed from the 
 path of the regenerator, and tend to expedite results; 
 which, choose what you like in this country, can 
 
252 SADDLE-HORSE BREEDING 
 
 only be gradual, and must be achieved principally 
 through the sire. 
 
 The mares having been obtained, fit sires are still 
 to be purchased, which, though difficult to be had, 
 are still attainable. The requisites in the sire are, 
 that he should be sound, a good saddle-horse, and 
 pure of his sort — a pure saddle-horse, in the sense I 
 have already explained. He must, in two words, 
 fully to meet these requirements, be an Arab horse 
 of high caste. 
 
 The mare should not be put to the horse earlier 
 than three years off, and first foals are, I think, sel- 
 dom equal to those that come after. As the pro- 
 ceeds of the first cross, which would be half-bred 
 Arabs, became numerous enough to keep up the 
 breeding stud to the requisite strength, the original 
 mares would, of course, be all disposed of; and, if 
 two sires were obtained, the get of the sire A be put 
 to the sire B, and vice versa. When the three- 
 quarter-bred mares came to require the horse, fresh 
 sires would of course become necessary, and the first 
 ones would have to be disposed of 
 
 When three crosses had been effected, I should re- 
 commend that the mares selected yearly for the stud 
 should not be chosen with reference to pedigree 
 alone, as heretofore, but with due reference to per- 
 fection of figure, size, temper, colour, and perform- 
 ance ; giving, however, a preference to the strain of 
 
IN AUSTRALIA. 253 
 
 any stallion whose get exhibited superior excellence 
 in quality as distinguished from appearance. Were 
 this system pursued for twenty generations, on a 
 sufficiently extensive scale, it is probable that the 
 importation of Eastern horses might with advantage 
 be relinquished, and the gradual perfection of the 
 breed, thus far established, be for the future en- 
 trusted to selection alone. 
 
 Let me point out to the reader, that in the system 
 which I am advocating, there is no talk of crossing, 
 no heavy sires to give size, nor racers to engraft 
 speed on theii' offspring. For speed I depend on the 
 Eastern sire, who has all the speed that is compati- 
 ble with the admixture of more useful qualities 
 which can be found in horses of their size. Larger 
 horses of the same breed would, undoubtedly, be 
 faster and more powerful. A breed with such cha- 
 racteristics may be created, but does not yet exist. 
 My aim is to create this superiority of size, but 
 not by crossing, and at the sacrifice of quality. 
 This must be the work of time, and a full supply of 
 food. The Arab horse, transplanted here or else- 
 vjhere, vjill just arrive at that stature and hulk 
 which the food and climate is calculated to raise 
 him to, and sustain hivi at. The abundant food of 
 Australia should quickly foster a larger horse than 
 the meagi^e diet of the Arabs can produce. So that 
 I am for the pure Arab blood, which would, when 
 
254 SADDLE-HORSE BREEDING 
 
 bred here for a few generations on liberal but not 
 forcing diet, reach the size which nature has affixed 
 as the limit of the perfect saddle-horse in our coun- 
 try, which I am inclined to believe, would, as a rule, 
 be found to be about fifteen hands two inches. 
 
 Having got thus far, the next subject which I 
 have to impress on the breeder is, the necessity of 
 careful culling and selection. It has always appeared 
 to me, that the breeder of animals, of whatever sort 
 they may be, should distinctly understand and fix in 
 his mind the end which he purposes to attain, and 
 strive for this end with unvarying purpose. He must 
 be seduced by no sort of excellence foreign to his pro- 
 per object. Were I breeding saddle-horses, I would 
 reject from my stud a mare unfit to produce saddle- 
 horses, though she should prove unrivalled on the 
 turf, as certainly as if she were the merest weed. 
 There can, I believe, be no good stud, where a 
 fixed object is not kept in view, and culling most 
 jealously and unhesitatingly exercised with strict 
 reference to such object. 
 
 But besides the rearing of horses of good blood 
 on good food, on a proper soil, and in a suitable 
 climate, there is another requisite to perfection 
 which demands attention ; a requisite which has 
 heretofore been quite overlooked by Englishmen 
 and Australians, I mean abstemiousness. Abste- 
 miousness is not habitual starvation, nor does it 
 
IN AUSTRALIA. 255 
 
 mean a constant insufficiency of food. The Arab 
 horses, it is true, are abstemious in the widest sense 
 of the word, for they can suffer long from hunger 
 and thirst without injury, and live habitually on an ex- 
 ceedingly small daily allowance of food and water. The 
 perpetual necessities of their lives have rendered this 
 double endurance constitutional and easy ; hardihood 
 has followed the frequent but temporary abstinence, 
 but diminished size has been the penalty of constant 
 deprivation of adequate nutrition. Australia is a 
 richer country than those of the wandering Arabs. 
 Australians are heavier than Bedouins, or Moors ; 
 we are idcher also, and can furnish more forage, 
 and so rear larger horses. But this is no reason 
 why our horses should not be taught to endure a hot 
 sun, scarcity of water, and an empty stomach. 
 Privation, when not excessive, may, to a certain 
 extent, be made familiar both to man and beast, not 
 only without diminisliing the stature, but with the 
 best results. A horse to be excellent and stout, 
 must work and suffer. He cannot be habitually 
 pampered, and yet enduring " Les plus grands en^ 
 nertiis du chevalj' says Abd-e]-Kader, '' sont le 
 repos et la graisse" Neither must the practice of 
 sohriete begin late in life, for says the Emir — 
 
 Les legons de Venfance se gravent sur lapierre 
 Les legons de Vage rmiT disparaissent comme les 
 nids des viseaux. 
 
256 SADDLE-HORSE BREEDING 
 
 A judicious measure of abstinence, both from food 
 and drink, will be found materially to invigorate the 
 system without diminishing the size. The Arabs 
 are not called on specially to teach their horses to 
 hunger with patience, for their whole life is necessa- 
 rily one of short allowance. In the matter of teach- 
 ing them to bear thirst, however, it is different. 
 '' Amongst the desert tribes," says Daumas, "begin- 
 ning from the month of August, they only allow 
 their horses to drink once every other day for forty 
 days. The same practice is pursued during the last 
 twenty days of December and the first twenty 
 days of January." To such as breed saddle- 
 horses for use rather than appearance, I would recom- 
 mend a similar course. Besides the hardening of 
 the constitution, which is certainly a consequence of 
 a moderate abstinence, another scarcely less import- 
 ant result follows such habitual privations ; I mean 
 resignation, a matter little spoken of amongst us, 
 but in high esteem with the Easterns. A total 
 absence of this quality is, however, very remark- 
 able in its effects ; a striking instance of which will 
 be found in the fact already mentioned, that the 
 wild horse, which, when broken in, will, if loosed, 
 gallop fifty miles in attempting to regain his freedom, 
 will frequently refase to carry his rider five miles. 
 It seems, indeed, as if he were unable to work ; his 
 muscular strength, overpowered and prostrated by 
 
IN AUSTRALIA. 257 
 
 the irritation and despondency he experiences in 
 captivity. This tendency, in a modified form, is 
 well known to the Easterns, on which subject I have 
 already quoted Sid Hamed-ben-Mohamed-el-Mok- 
 rani, and proverbial sayings on this head are 
 numerous in the desert. 
 
 A horse that has not occasionally thksted from his 
 youth, is of little use in many parts of Australia. 
 Nothing, I am persuaded, is more useful than an 
 early but moderately conducted initiation into those 
 hardships, which, to be easily borne, should early 
 become habitual. Let not the breeder fear, 
 then, to keep his horses athirst in the blazing sun ; 
 let his lessons be gradual and progressive ; let him 
 early know hunger, and how to bear it. But whilst 
 his trials are frequent and severe, beware that they 
 be not excessive. Of tliis his growth and condition 
 must be the indices. Wlien you have tried him with 
 sufiering, regale him with plenty ; let him feast as 
 well as fast, — keep up his spirits and his condition. 
 So he will become enfeoffed of resignation, endur- 
 ance, and vigour ; and a hundred times more patient, 
 capable, and robust, than if he were reared in the 
 enervating lap of luxury and abundance. 
 
 It would be impossible for me here to point out 
 the degrees of abstinence which should be proper to 
 all circumstances. The nature of the locality, the 
 descent, the previous habits of the animal in ques- 
 
258 SADDLE-HORSE BREEDING 
 
 tion, and a hundred other circumstances, would have 
 to be considered ; and, even knowing these, trial and 
 experiment could alone definitively settle the matter. 
 As a general rule, it may be said, perhaps, that the 
 loss of condition consequent on suffering which is 
 quickly recovered has not been excessive. But, if 
 after his abstinence the horse remains low, and is 
 some days before he even begins to make up his lost 
 flesh and spirits, if his food is ill-digested and his 
 coat loses its gloss, he may then be pronounced to 
 have suffered too much. 
 
 Though, however, the saddle-horse should be both 
 well-bred and judiciously fed and brought up, there 
 will still remain to the Australian breeder a difficulty, 
 which, if not overcome, must be fatal to his success. 
 This difficulty is his breakmg and preparation for 
 market. Labour is so high in Australia, especially 
 that of the horse-breaker, and our horses so intract- 
 able, that no breeder has heretofore attempted to 
 prepare, say, eighty or a hundred colts annually 
 for the market. But even such preparation of the 
 colt, that is, the mere breaking, would but partially 
 set the matter right. In Australia, to make a horse, 
 that is to educate him, is, when his education can- 
 not be perfected in the course and process of useful 
 work, more expensive than his breeding, — the 
 skilled labour is dearer than the raw material. The 
 result of these circumstances has heretofore been. 
 
IN AUSTKALIA. 259 
 
 that the breaker has usually reaped much of the 
 profit whieh should have fallen to the breeder ; for 
 the raw four-year-old of good size, figure, and breed- 
 ing, which is worth, say £15 in the market, will 
 certainly bring £85 when he has been made perfectly 
 tractible and handy. The profit to the breaker will, 
 of course, be the difference between, these two sums, 
 less the price of the labour in breaking and the for- 
 age furnished in the interval. Besides producing a 
 good horse, then, he must be brought to market 
 well and inexpensively broken, or the speculation 
 cannot be a success. Heretofore, as I have already 
 pointed out, it has been little better than a failure 
 from this cause. Now for this evil, there is, I feel 
 persuaded, a very efficient remedy, — indeed, a spe- 
 cific — I mean, a skilful application of Rarey's prin- 
 ciples. Without attempting to embrace every part 
 of this subject, it will, perhaps,* be useful to point 
 out the mamier of the application of this system 
 which I advocate. 
 
 As early as possible after a foal is dropped, and as 
 frequently as is convenient, and before Rare3rfying 
 him, I should recommend that the foal be caught 
 
 o 
 
 For this purpose lead the mare into an inclosure, and 
 whilst the foal is sucking, put a strap round his 
 neck. Let liim make two or three bounds away from 
 his mother, and then stop him. If he is under a 
 fortnight old, in twenty minutes he will allow him- 
 
260 SADDLE-HORSE BREEDING 
 
 self to be handled as much as you choose, and will 
 resent nothing as long as he is not hurt. Rub him 
 all over, wrap a cloth round him, ring a bell beside 
 him, &c. ; repeat this every day for a week, and 
 you will find that the lesson will never be forgotten. 
 At six weeks old, catch, halter, and Rarefy him. 
 Wlien he is exhausted and falls, fasten him securely, 
 then wave cloths or blankets of various colors about, 
 behind, and over him, striking him gently with 
 them until he has ceased to fear them. Stand with 
 your legs astride of him, cracking your stock-whip 
 over his head (taking care that it does not hurt 
 him), until he is used to it, which will not occupy 
 five minutes ; discharge your revolver, lightly loaded, 
 from the same position, letting him see the flash 
 and smell the smoke, taking care that you do not 
 approach the pistol so close to the ears as to injure 
 that organ. Wheif he has been put down three or 
 four times, unbind him, rub him well all over, standing 
 alternately on each side. You may then lead him, 
 your assistant following with a whip, and making 
 him keep up. I need not say be most sparing in 
 its use, and after half an hour spent in this exer- 
 cise, tie him up securely out of sight of his dam. 
 Let him see that you are not holding him, return- 
 ing to him, from time to time, to rub him and speak 
 to him. When he has been tied up half an hour, 
 lead him back to his dam, and let him go. Con- 
 
IN AUSTRALIA. 261 
 
 tinue this practice daily, until the foal will lie down 
 when you touch his leg, which should be on the 
 third or fourth day. Put him subsequently through 
 this exercise once in every month, till he is a year 
 old. 
 
 At twelve months old, having strapped up his leg, 
 put bells round his neck, wave blankets, fire a re- 
 volver beside him, &c. ; put on a saddle, and let 
 him hop about a moment with it ; put on a crup- 
 per somewhat tight, and girth him tight ; when he 
 has ceased to resist these liberties, which will be in 
 10 or 15 minutes, put a child on his back, the lighter 
 the better. Any black child who is small enough 
 will do, they are to be preferred to white children 
 as Kghter and more precocious ; danger there should 
 be none. When he has sat on the animal a few 
 minutes, rubbed, patted him, &c., assist him to mount 
 and dismount several times oft. each side. This 
 being done, and the child seated, loose the tied-up 
 leg, lead the colt with a short rein, and tie him up 
 at the accustomed spot. Continue this treatment 
 for a week without intermission. This week con- 
 cluded, let the yearling at large, repeatihg the same 
 performance once in every month, till two years or 
 thirty months old. 
 
 At from two years to thirty months old, mouth 
 the young horse, mount a Hght weight on him, and 
 ride him two hours a day for a fortnight at a walking 
 
262 SADDLE-HORSE BREEDING 
 
 pace, and he should then be, not of course a made 
 horse, but quite broken in, needing only a little 
 practice as a three year old to perfect his education. 
 The treatment which I here recommend I tried 
 to a certain extent just after the publication of 
 E,arey's book, operating on two or three foals, and 
 the like number of yearlings and two year olds. Every 
 one in the bush was then talking of Rarey, and I, 
 like others, felt anxious to try the working of his 
 theory, which I applied to all the unbroken stock I 
 could lay hands on, and with the best success. One 
 would have thought that the moment the foals were 
 let loose in the bush, where they were but seldom 
 seen, that when next brought to the stockyard, 
 which might not be for from fifteen to thirty days, that 
 they would have forgotten their former lesson. Such, 
 however, was not the case, for with no further 
 second handling they became daily more familiar, 
 as their instinct strengthened ; as if the results of 
 their schooling had begun only, after it was passed, 
 to dawn upon them. Except catching them now 
 and then, I took no further trouble with them, than 
 to Rareyfy them, perhaps, three times in their first 
 month, until they became two years off. They were 
 then mouthed, ridden for a fortnight, and turned 
 out. They made no resistance to the breaking 
 whatever, and however fat or flash they might after- 
 wards be, were remarkably quiet to ride, none of 
 
IN AUSTRALIA. 2G3 
 
 them ever trying to get rid of their riders, or showing 
 vice of any description. One of them, which I still 
 have, though he had never been worked, stood the 
 stockwhip without flinching the first time I tried 
 him, though fat and in high spirits at the time, 
 neither did the rifle fired from his back a few days 
 afterwards, cause him the least uneasiness. In fact, 
 I never saw horses more effectually or so easily 
 broken. 
 
 If these results, of which I feel no doubt, can be 
 obtained, it appears that a great deal more may be 
 effected by the breeder than has heretofore been 
 found practicable. For if the treatment of which I 
 made use, produced such remarkable results, that 
 which I have just recommended should have a more 
 decided effect. The conclusion to which I have 
 come, and which I wish to lay before my reader, is, 
 that one man would be able to prepare 100 horses 
 for sale in five years, taking charge of, and beginning 
 to Karej^fy them when foals, and carrying out some 
 such plan as I have described. But let us limit him 
 to 70 instead of 100 horses, and put his wages and 
 keep at £70 a year. This should enable the breeder 
 to dispose of his 100 horses, perfectly broken and 
 made, as three, four, and five year olds, the expense on 
 each horse for so breaking him being just £5. Were 
 they truly well-bred, handsome horses, the lowest 
 price at which I can estimate here is £30 a head ; 
 
264j saddle-horse breeding 
 
 in India, I believe, they would be worth a £100 a 
 head ; the lowest of which figures would handsomely 
 remunerate the breeder. The employment of black 
 boys in some districts, would, of course, still further 
 reduce this figure, as they are excellent horsemen, 
 and require no wages. 
 
 Besides the facilities for taming and quieting the 
 horse, which result from the application of Rarey's 
 system, another very important advantage may be 
 derived from it. I allude to the habit of lying down. 
 On this point the Arabs are much more particular 
 than we are. " Faites peu de cas," says Daumas, 
 " d'u7i cheval qui ne se eouche poinV On a pretty 
 close observation of the habits of the horse when in 
 the East, I came to attribute a gi'eat part of his 
 endurance, as well as the extraordinary soundness 
 of his legs and feet, to his great habit of lying down. 
 Spending but a very small portion of his time in 
 eating, he is constantly lying down on the sand 
 where he is picketed. Some few Australian horses 
 which I have had were remarkable in this way, 
 and possessed capabilities for work above others of 
 similar fio'ure, which I could attribute to no other 
 cause. Some horses, too, have a vicious disinclina- 
 tion to lay down. I have known one that used to 
 fall down in his stable whilst asleep, too or three 
 times a week. 
 
 Stonehenge, I notice, has a great dislike both to 
 
IN AUSTRALIA. 265 
 
 Rarey and his system. He hardly allows that it was 
 new to the public, grumbles because a racing mare 
 on which he operated never ran well after, and still 
 worse than this, that the Yankee adventurer drew 
 £25,000 from the pockets of the British public. 
 Whether these are sufficient reasons for damning the 
 system, I leave my reader to determine ; but as that 
 writer recommends the practice to cavalry men, I 
 jDresume his objections are limited to the racer. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that Rareyfying has not 
 taken root in Australia, simply because it has been 
 ill applied, and too much was expected from it. 
 With confirmed buck-jumpers it is perfectly useless, 
 as far as a cure is sought ; but with any colts its 
 action is, I believe, imfailing and irresistible. Prac- 
 tically, however, the small outlay at which it enables 
 the breeder co oring his horse to market fully broken, 
 is its gi-eat advantage to the Australian. It also 
 favours early breaking, without which there can be 
 no perfection. " Get exercice" says Daumas, of 
 early work, " convient d tous deux ; V enfant se fait 
 cavalier, le poulain sliahitue a porter un poids qui 
 est en rapport avec sa force, il apprend d marcher 
 d ne ^e§rayer de rien,et c'est ainsi, disent les Arahes, 
 que nous parvenons d n'avoir jamais de chevaux 
 retifs^ Putting striplings on young colts properly 
 prepared for the saddle, teaches the youth to ride, and 
 does away with the evil of having fractious horses. 
 
266 ON RACING. 
 
 ON RACING. 
 
 Les chevaux sont des oiseaux qui n'ont 
 pas d'ailes." 
 
 Of whatever the breeder of pure saddle-horses 
 may effect by attention to blood, climate, food, 
 selection, and a choice of site for his stud, racing 
 is the only practical competitive test. To come to 
 this conclusion requires but little consideration, and 
 I will not dwell on the point. It is not less a fact, 
 that distinct and decided characteristics, the result 
 of rewarded performances, or prizes for excellence 
 in any way, will soon arise and stamp themselves 
 on the horse subjected to their influence. In breed- 
 ing horses, as in most other matters, profit is the 
 great motive power. Thoroughbred horses are bred 
 for what ? As the actual beau-ideal of the species ? 
 As the most useful, or the soundest, or stoutest of 
 horses ? As valuable to the community, or advan- 
 tageous to any but their owners ? Not by any 
 
ON RACING. 267 
 
 means. The gentlemen of the Turf are not suspected 
 of any such views. They breed their horses to race 
 and win. It is natural to suppose they would do so. 
 It would be folly to expect otherwise. The qualities 
 sought by breeders have reference to this point 
 wholly and solely. Describe the races which will be 
 in vogue here for a hundred years, and I will foretel 
 you the sort of horses which will result from them. 
 Saddle-horses, and the institution of races, are vitally 
 connected. 
 
 It is not my intention to enter upon a discussion 
 of English racing, a matter already fully treated of 
 by many abler pens than mine. It is, in fact, a 
 subject of which I claim no special knowledge. 
 Had I been professionlly (if I may use the word) 
 addicted to that sport, or even a too ardent amateur 
 of the Turf, I should, no doubt, have become more or 
 less imbued with those one-sided opinions on the 
 subject, w^hich I have noticed in its votaries, and as 
 a particeps crirainis but an unfair judge of its 
 results. But, whilst I have seen a good deal of 
 Australian racing, as well as something of the prin- 
 cipal English and Irish meetings, I have stiD. always 
 remained a mere outsider and a non-betting spectator, 
 just looking on quietly, seeing what was to be seen, 
 hearing what was to be heard, and endeavouring to 
 estimate this horse-trial at what it was worth. 
 Having thus watched the results of racing on a very 
 
268 ON RACIXG. 
 
 fair field for observation, and read in the pages of 
 Stonehenge, Nimrod, and many others, — ^all at heart 
 special pleaders for the Turf, — their deliberate records 
 of its history and results, or, in other words, its 
 failure as a means of producing good saddle-horses, 
 I cannot but acknowledge that I have been gi-adually 
 losing all interest in this pastime. Indeed, the mere 
 fact of having come to consider our races as of no 
 more real import to saddle-horse breeding than are 
 billiards or bull-baiting, has necessarily deprived it 
 of all serious interest to a non-racing spectator. 
 
 I have no intention of re-producing in this chapter 
 the facts connected with this subject, which I have 
 already laid before my reader in treating of the 
 Enoiish horse. If I have not there adduced facts 
 and testimonies strong enough to convince him of 
 the errors of our system, or of the unsoundness, 
 want of stoutness, the general frailty, and progressive 
 decadence both of our racers and saddle-horses 
 resultinof from it, I am afraid that I must consider 
 his prepossessions as impregnable, and that nothing 
 which can be added will bring conviction to him. 
 And yet on what score the evidence adduced can be 
 rejected, by any one open to conviction, I am at a 
 loss to understand. 
 
 On the one hand, we have the testimony of many 
 adequate and credible witnesses, as Abd-el-Kader, 
 Paumas, Nolan, Shakespeare, and Layard, and a 
 
ON EACING. 269 
 
 host of travellers between whom the idea of collusion 
 is impossible, to prove in the Eastern saddle-horse a 
 degree of stoutness, soundness, abstemiousness, vigour, 
 health and durability, which are quite unequalled 
 in England. Abundant instances of the existence 
 of such qualities are recorded by them, some of 
 wliich I have laid before my reader. On 
 the other hand, the boldest stopping short at asser- 
 tion, no instances of perfect or good saddle-horses 
 existing in England, but as a rare exception, are, as 
 far as I know, attempted to bo brought forward by 
 any one ; but on the contrary, whilst the (in this 
 respect) ill-informed horse-breeder behoves that he 
 is producing an animal of unmatched excellence, the 
 really instructed apologist for the English horse is 
 forced reluctantly to admit the inferiority, the daily 
 increasing inferiority, of the saddle-horse of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Whilst ascribing this decadence, as all who admit 
 it do in great part, to the pernicious tendency of our 
 race-course, there ai-e, it must be borne in mind, a 
 large number of individuals who would di'ead and 
 struggle against any departure from the present 
 system, however injurious it may be to the public. 
 To some, a change would result in pecuniary loss or 
 ruin. Many who might be convinced, would, never- 
 theless, dislike to acknowledge that their cherished 
 bubble had burst ; that they must breed new horses, 
 
270 ON RACING. 
 
 consign the old exploded racing calendar to the 
 flames, and unlearn at leisure their now discarded 
 science. These persons would be well backed up by 
 many to whom new ideas are a hard crop, and their 
 culture a bitter drudgery. 
 
 There may be reasons why, not being particularly 
 interested in this subject I might have kept my 
 convictions to myself ; and I should have done so, 
 had I thought any time would be more fit than 
 the present for improvement. For as yet, in a new 
 land, the many tangled interests, which make abuse 
 too often sacred in older communities, have not yet 
 grown up amoQgst us. We are as yet in the position 
 most favorable to change, when there is a prospect 
 of amelioration. No doubt the day will come, in due 
 time, when Victoria will produce a fair crop of 
 genuine Victorian-bred absurdities on its own 
 account. In the meantime, why forestal the har- 
 vest? Why import foreign absurdities at ruinous 
 prices ? Why support this monstrous and palpable 
 folly ? Let us not deck with our wreaths the 
 columns of a mouldering temple, or help to prop 
 up a tottering inconsistency. Let us cast aside 
 this antique rubbish — look the matter straight in 
 the face, and call common sense to our councils. 
 
 Before proposing a new system of racing, with the 
 definite object of producing a breed of horses pure 
 for the saddle, in the same sense as the racer is pure 
 
ON EACING. 271 
 
 for the turf, let me beg of the reader to recoUect the 
 full effects of the one which has worked so much 
 mischief Not only has it rendered our racers, as 
 Stonehenge and others acknowledge, quite unfit to 
 be, as they were intended to be, the sires of our 
 saddle-horses ; not only have they themselves be- 
 come delicate and incapable of work, but they are 
 absolutely yearly becoming less fit even for the 
 sport for which they are in fact designed. To such 
 an extent has speed been cultivated, so entirely and 
 systematically has every other quality been sacrificed 
 to it, that afc last the animal, whilst retaining his 
 speed, has become incapable of bearing iminjured 
 the shocks of his own gallop, even when without a 
 rider : the wheels of the machine have become so 
 crazy that its locomotion has become absolutely 
 dangerous to itself Hence it is not surprising that, 
 to reach the ghttering prizes held out to speed, every 
 ingenuity has been set agoing to spare the feeble 
 failing legs, and train the racer with the minimum 
 of work. To assist this purpose, the Turkish bath 
 has been, as we have seen, brought in, to reduce 
 the fat and purge the humours which have heretofore 
 been worked ofi" by sweating gallops, which the racer 
 can now no longer support. 
 
 This infirmity of the racing machine, has not, 
 however, escaped the observation of sporting men 
 in England, and the subject has been brought before 
 
272 ON RACING. 
 
 the House of Commons. As we have seen, both 
 Stonehenge and Nolan have proposed a government 
 interference, and other remedies for the evil, though, 
 in my opinion, but inefficient ones. In fine, a 
 remedy is rarely sought in such matters, until long 
 after an evil has been discovered ; and it may be said 
 that, whilst the racer of England is as fast for a 
 short distance as ever he was, he has notoriously 
 deteriorated in stoutness, soundness, and all other 
 useful qualities, and has quite failed as regards the 
 object for which he was originally cultivated. 
 
 In proj^osing a new system of racing to the con- 
 sideration of my feUow-countrymen in Australia, 
 the object I have in view is the creation of a pure 
 and perfect saddle-horse. If we are ever to do this, 
 we must, as far as we can, so regulate the practices 
 of our Turf as to make our races a test of such 
 qualities as are indispensable in the sort of animal 
 we require. There are, it is true, some very essential 
 points in a good hack, which, practically, can hardly 
 be tested on a race-course ; but a great point would 
 be gained, if we could institute races which should 
 fully test and render compulsory on the Turf, the 
 principal characteristics of a good hack, which are, 
 soundness, stoutness, endurance, vigorous health, 
 ability to carry weight, and finally, speed after con- 
 siderable fatigue has been supported. Such speed 
 as is witnessed at a race, is, perhaps, never required 
 
ON EACING. 273 
 
 iij a hack : the race which I shall propose, will be 
 seen rather to be a test of what remiains in the horse, 
 after his work, than mere fleetness of foot. As 
 matters at present stand, if the two horses A and 
 B start to run a mile and a distance, A will win 
 because he is the faster horse of the two, 7iot 
 absolutely, but under the purely adventitious con- 
 ditions of the race. Then A, having won his Derby, 
 becomes the horse of his year. To his owner, at 
 least, he brings renown and fortune ; to himself 
 may succeed, and often does, a ruined frame and a 
 breakdown. And yet his name is entered in the 
 lists of fame ; though ruined for the Turf, he retires 
 with honor to the Stud, there to propagate his 
 decrepitude, and entail his inutility. Whilst his 
 antagonist B, damned for losing by a length, perhaps 
 vigorous, sound, unscathed by the ordeal through 
 which he has past, eminent in every useful quahfi- 
 cation, is heard no more of If, in a trial of soundness 
 and stoutness, A and B were found equal, the 
 superior speed for the mile and a distance, would, 
 in itself (and as a test of remaining power), be a 
 valuable quality superadded, and deservedly carry- 
 ing off the victory. 
 
 Soundness and stoutness are the first necessities, 
 
 and then speed : in the union and pre-eminence of 
 
 these qualities lies the perfection of the saddle-horse. 
 
 To cultivate such an animal here, the assistance of 
 
 N 2 
 
274 ON RACING. 
 
 Government would be essential. The advisability 
 and propriety of such, assistance I will consider 
 presently. In the mean time, these are the measures 
 which I propose for the perfection of the saddle- 
 horse, in connection with the Turf : — 
 
 1st. That for fifteen years our Government should 
 assume the control of our races. 
 
 2nd. That our races, as at present conducted, be 
 discountenanced as much as possible by our Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 8rd. That races, as hereinafter described, be insti- 
 tuted by the Government, courses allotted, and 
 fitting prizes provided for excelling in them. 
 
 4th. That, with a view to establishing a breed of 
 pure saddle-horses, a Stud-book be opened, under 
 the direction of the Government, in which shall be 
 inscribed the names of all horses and mares pro- 
 nounced quahfied to be entered in such Stud-book, as 
 well as all such mares and horses as shall be bred 
 pure from this source ; or, in other words, whose 
 sires and dams shall have been received into the 
 Stud-book. 
 
 5th. That for fifteen years the race-courses be 
 open to all stallions and mares. 
 
 6th. That for fifteen years any horse or mare that 
 can comply with the necessary conditions may be 
 inscribed in the Stud-book. 
 
 7th. That after the lapse of these fifteen years, no horse 
 
ON RACING. 275 
 
 or mare be allowed to be entered for any race, .unless 
 the name of sncli horse or mare be found in the 
 Stud-book, except such horse be an imported Arab. 
 
 8th. That no stallion, mare, or gelding, shall be 
 competent to be entered for any race until after 
 having gone through the trial which I have deno- 
 minated Work, which shall consist in the perform- 
 ance of certain distances for six consecutive days, 
 terminating on the day of the race itself; coupled 
 with other conditions which will be found in the 
 table annexed. 
 
 9th. That no horse or mare shall be entered in 
 the Stud-book — excepting such as claim such entry 
 by descent — unless he or she shall have accom- 
 plished the requisite trial on the course, at least 
 twice in three years. 
 
 10th. That any horse being distanced in any race, 
 or becoming unsound whilst at the Work or in the 
 Race, be thenceforth disquahfied from racing, and 
 consequently for the Stud-book. 
 
 11th. That the first horse that passes the winning 
 post shaU be the winner of the race, only if he be 
 found to be sound after it. That no stakes shall be 
 awarded after a race, until a reasonable number of 
 days shall have elapsed, in order that any unsound- 
 ness may be detected. That the stakes shall be 
 won by the first sound horse that passes the winning 
 post. 
 
276 ON RACING. 
 
 12th. That horses, mares, and geldings shall race 
 separately, and only with those of the same age 
 and sex. 
 
 13th. That the Work shall be performed in this 
 way, viz. : that an appointed official shall start at 
 the hour determined on, to ride round the course 
 where the work shall be performed, at a pace as 
 nearly as possible such as is determined on for the 
 occasion, and is indicated in the annexed table. 
 That this official shall be followed at a convenient 
 distance, say of 100 or 200 yards, by a second 
 official, and that all horses entered for the race shall 
 perform the distances allotted to them as work 
 between these two officials, under pain of exclusion 
 from the race ensuing. 
 
 14th. That whilst doing the said work, five minutes 
 to breathe be allowed at the end of each hour. 
 
 loth. That no gelding be admitted to run unless 
 he be descended from a sire and dam already in- 
 scribed in the Stud-book. 
 
 16th. That the stakes be allotted to be run for in 
 the ratio of forty to stallions, twenty to mares, and 
 ten to geldings. 
 
 17th, That any horse or mare winning as a five, 
 six, and seven year old consecutively, be entitled on 
 the last occasion to double stakes, and be incapaci- 
 tated from again running. 
 
 18th. That the weisjhts named in the table below 
 
ON RACING. 
 
 277 
 
 be those put upon stallions, and a slight reduction 
 be made in this particular in favour of mares. 
 
 19th. That all mares be disqualified from running 
 after seven years old. 
 
 20th. That between the work and the race, on the 
 day of the race, half an hour be allowed to intervene. 
 
 Table showing amount of Work previous to Races ; 
 ALSO, Length of Races, Weights to be Carried 
 
 THOUGHOUT BOTH WoRK AND RaCES, AND RaTIO 
 
 OF Stakes to be run for. 
 
 Age 
 
 OP 
 
 Horses. 
 
 Weights 
 
 TO BE 
 
 Carried. 
 
 Each 
 Day's 
 Work. 
 
 Rate of 
 
 Work 
 
 per Hour 
 
 Length 
 
 OF 
 
 Races. 
 
 Ratio 
 
 OF 
 
 Stakes. 
 
 Years. 
 4 
 
 Stone. 
 9 
 
 Miles. 
 20 
 
 Miles. 
 6 
 
 Miles. 
 2 
 
 50 
 
 5 
 
 10.71b. 
 
 30 
 
 7 
 
 H 
 
 300 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 40 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 700 
 
 I 
 
 13 
 13.71b. 
 
 50 
 50 
 
 8 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 H 
 
 1,000 
 400 
 
 9 
 
 U 
 
 50 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 400 
 
 From the above, which does not purport to em- 
 brace the minutiae of the subject, the reader will be 
 able to understand the system of races which I 
 advocate, and which, I believe, would cultivate and 
 test most of the great essential qualities which are 
 required in the saddle-horse. In such races, I 
 believe^ none but horses fit for the saddle would 
 
278 ON EACING. 
 
 excel ; and that, after some experience on the sub- 
 ject, the weights and distances, if not found the 
 most advisable, might be so re-adjusted as to 
 cultivate and eventually ensure a horse uniting 
 speed, endurance, and soundness, in the most useful 
 and perfect combination. To bring into use a 
 system such as the one which I am advocating, the 
 interference of the Government would, as I have 
 said, be requisite, and with this subject are connected 
 several considerations, of which the most prominent 
 are the following, viz. : — 
 
 Are our horses likely to be extensively ameliorated 
 without any interference on the part of Government ? 
 Is the improvement of our horses a subject of suffi- 
 cient importance to warrant the interference of our 
 Government? Is the temporary interference in 
 horse-breeding a matter of such a nature as a Govern- 
 ment can judiciously take in hand to a certain 
 extent ? To these questions I will reply as briefly 
 as I am able. 
 
 1st. Are our horses likely to be extensively 
 ameliorated without any interference on the part 
 of Government ? In answer to this question let 
 me ask another. Why should we expect ameliora- 
 tion from a system which has* been tried extensively 
 in England, here, and elsewhere, and always proved 
 a failure ? Or, is there anything to justify us in 
 the expectation that a change to a new and better 
 
ON EACING. 279 
 
 system will gradually come about unaided by 
 Government ? Let us again judge and be guided 
 by the past. In England, a change in the regula- 
 tions of the Turf, with a view to the improvement 
 of the horse, has often been sought, and always 
 been overruled. Those most immediately and inti- 
 mately alive to such change being, of coiu'se, those 
 who would suffer from its effects ; for the seekers 
 of future and public advantages are but few, and 
 weakly moved ; expectants of immediate and per- 
 sonal loss, numerous and energetic. We shall never 
 see our racecourse radically improved by our racing 
 men ! Interest and prejudice bind them to things 
 as they are. They have invested in that system. 
 Their merchandize is of value, only whilst it lasts. 
 It is their security. 
 
 2nd. Is the improvement of our horses a subject 
 of sufficient importance to warrant the interference 
 of Government ? 
 
 Though I ask the question, I can hardly think it 
 requires an answer. Is any wide-spread industry 
 or interest beneath the consideration of a govern- 
 ment, when such interference can be made benefi- 
 cial ? Say, looking to the future, that in a hundred 
 years there will be a million of saddle-horses sta- 
 bled and at work in New Holland — and, that half the 
 number might do the work as well or better, is not 
 the probability of such a result worthy of the con- 
 
280 ON RACING. 
 
 sideration of our Government of to-day ? Is not an 
 Indian, an American, and a French, aye, and an Eng- 
 lish market for our stallions worth looking after 1 
 Is not a horse power, and what else do we seek in 
 all ages but power ? Is not a good article prefer- 
 able to a bad one ? When industry has evidently 
 and permanently gone astray, shaU not Government 
 take it by the hand and lead it back to profitable 
 paths ? It is one of the very duties of a govern- 
 ment — such acts are not forgotten : as many French- 
 men know that Napoleon was, I may say, the 
 creator of beet-root sugar in France, as that he 
 triumphed at Wagram or Eckmuhl. It is as 
 important, and fit a care for a state, that the acreage, 
 capital, and labour devoted to the cultivation of the 
 saddle-horse be advantageously used, as that any 
 other industry equally extensive should be on a 
 proper footing. 
 
 8rd. Is the temporary interference in horse- 
 breeding a matter of such a nature as a Govern- 
 ment can judiciously take in hand t 
 
 First of all, it may be remarked, that horse-breed- 
 ing has at various times been largely interfered 
 with, and with most excellent results, by the 
 governments of England, France, Kussia, Germany, 
 and Persia, and in as marked a manner as that 
 which I recommend. The present Emperor of the 
 French, who is understood to be personally 
 
ON RACING. 281 
 
 thoroughly conversant with the subject, has in 
 France done more for the horse than any man of 
 our times. In several countries, governments have 
 had to choose between importing and breeding their 
 cavalry horses : fully showing that commerce and 
 the spirit of gain do not always contrive to supply 
 a market, or out-weigh prejudices. Further than 
 this, the interference of the Government in England 
 is even now, and long has been, looked forward to 
 for assistance by many supporters of the Turf, and 
 others interested in the horse : hence, the idea of a 
 government interference is no novelty at least. 
 We legislate for the sheep, the duck, the snipe, and 
 is the horse of less consequence ? Who can tell the 
 amount of money that France has spent abroad in 
 the last fifty years on this item alone, which the 
 Government should have enticed and coerced its 
 citizens to admit into their own pockets ? From 
 this very cause Germany has more than once em- 
 bargoed the export of horses, of which she was 
 being drained to mount French troopers. It is, I 
 believe, not too much to assert, that no European 
 people have heretofore bred even moderately good 
 horses, where that industry has not met with the 
 surveillance of their governments. On this subject, 
 says Stonehenge, "I believe that a government 
 inspection of all horses and mares used for breeding 
 purposes would be a great national good, and I look 
 
282 ON RACING. 
 
 forward to its establishment, at no distant time, as 
 the only probable means of insuring greater sound- 
 ness in our breeds of horses. I would not have the 
 liberty of the subject interfered with : let every 
 man breed what he likes ; but I would not let him 
 foist the produce on the country as sound, when 
 they are almost sure to go amiss as soon as they are 
 worked." 
 
 Though Stonehenge thus advocates the interfer- 
 ence of Government, he does so in a manner falling 
 short of that which I have proposed. He would 
 modify, renovate, and patch up a bad and moribund 
 system ; I would eradicate it without mercy, and 
 substitute one founded on experience and common 
 sense. He would lay inferior horses under a dis- 
 ability ; I would, besides this, absolutely and directly 
 encourage the breeder of good horses* by handsome 
 rewards for success, and rob the breeders of grey- 
 hounds (for they are not worthy to be called horses) 
 both of their prestige and profits. I would evoke a 
 new and national spirit on the subject, and direct to 
 useful ends the aims of our horse breeders. I would 
 cede to the Englishman the honor of saying, " I have 
 a horse that with a feather on his back is unequalled 
 for a mile. He can, when he does not break down, 
 do his mile in 2 minutes 20 seconds, or 1 minute 20 
 seconds (if you Hke)." I would enable the Aus- 
 tralian to reply, " I ride 14 stone, and never require 
 
ON RACING. 283 
 
 to do a mile in 2 minutes 20 seconds, still less in 
 1 minute 20 seconds. My horse can carry me 170 
 miles in one day, or 100 miles four days consecutively. 
 He lasts 20 years, is never lame, and can live well 
 where yours would die of hunger. Wlien I want a 
 useless toy, I will buy your thoroughbred ; when 
 you require a pure saddle-horse, you will know 
 where to seek him." 
 
 And here it may be asked ; can any great, general 
 reasons be advanced why saddle-horses should not be 
 bred amongst us in perfection without some authori- 
 tive supervision ? My reply is, that such reasons 
 do exist and very strong ones ; first, the thing to be 
 appreciated must be known. Then again, by crossing 
 the pure saddle-horse a gi-eat increase in size may be 
 effected without much real damage to quality be- 
 coming appartnt to the eye of the ordinary pur- 
 chaser. To a pre verted taste, the cross-bred may 
 even be preferred in the matter of beauty. For 
 this increase of height and quasi beauty the breeder 
 realizes an advanced price, which quite satisfies him 
 as to the advisability of the cross. Now in truth 
 this increase of size, which is paid for by his buyer, 
 is obtained simply by the addition of elements un- 
 fitted and damaging to the animal he purchases. 
 The more his size is increased, the greater the ad- 
 dition of incongruous elements, of elements inter- 
 fering with, damaging, unsuited to the purpose for 
 
284? ON RACIXG. 
 
 which he is supposed to be bred. It is the gold 
 nugget alloyed with baser metal. Like the cofFee- 
 measure heaped up with chicory — he is £L deception 
 — -a hoax — an adulteration — and sufferable only to 
 preverted tastes. 
 
 There is one other assistance which the Govern- 
 ment might be asked to lend to the undertaking, I 
 mean the purchase of half a dozen high caste Arab 
 sires. It is true they would not, theoretically, be in- 
 dispensable to the undertaking, though they would 
 certainly wonderfully hasten and facilitate it. But 
 the attainment of such horses would be beyond the 
 means of private persons, for money alone will not 
 purchase first-class Arabs of high caste. The at- 
 tainment of one such horse would be an affair of 
 some difficulty, and the purchaser should unite 
 something of the character of an ambassador to that 
 of a merchant. In order to provide prizes for the 
 races, in any of our colonies where such a system 
 as this should be carried out, as well as to defray 
 the cost of the small staff necessary to manage the 
 affairs of the Turf, I think a tax on all horses in the 
 district would be a very proper measure. It would 
 press lightly on the public, and tend highly to their 
 advantage. It would help to put a stop to the 
 excessive production of horses, which, at the price 
 of £2 and £4 per head, now crowd our market, and 
 uselessly consume our pastures ; of horses which are 
 
ON RACING. 285 
 
 useless to the state, and yet stand in the way of the 
 breeder of better animals. Still further, and in 
 addition to the registration proposed by Stonehenge, 
 to stop this eAdl, I would advocate a yearly tax, 
 say of £50 a head, on all stallions over one year 
 old, excepting the pure saddle-horse sires. The 
 proceeds of such taxes, properly appKed, would, I 
 think, soon lead to a marked improvement in the 
 quality of our horses. 
 
 In the foregoing proposal to institute races of a 
 more useful tendency than those now in vogue, it 
 must not be supposed that I have attempted to do 
 more than suggest such general measures as appear 
 calculated to ensure the result which I have in \dew. 
 They will, I dare say, meet with the same encour- 
 agement from racing men that Torrens's Act did 
 from the lawyers. If they are honored with any 
 notice, a hundred objections may be raised to the 
 proposed innovation. Some will attack the letter, 
 and avoid a discussion of the principle. Some will 
 condemn without considering my proposal. By 
 some I shall be told that no horses legs can stand 
 the trial to which I would submit them. '^ Fifty 
 miles a day," I think I hear some one say, " for a 
 week, carrying 13 stone, winding up with a 8 J miles 
 gallop ! It would break down any horse." I know 
 as well as I can be told, that this sort of trial will 
 not suit the legs of one English thoroughbred out of 
 
286 ON RACING. 
 
 five hundred. I know this, as well as I know the 
 folly of cultivating such horses. I also know that 
 there are breeds of horses which can do all I propose 
 with ease, and more, and that if the public encourage 
 such here, we shall gradually succeed in replacing 
 the wretched animal we now have to ride with real 
 horses. 
 
 Neither is a long race, and one which tries the 
 endurance of the horse much more severely than the 
 one which I advocate, without example, as the follow- 
 ing passage from Youatt, when speaking of the Persian 
 horse, will prove : '' My curiosity," says the author 
 from whom he quotes, " was fully on the spur to see 
 the racers, which I could not doubt must have been 
 chosen from the best in the nation, to exhibit the 
 perfection of its breed before the sovereign. The 
 rival horses were divided into three sets, in order 
 to lengthen the amusement. They had been in 
 training several weeks, going over the ground very 
 often in that time ; and when I did see them, I 
 found so much pains had been taken to sweat and 
 reduce their weight, that their bones were nearly 
 cutting the skin. The distance marked for the race 
 was a stretch of four-and-twenty miles ; and that 
 his majesty might not have to wait when he 
 reached the field, the horses had set forward long 
 before, by three divisions, from the starting point 
 (a short interval of time passing between each set). 
 
ox RACING. 287 
 
 SO that they might begin to come in a few moments 
 after the kino^ had taken his seat. The different 
 divisions arrived in regular order at the goal, but 
 all so fatio[ued an.l exhausted, that their former 
 boasted fleetness hardly exceeded a moderate canter 
 when they passed before the royal eyes." These 
 races were e\T.dently not an idle sport merely, but a 
 test of the powers of the horses. The King of 
 Persia hrecl all the horses in his kingdoini, and 
 this was the means he took to test the speed, sound- 
 ness, and endurance of the sires he used. 
 
 In concluding this chapter I must beg of my 
 reader to judge it has a whole, and of the prin- 
 ciples which it embodies rather than piecemeal : 
 as such only I offer it to his criticism. Let the 
 reader bear in mind, before he quarrels with my 
 weiohts and distances, that the more exactino^ we 
 are of perfection, the greater will be our success ; 
 and that when a trial of utility, as on our course at 
 present, has been reduced to say six or eight stone 
 for one and a half miles, a great and evident preju- 
 dice has to be combated. For myself, I seek for no 
 shadows : I advocate a legislative interference on 
 the subject, and such races as shall be the test of 
 good saddle-horses, and encouragement to the 
 breeders of them : such races as none but a good 
 saddle-horse can shine in : such races as would 
 eventually raise our saddle-horses to the maxim of 
 
288 ON RACING. 
 
 perfection. I seek for the discouragement and ruin 
 of the present race-course : that costly and useless 
 folly, which has, as a means of producing first-class 
 saddle-horses, — regard had to the money lavished 
 upon it, — proved a complete failure wherever it 
 has been tried, whether in England or Australia. 
 Let it be admitted, if you please, that, as in England, 
 better horses are thus bred than in France or Ger- 
 many, or elsewhere, where little Eastern blood has 
 been used, or trouble or expense incurred in the 
 matter : let this be admitted, for it does not debar 
 the conclusion that a smaller outlay, coupled with 
 judicious management, would have effected infinitely 
 more satisfactory results. 
 
ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 289 
 
 ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 
 
 *' As it has fallen to my lot. from long practice, to have become 
 experienced in horsemanship, so do I wish to point out to my 
 younger friends, how I think they can use their horses most 
 properly." — Xe^wphon. 
 
 On the subject of how horses should be ridden 
 and treated on long journeys, there exists amongst 
 people a considerable variety of opinion. I have 
 more than once heard this matter discussed by bush- 
 men, townsfolk, and cavalry men. 
 
 The two points on which persons differ are, as to 
 the proper divisions of long distances into days' 
 journeys, and secondly, the pace or speed at which 
 it is most advantageous to the horse — or most 
 economical of his strength — that he should be ridden. 
 In neither Youatt nor Stonehenge do I find any 
 notice of either of these points. Captain Nolan in 
 his chapter " The March," has the following obser- 
 vations : "In the campaigns of the last great war in 
 
290 ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 
 
 Europe, it was no uncommon occuiTence to see 
 cavalry arrive on the field quite crippled, having 
 lost half their numbers before a shot had been fired, 
 the remaining horses being in such wretched condi- 
 tion as to be totally unfit for active service. . . . 
 The pace " (on the march) " should be a "slow trot, 
 about six or seven miles an hour, the men rising 
 in their stirrups, and walking the horses up and 
 down hill. The horses get in earlier to their food, 
 they are groomed and better looked after, and have 
 more time to refresh. 
 
 " If you walk all the way, the horses are kept 
 saddled many hours more than is necessary, the men^ 
 get tired, sit unsteady in their saddles, and the 
 horses get sore backs. 
 
 " The crawling kmd of march really fatigues men 
 and horses much more than a march at a smart 
 trot. Let any man ride a journey of twelve or 
 fifteen miles at a walk, without ever breaking into 
 a trot or canter, and tell us when he dismounts how 
 he feels. The horse is always distressed by being 
 too long under the saddle, even though he stands 
 stock still all the while." 
 
 Now in all this, as far as the horse is concerned, 
 except the last assertion, I quite differ with Captain 
 Nolan, and feel no hesitation in saying that he has 
 had but little practical experience on the subject, 
 or, at all events, has profited very little by such as 
 
ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 291 
 
 he may have had. As far as the horseman is con- 
 cerned, it is, no doubt, less tiresome to canter fifteen 
 miles, than to ride them at a walking pace. At the 
 same time, it is quite common in this country to ride 
 at a walk for twelve hours a day, for ten, and even 
 twenty, consecutive days, without the horseman feel- 
 ing at all distressed. I have often done so for a month 
 together, and after a few days became quite inured 
 to the pace, and looked for nothing else. But after 
 all, on a long joui-ney, it is the horse that must be 
 chiefly considered ; for then the well-being of the 
 quadruped becomes the first interest of his rider. 
 Now Nolan would have his cavahy horses, weighted 
 with twenty stone, trot to save their strength and con- 
 dition, and lest di^agoons, who had ridden 15 miles 
 at a walk, should be too much exhausted to clean 
 and feed them ! If such is the case, these di-agoons 
 must be very washy dogs ! How would this system 
 answer with the. infantry soldier, with or without 
 his 60 pounds weight of ammunition, accoutrements, 
 fcc, about him ? Would it suit him to run a few 
 miles, that liis march might be sooner over, his load 
 more speedily removed from his back, and his food 
 at once placed before him ? Would running econ- 
 omize his strength ? Would it not suit him better 
 to rest a while when halfway, and so recruit himself a 
 little ? Does any living thing hasten to avoid fatigue ? 
 The Arabs are accustomed to long journeys, and 
 
292 ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 
 
 say of the European style of riding them, as we are 
 told by Daumas, " You Christians trot your horses. 
 So do we, now and then, when not at work, to keep 
 our horses in wind. In time of war, we only use 
 the walk. If we are not in a hurry, a walk is fast 
 enough. It is the lasting gallop. If we are in 
 danger, then the gallop saves our heads." 
 
 Experience has taught me the truth of our old 
 adage, '' It is the pace that kiUs." The principle is 
 a general one, and the engineer knows that the 
 steamer or locomotive whose pace is to be doubled, 
 must be supplied with a great deal more than a 
 double allowance of fuel. That the wear and tear 
 of the machine will be much more than doubled. 
 Speed is dear, and those who would have it must 
 pay its cost. What you exact of your horse in speed, 
 must be paid in duration and condition. Thus a 
 horse can walk sixty miles, but he cannot trot or 
 canter that distance. ^ 
 
 On a long journey, progress quietly ; never re- 
 main two hours on the saddle without dismounting 
 for a few moments to ease your horse's back and 
 legs : you will find it, beyond comparison^ easier 
 to save condition than to replace it 
 
 Of all paces, that at which the horse can accom- 
 plish the greater distance, that at which he works 
 with the least cost of toil and condition, is un- 
 doubtedly the very ungainly and disagreeable one of 
 
ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 293 
 
 the jog-trot, which generally covers five miles 
 wdthin the hour. This is well known in the Sahara. 
 It combines the advantages of being tolerably 
 speedy, soon bringing the work to a conclusion, with 
 a pace, easy to the animal. Whether it would suit 
 horses carrpng twenty stone I cannot say. 
 
 Two miles at a trot are as exhaustive as three at 
 a walk. Walking out, at the top of the animal's 
 speed, is scarcely less fatiguing than a gentle trot. 
 To man or beast it is more tiring to walk really hard 
 than to jog easily ; hence runners on foot adopt the 
 latter pace : hence, the horse pushed at a walk, tries 
 to spare himself by breaking into a jog, and when 
 getting weary, he must either jog or relax his walk ; 
 the horse pressed at a trot is difficult to restrain 
 from consulting his ease in a canter. To ride at the 
 top of any pace is uneconomical of strength. 
 
 In this matter of pace, it is usually found that 
 those who cannot by any possibility know anything 
 on the subject, are the most opinionated, and pro- 
 vided with the wisest maxims : it is so easy to 
 theorize on such matters, when the ignorance of the 
 theorist is perfect ! No one need plume himself on 
 his knowledge on this head, because he can ride a 
 fat horse 300 or 400 miles, at the rate of thirty 
 miles a day ; but double the whole distance without 
 increasing the length of the day's journey, and 
 those not accustomed to such thmgs, left to their 
 
294 ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 
 
 own guidance, invariably shut up their horses long 
 before the finish. For a short journey you may ride 
 your horse as you please. The proper and the im- 
 proper system prove themselves on a long journey. 
 
 The English, as a people, know little of riding- 
 horses long distances. Until they became a great 
 commercial people, their roads were all but imprac- 
 ticable, and the necessity for much change of place 
 trifling and exceptional. Since the great extension 
 of English commerce, the hack has become too slow 
 to keep pace with the requirements of the man of 
 business, and the coach first and the iron-horse 
 since have completely supplanted him : hence their 
 books make no mention of this subject. 
 
 We now come to the consideration of the stages 
 into which a long journey can be most properly 
 divided, and I will here call the attention of the 
 reader to one of the anomalies of the horse : it 
 consists in the dissimilarity of his performance and 
 capabilities from those of man and other animals : 
 thus, the horse favourably ridden will, for a day, 
 leave far behind the best pedestrian. An average 
 colonial horse will carry his rider 100 miles in 
 twelve or fourteen hours — a right good man will 
 have enough to do with fifty miles during the same 
 period ; and yet, whilst the pedestrian would have 
 little difliculty in doing the half of this distance 
 say twenty-five miles, daily, for many consecutive 
 
ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 295 
 
 days, the same horse would certainly last but a very 
 short time at fifty miles a day, or the half of his 
 maximum. This remark applies more to the half- 
 bred saddle-horse than to the Arab, or the hack of 
 the basest description. The latter may work quietly 
 for a few days, but he cannot perform a long day's 
 work — it kills him ; the former, the Arab, is more 
 akin to man in the nature of his powers — he can 
 make a long stretch for one day, and work hard 
 every day. This is to be accounted for in two 
 ways : he is pure for the saddle — his formation, 
 instincts, and powers are especially calculated and 
 cultivated for that purpose. Besides this, he has 
 great resignation : work neither irritates nor excites 
 him : it agrees with his nature — he is adapted to 
 the saddle. His day's work over, his frugal supper 
 is soon eaten — no long hours of gormandizing detain 
 him from rest ; — he is soon extended on the sand, 
 and asleep, whence he rises in the morning fit for 
 fresh toil. The Arabs, Daumas tells us, say, "Faites 
 peu de cas d'un cheval qui ne se couche point" 
 Our horses are much wanting in this respect. 
 
 I will now ask my reader how he would appor- 
 tion his daily distances, if he had to direct the 
 march of a body of cavalry, which had to perform 
 1,500 miles in 100 days. The task should not be 
 a very trying one, and is yet capable of being 
 managed in this point alone with widely diflferent 
 
298 
 
 ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 
 
 results. Tlie way in which such things are usually 
 managed is to divide equally the 105 miles, which 
 would be the weekly proportion of the task, between 
 the six first days in the week, and rest on the 
 Sunday ; and this constant harassing, for it could 
 not be called work, would leave the majority of the 
 horses quite unfit for active service at its termina- 
 tion : for the saddle-horse disimproves when unac- 
 customed to his water, forage, and place of rest, 
 often refusing to lie down : for to lie down is his 
 greatest mark of confidence. It would, in fact, be 
 a most unfit way of performing the journey. I 
 should lay the work out something in this way, 
 presuming accommodation, forage, &c., to be equal 
 everywhere : — 
 
 day's 
 
 
 MILES 
 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 day's 
 
 
 
 
 WOKK. 
 
 
 PER DAI 
 
 . 
 
 MILES. 
 
 BEST. 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 at 
 
 20 
 
 = 
 
 80 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 15 
 
 = 
 
 60 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2o 
 
 = 
 
 50 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 30 
 
 :r= 
 
 60 
 
 2 
 
 
 day's 
 
 day's 
 
 5 
 4 
 
 
 30 
 30 
 
 - 
 
 150 
 120 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 MILES. 
 
 ^ 520 
 
 WORK. 
 
 21 
 
 rest. 
 17 
 
 21 
 
 520 
 
 
 6 
 
 )) 
 
 30 
 
 
 180 
 
 3 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 )) 
 
 30 
 
 = 
 
 150 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 jj 
 
 10 
 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 10 
 
 ■ 350 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 350 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _. J 
 
 
 
 
 -""■ 
 
 
 
ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 
 
 297 
 
 day's miles 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 DAYS 
 
 WORK. PER DAY. 
 
 MILES. 
 
 REST. 
 
 4 at 30 = 
 
 120 
 
 2 
 
 4 „ 30 = 
 
 120 
 
 3 
 
 4 „ 30 = 
 
 120 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 360 
 
 12 
 
 DAY S DAYS 
 MILES. WORK. REST, 
 
 360 12 12 
 
 4 
 4 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 30 
 15 
 
 120 
 
 120 
 
 30 
 
 270 
 
 270 10 
 
 1500 56 44 
 
 Horses thus travelled would never have been 
 worked more than five consecutive days, on an ave- 
 rage much less — would have been gradually accus- 
 tomed to their work — would have had many rests, 
 and three of a week each. They would have become 
 inured to carrying their riders thirty miles four days 
 consecutively, and should end their march in good 
 condition — fit to commence a campaign. 
 
 I have concluded, gentle reader, my self-imposed 
 task. Let me finish with the hope that what I have 
 offered to your consideration, as it is certainly the 
 result of conviction, may meet with impartial con- 
 sideration, awaken some interest on this subject 
 amongst us Austrahans, and lead to some beneficial 
 results. It is of little consequence that what I have 
 proposed is new if it be reasonable, advantageous, 
 and practicable. What if it be against the practices 
 
298 ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 
 
 of England ? It accords with usages still more 
 ancient and general. But that aside : old countries 
 are not necessarily dowered with a perfection of 
 knowledge. Many new things, and simple and use- 
 ful, have come to us from the barbarous and the 
 uncivilized. From young America we lately learned 
 important facts connected with the very animal I 
 now writ of Rarey, fresh from his studies in the 
 backwoods, electrified the horsey and horse-learned 
 men of Europe with the new practical thing he had 
 to teach. Though an ilhterate man and guiltless of 
 Leicestershire and Epsom lore, he had weighed and 
 appreciated the horse for himself His conclusion 
 was beside old experience and opinion ; but he de- 
 monstrated that it was correct, and made easy what 
 had seemed impossible. For partial amelioration 
 and progressive bettering of an industry or pro- 
 fession, look to its followers. Legatees of know- 
 ledge, they would again bequeath, improved perhaps, 
 but still their own inheritance. Their minds, con- 
 servative in this, stop with additions, corrections, 
 and prunings, and run ever in the worn groove. Radi- 
 cal improvement — the new — more often comes from 
 the amateur unprofessional observer, who has little 
 prejudice, knowledge enough, and an unfettered 
 judgment. 
 
 Be this as it may, of one thing my reader may be 
 certain, that my views and opinions, correct or other- 
 
ON RIDING LONG DISTANCES. 299 
 
 wise, have been nursed in no holiday-school ; neither 
 are they a rechauffe of the monldy dogmas of turf or 
 stable. They are, indeed, the results of much 
 sweat and long journeys, weary miles, painful roads, 
 and worn-out spurs : intimacy with many who have 
 lived in the saddle : — and experience of the horses 
 of many countries. 
 
 If it seems that I have spoken too warmly or too 
 confidently on my subject, differing with so many, 
 I can only plead in excuse, together with my little 
 practice with the pen, the conviction that I am right, 
 the wish to persuade, and the hope of being useful. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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