Ed. note: While this book is very old
and hard to find, it is much enjoyed by those who have the opportunity
to own it. It primarily focuses on the value of Arabian blood within
the equine species. It was published in 1905 (before the founding
of the Royal Agricultural Society and before the Davenport importation)
and sounds a call of alarm to the Western and European world regarding
the importance of preserving the qualities of the Arab horse - the
war-horse qualities, the athletic ability, the intelligence, the
disposition, and the hardiness, and so forth. I have always enjoyed
this book and thought it best to share this chapter with you as
it gives numerous accounts from many varied sources regarding what
was most valued about these war horses of the desert. Mr. Boucaut
was prime minister of South Australia and owned and imported some
of the first Arabians to come to Australia (1891) among which was
the 100% Blunt stallion Rafyk (1890) by Azrek x Rose of Sharon.
He was a great admirer of the Arab and shares some useful information
here with us. The scope of this chapter is rather broad in that
is also includes mention of other middle eastern Arab derivatives
such as Barb and Turkoman, but most often he distinguishes. The
important point of his chapter is to illustrate what a magnificent
horse was created by the Arab culture and to remind us in Al Khamsa
what oriental qualities we are obliged to preserve.
CHAPTER VII
SUNDRY ENCOMIUMS
ON THE ARAB
TAKEN AT RANDOM,
AND INSTANCES
OF THE LOVE
OF THE ARAB
BY GREAT SOLDIERS
BISHOP HEBER,
in his 'Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of
India," says:
'My horse is a nice quiet,
good-tempered little Arab, who is so fearless that he goes without
starting close up to an elephant, and so gentle and so docile
that he eats bread out of my hand, and has almost as much attachment
and as coaxing ways as a dog.' My guests frequently notice the
strange coaxing ways of my stallions, and my unbroken mares
love to be petted, coming up around you for that purpose in
the paddock. although unbroken, and only handled when being
weaned, they eat thistles out of the hands of the children of
one of my men.'
Captain Shakespeare, in his "Wild
Sport in India,' says that the Arab is the very best horse
under the saddle that can be had in India for all general purposes.
Mr. H. Chichester Hart, in 'Scripture
Natural History,' writes of the Syrian horses of to-day,
that, no matter what the nature of the country, nothing comes
amiss to them, and there is probably in the world no more sure-footed
beast of burden to be found; that they are docile and spirited
and willing to the last extremity. Certainly these are Eastern
horses, truly Arabs, though not the very best of Arabs, not
being of the pure desert breed. They are often spoken of as
Syrian Arabs.
Mr. Sydney Galvayne, in his article'
War-Horses, Present and Future,' says of Arab ponies that
there was not a very large number of these valuable ponies sent
from India to Africa, but what were sent made a great name for
themselves and fully maintained their reputation for endurance
and strength.
The Rev. E.J.Davis, in his 'Life in
Asiatic Turkey,' writes that even hard work and starvation
cannot tame his spirited little horse, which, in spite of being
in bad condition owning to hard work and insufficient food,
has never once stumbled, never been sick, and has borne the
longest and most difficult marches with the utmost fire and
spirit.
Mr. A.G. Hulme-Bearman, in his 'Twenty
Years in the Near East,' refers again and again to the excellence
of the Syrian pony upon which he crossed Lebanon, 8,000 feet,
through snow up to the girths, then Anti-Lebanon, 6,000 feet,
and after a few days' rest the pony took him back just as readily.
A writer on the retreat from Moscow speaks of the Cossack pony
(Eastern) as living on what it could get by scraping the snow
with its feet, in pursuit 'indomitable, not to be fatigued,
relentless.'
Mr. Adye writes that it was, of course,
the Arab descent of the little animal so much in vogue in India
which accounts for its excellence; and truly wonderful were
the capabilities of the little hunters (some of them only 13.2)
on which the redoubtable sportsman Major Shakespeare speared
hog, bear, and even leopards, over broken and rocky ground intersected
by nullahs and other obstacles, which render pig sticking in
certain parts of India the most difficult and exciting of all
forms of hunting from the horseman's point of view. This corroborates
what General Tweedie says, as above mentioned, in referring
to which I have mentioned other instances of this wonderful
capacity of turning and twisting, which alone could render such
sport safe and possible. Mr. Ker, in his book "On the road
to Khiva,' says that the Khirgiz, with Eastern horses, sit
motionless on their saddles, aligned 'as if on parade.'
Suddenly the foremost darts off at full gallop, and then, wheeling
in mid-career, comes like a thunderbolt, all in one mad whirl
of flight and pursuit.
'Bruni,' in the Australasian (September
6, 1902), testifies that the (Indian records abound in proofs
of the marvelous services rendered by the small horse, and notably
by the Arab, and that on every hand the evidence was strongly
in favor of the Arab and Arab cross for army purposes, and that
of the value of the Arab cross we have had ample proof in Australia,
because for endurance they had no equal.
Dean C. Worcester, of Michigan, U.S.A.,
writes of the Philippine ponies as having originated from the
Andalusian horse or Barb, and, being well formed, sure-footed,
and remarkable tough, making excellent saddle-horses.
Mr. George Flemming writes of the wonderful
endurance of the Tartar pony; he gives one instance of the Russian
courier, who used to ride from Pekin to Kiakta -- 500 miles
-- in twelve days, rest two days, and return in fifteen, and
quotes a book by the Emperor Kienloong, published in Paris in
1770, translated by a Jesuit Father, alluding to those for racing
as having a swiftness beyond comparison. These Tartar horses
have been crossed again and again with Arabs.
Mr. Adye says that General Walker, Military
Attaché to Berlin some years ago, when probably English cavalry
were better mounted than now, was much exercised to account
for the superior endurance of the Prussian troop-horses over
the English. He was given as the chief reason the nearer affinity
to pure Arab blood. He says that, when favoring the Arab, he
was asked, Why go to the Arab when the English thoroughbred
was a perfected Arab? To which he replied that the Arab was
much hardier, that the thoroughbred was a more useful animal
a hundred years ago than he is now, and he expressed his regret
that the Arab was not properly appreciated in England; and then
he prophetically added:
'Some day, perhaps in some future
campaign, in which he happens to be brought into direct comparison
with our present trooper, and is found to be going on for months
after the latter is hopelessly done up or dead, we may have
our eyes opened to his extraordinary merits.'
This was written before the Boer War.
Alas that he should have been so accurate! To say that the English
thoroughbred is a perfected Arab is nonsense, the jargon of
the bookmakers; he is an Arab deteriorated -- deteriorated by
his being bred for sprinting, and spoiled by base blood.
In the Leisure Hour (May, 1902),
W.J.Gordon, in 'The Horse-Supply of the World.' writes
that in the Napoleonic wars the Russian horse (an Eastern horse),
lived while the French horse died; that the only others that
stood it were the little Arabs from the islands of the Levant.
And he says that in the Austrian army much of the quality of
their horses was due to careful breeding, especially in those
from Hungary, which had a strong infusion of the Arab. And he
shows the excellence of the Arab as a sire by the fact that
the small Burmese tat, sturdy and sound, is, since the introduction
of Arab stallions, developing into that useful but larger breed,
the Indo-Burmese. And he adds that the riding-horses of Persia
and Syria (allied races to the Arab, if not pure Arab, for the
Arabs conquered all those countries) are better in quality than
even the rough customers like Burnaby's wonderful Arab, which
he bought for 5 Lbs.
Chamber's Journal (September,
1901, p. 609) says that the Connemara ponies are greatly indebted
to the infusion of Arab blood, as also are the Orloff trotters
and the Achil pony.
Mr. Wilfred Blunt stated to his purchasers
at his sale at Crabbet Park, in July, 1901, that the British
Government had at last entered its name on the list of his customers,
that the Scotch Breeding Commission had taken three of his best
stallions to improve the ponies of the western Highlands, and
that the Government of India had decided on reorganizing its
military studs, and true Arab stallions were to be used.
The Register (August 14, 1901)
states that at this sale the Dutch Jockey Club of Java bought
some Arab stallions.
Mr. C.B.Fisher states that he believes
that the Arab and Timor are the only two pure breeds there are.
Where comes in the purity of the boasted thoroughbred if this
belief of one of the most experienced and respected breeders
of horses in Australia is well founded?
The Australasian (July 6, 1901)
states that the breed of ponies which originally existed in
Basutoland are supposed by the settlers to have been brought
thither by Arabs from the northern regions of Africa, which
is corroborated by a writer in the South Australian Register
of June 10, 1901 on the Boer ponies, who says that, 'as most
of them are descendants of Arab stock, they are unrivalled for
hard usage'; and 'Bruni' writes (September 6, 1903) that
'Boer ponies are said to be half-bred Arabs.'
These newspapers might have been more
positive as to the Arab blood in these celebrated ponies, for
Professor Wallace of Edinburgh, in his book on 'The Farming
Industries of South Africa,' published 1896, after his official
visit on the invitation of the Cape Government to report upon
and advises as to those industries, show that these wonderful
South African horses are for the most part of Arab blood. He
states that the first horses at the Cape were imported, soon
after 1650, by the Dutch East India Company, and consisted of
Arabs and Gulf Arabs. Note that he distinguishes between Arabs
of the pure breed, like Mr. Wilfrid Blunt's, and the inferior
breeds of the Gulf, such as are occasionally palmed off on India.
Then he continues that, when inbreeding led to deterioration,
the same company introduced Persian Arabs about 1688, that these
became crossed with other stock, including Spanish horses (which,
as I have shown, have a good sprinkling of Barb blood), and
that recently the breed has been improved by crossing with Arab
stallions.
On October 11, 1902, 'Bruni' writes:
'Since I wrote on the Arab as
a sire, I have received several letters from horsemen in
widely different parts of Australia, bearing testimony to
the value of the Arab as a sire calculated to improve the
value of the Arab as a sire calculated to improve the stamina
of our horse stock. The most interesting of these letters
is one received from Mr. R.R.Hogarth, a resident of the
north-west coast of Tasmania. He gives the following instance
of the powers of endurance of the high-class Arab:
"In December, 1900, my brother,
weighing about 10 stone 7 pounds, rode a pony standing 12.2
hands from this place to Evandale Junction in one day. The
distance is ninety-two miles. He left here at 4 a.m., and
arrived at Evandale Junction at 8 p.m. He stayed an hour
at Latrobe for breakfast, and another hour at Dunorlan for
dinner, leaving the main-road a maile to call on Mr. W.
Wyatt."
To show that the pony was not
injured by his long journey Mr. Hogarth rode him into Launceston
and back -- a distance of twenty-two miles -- the next day.
The road Mr. Hogarth describes as macadamized, and exceptionally
hilly in parts. The pony was taken out of a grass paddock
the day before he did the journey, having been running there
for some time. The pony was by Dagobeirt, imported from
New South Wales from a three-quarter-Arab mare by Maharajah,
an Arab horse well known in the Evan dale district. The
feat performed by this pony far exceeds the European military
race of seventy miles, in which no less than thirteen of
the competitors were killed. Of the pony himself Mr. Hogarth
says:
"His walk and canter were
perfect, while as to his trot -- well, it was indescribable."
An article in the South Australian
Register, September 9, 1898, after quoting various favorable
opinions, observes that in February, 1862, at Calcutta, the
Arab Hermit, though defeated, gave Voltigeur's daughter such
a stretching that the following day the mare had to be kept
home, and the Arab proved the winner. Their hardiness was such
that many an Arab has continued year after year to add to his
laurels in spite of a thickened suspensory ligament.
Mr. De Vere Hunt cites with approval
an authority which asserts that none but a people long possessed
of numerous and well-trained chargers could have planted the
victorious banners of Islam on the Pyrenees as well as on the
banks of the Ganges. He might have added -- 'and carried
them to China.' He then sets out a letter from Lord Gifford,
who was for twenty years a master of foxhounds, wherein the
writer says that his little Arab was worth fifty of the gray,
he rode him cub-hunting with Mr. Greaves, and he was active
as a cat, and could put a leg anywhere. The horse was apparently
not? an Arab.
In the South Australian Advertiser.
it was lately stated that the Arabian horse has been used in
developing the military horses of all the European countries,
and that the thoroughbred had deteriorated to a mere shadow,
while the Arab had remained the same and was increasing in popularity
in Great Britain.
'Cecil,' whom I have mentioned above,
while supporting Mr. Day in supposing that the Arab could not
improve the racehorse -- as a racehorse -- admits that: 'For
riding-horses, however, it is another affair.' for the army
and the general public that is the whole question.
Major Arthur Griffiths, in an article
in the Fortnightly, September, 1898, writes that another
great merit in the Egyptian cavalry is their horse-flesh, sturdy
little Syrian Arabs which have done an immense amount of hard
work, and, although small for their loads, are so strong and
full of spirit that they have never been sick or sorry all the
year.
At the Battle of Omdurman the Egyptian
cavalry, mostly Arabs and Arab crosses, were out all day on
September 1 from daybreak on August 31, and not in till 3 p.m.,
and on September 2 they were heavily engaged with the Dervishes
for several hours. They then advanced on Omdurman, and were
sent in pursuit of the Khalifa; and the writer adds that it
is really wonderful what the Arab pony will do.
The passage from Mr. G.W. Steevens' book
above quoted as to the cavalry march to Omdurman shows the weight-carrying
power of the Arab horse; for the 'little Syrian' is three-parts
Arab -- often, indeed, called Arab. This little horse with a
light rider carried 18 stone on his back; with a heavy rider
he carried 20 stone. I also cited the passage because it shows
to demonstrate the utter inferiority of the English horse, '
which had to be left behind at Cairo.' Mr. Stevens was
only describing what he saw. He does not appear to have had
any idea of lauding the Arab. It does not appear that he knew
how nearly Arab the little Syrian is, nor does it appear that
he had any idea of disparaging the English horse. He was describing
a picturesque scene, and the reference to the English horse
seems to have been quite an aside. 'Their own big, hungry
chargers had to be left behind at Cairo!'
Dinah Sharp, in the New York Times,
November 14, 1891, shows that the Arab has not deteriorated.
She relates that Omar (who afterwards belonged to the late Empress
of Austria, the finest horsewoman in Europe), traveled three
days and nights over the hot and barren plains of the Arabian
desert, with but 2 quarts of barley for food, and an occasional
tuft of Sahara clover.
Miss Ella Sykes, in her recent work 'Through
Persia on a Side-saddle,' writes that the horses they usually
had were wiry little Arabs, about 14 hands high, plucky, enduring,
and very easy to manage by their riders.
The Vienna correspondent of the Mail,
recently wrote that the Hungarian horse had special qualities
of endurance, which he attributed to his dash of the Arab blood,
and that it was a great matter to have a certain strain of Arab
blood in the troop-horse; for the Arab horse and the horse with
the Arab blood will feed on indifferent forage which the English
horse will not look at, and would retain condition when the
latter was reduced to a bag of bones. The Hungarian horse had
extremely hard bone, like the Arab, and consequently was seldom
troubled with spavin, which was but too common among our own
horses, whose bones are softer.
The Windsor Magazine, January,
1903, has it that the horses which are common to Hungary and
Romania are famous for their extraordinary strength, pluck,
and sure-footedness. They both have a strong Arab dash.
In the 'Encyclopedia Britannica'
art. 'Arabia,' it is said that trained European racers would
easily distance a thoroughbred Arab on any ordinary course,
but for perfection of form, symmetry of limbs, cleanness of
muscle, beauty of appearance, for endurance of fatigue, for
docility, and for speed maintained for distances so long as
to appear incredible, the Nedjie horse acknowledges no equal.
Mr. Harold Leeney, M.R.C.V.S., in the
Live Stock Journal Almanack for 1898, writing a scientific
article on the castration of horses, showing its desirability,
says that if exception -- i.e., noncastration -- could be made
to any particular breed, he would say that the Arab was the
one with fewest objections as an entire. No other reference
is made to the Arab in the article, and this incidental reference
of course testifies in an unusual manner to his docility. It
is said that if they have never been at the stud they are perfectly
quiet; and I believe that they are not usually gelded in Egypt.
I often show off the docility of the breed to my guests by mounting
-- I ought to say, at seventy-three, by climbing on to -- my
old sire, now twelve years old, in the paddock, without either
saddle or bridle, and I have done this though close to him on
the other side of the fence was another stallion. I have ridden
him in great crowds and tents and shows and sports at Glenelg
on Commemoration Day, and when he has got excited I have only
had to speak to him to calm him down. This after several years
at the stud.
Mr. W.G.Palgrave says that it is well
known that in Arabia horses are much less frequently vicious
or refractory than in Europe. Why, that is in the breed! Then
he adds that this was the reason why geldings there were so
rare. Miss Sara Linard, in her recent book on the horse, 1902,
quotes a horse - parade described in the Daily Graphic of October,
1896, where four young ladies rode four Arab stallions, which,
she says, before going to the stud are entirely safe, and which
she also says is the case with Arabs only, 'who know how
to behave themselves as gentlemen.' Many young ladies, visitors
at my farm, from six or seven up, love to give my stallions
sugar. But they are pure-bred. They are 'gentlemen.'
I have read that the docility and the
cleverness of the breed are such that, in Arabia, they lead
the animal to bite and keep in the path those which stray. Now,
it so happened that, when the grass began to spring, the horses,
working bullocks, and cows, at Kingsford, where I used to be
stock keeping in the forties, used to wander -- there were no
paddocks -- and it was my duty to go out in the morning and
bring them home, sometimes a distance of three or four or more
miles. There was always a tendency in cattle and horses under
these circumstances to edge off from a man on foot, and so surely
as any of the other horses, or any of the cows or bullocks,
did this, my old stock-horse, half Arab, as I have said, was
as prompt as a cattle-dog to rush out and bring them back by
a nip. I often used to wonder how he acquired the habit. This
was, of course, when he 'wasn't on' himself for a gallop.
Occasionally some of those uncanny creatures which entered the
Gadarene swine possessed him, and at such times he was the ringleader.
that was when the 'old Adam' came out; but he would not
ordinarily allow any of the others to lead or to depart from
the right path.
In Dr. Liddon's 'Tour in Egypt and
Palestine in 1886,' a description is given of a Bedouin
Sheikh, a worthy descendant of Sir Walter Scott's Saladin. When
he struck his spear into the ground, his horse stood and watched
him like a dog. When he returned after his rounds, his horse
lay down and gave a low whinny, then the Sheikh lay down by
his side, making a pillow of the horse, and they both slept,
apparently, for half an hour. The Sheikh again went his rounds,
and the horse, finding his master had no further intentions
of going to bed, got up and stood by the spear all night. My
groom often lies down between the legs of my stallions, which
then walk round him inquiringly and caressingly, apparently
pleased at his confidence.
Mr. R. Fitzroy Cote, a considerable author,
in his "Peruvians at Home,' says that at the Lima bullfights
all the horses permitted to enter the arena must be of pure
Arab blood, and owing to their sagacity and the agility of their
riders they seldom fail to escape the bull's horns. Mr. Cote
was not writing up the Arab horse, and only mentions him incidentally;
but doubtless the Peruvians had discovered his wonderful powers
of twisting and turning, which have been illustrated in his
boar-hunting in India.
The great traveler J.S.Buckingham, who
at one time commanded a ship which made a long stay at each
of the great marts of trade in the Persian Gulf, in giving an
account of the trade there to India, and explaining the easy
mode in which horses might thence be shipped, says that it was
the usual thing for Arab horses to sleep standing, and to do
so for years in succession, without ever lying down except when
sick.
'Bruni' points out, on the authority
of Mr. W.G. Hughes of Texas, that the foundation stock of the
celebrated Mexican mustangs was the Moorish horses (Barbs) turned
loose by Cortes. Desiring to breed from these mustangs, Mr.
Hughes traveled over a large part of the United States, and
finally found the horse he wanted in Nimrod, by a pure Arab
sire, Nimr.
As showing the growing favor of the Arab,
the racing gentlemen notwithstanding, the Ladies' Field,
October 28, 1902, has an advertisement that 'a perfectly-shaped
child's pony 11.3 hands, rising five, like a miniature Arab,
jumps high,' was for sale. A racing man would probably laugh
at this, but even supposing the man or woman who inserted this
advertisement had been impressed by some drawing-room or fashionable
novel, none the less does it show that the present general trend
of opinion towards the Arab which 'Bruni' testifies to. It shows
a belief that Arab blood is a recommendation, that there is
a growing recognition of the excellence of the breed, a belief
that it is the best that can be obtained in horse-flesh, and
breeders who want to sell will be wise if they note it. If it
be only a straw, it is the sort of straw which shows the way
the wind is blowing. It demonstrates, in fact, that belief in
the Arab is 'sinking in.' Can anyone wonder at it when he reads
the facts collected in this little book?
'Faneargh,' in the Sidney Mail,
writes that the old stock horse of the over Landers of the early
forties and fifties were largely bred from Arabs, that these
old horses were of wonderful stamina, and their staying powers
were marvelous.
The Register, September 7, 1901,
reminds the public that the Arab horse stands cold as well as
heat, and will eat anything that is given to him; that on half-rations
or less his brave heart carries him through almost all imaginable
difficulties; that it is difficult to overweight him, and he
has always been more appreciated by foreigners than by Englishman
-- of course because of sprinting.
Professor Watson writes that the African
horses were smaller and shorter in the body than those bred
in Australia, and, as most of them were descendants of the Arab
stock, they are unrivalled for hard usage.
At Waterloo the Emperor Napoleon was
mounted on Marengo, a beautiful little Arab, only 14.2 hands,
and when wounded Napoleon mounted his white Arab mare Marie;
and in another sketch of Napoleon it is stated that Marengo
was brought by Napoleon from Egypt in 199 (sic), and ridden
by him at Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Wagram, in the Russian
Campaign, and at Waterloo, and that his skeleton was still in
the Royal United Service Institution.
The German Emperor at the army maneuvers
in 1902 led the cavalry 'mounted on his Arab charger.'
He may be a poet, but he is no dreamy simpleton. He is probably
the hardest-headed man in Europe.
Lord Roberts at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee
was mounted on 'his celebrated Arab.' Lord Roberts is
not a drawing-room General, but, as stated by Lieutenant-Colonel
Maude in Macmillan, May 1, 1902, 'a perfect horseman-- one
of the best in India -- a man of the widest experience as to
what horse can do in the field.' Colonel Maude states that
General Roberts rode his Arab all through the Candahar forced
march -- 'a type of the highest class of Arab.' By special
permission of Queen Victoria, this horse, Voronel, wears an
Afghan medal with four clasps, and the Cabul-Candahar star.
Abdur Rahman, late Amir of Afghanistan,
writes in his autobiography (one of the most remarkable books
of the day, 1900):
'At the end of our march both
men and horses were well-nigh exhausted. I myself cooked
some meat and distributed it among the men, who were almost
fainting; the horses meantime lay down, unable to rise again.
Only one horse, my own Arab, remained standing.'
Abdur Rahman was fighting for his life,
and, like the Bedouin, had to rely on his horse for his preservation.
The odds on the Cup and the Stud book were nothing to him. A
racing sprinter would have been destruction to him. He wanted
fact, not fancy; solid work, not delicate prettiness; and it
can be hardly suggested that the German Emperor did not know
a good horse. Why did they ride Arabs when the pick of the whole
world was at their service?
Ed. note: While this book is very old
and hard to find, it is much enjoyed by those who have the opportunity
to own it. It primarily focuses on the value of Arabian blood within
the equine species. It was published in 1905 (before the founding
of the Royal Agricultural Society and before the Davenport importation)
and sounds a call of alarm to the Western and European world regarding
the importance of preserving the qualities of the Arab horse - the
war-horse qualities, the athletic ability, the intelligence, the
disposition, and the hardiness, and so forth. I have always enjoyed
this book and thought it best to share this chapter with you as
it gives numerous accounts from many varied sources regarding what
was most valued about these war horses of the desert. Mr. Boucaut
was prime minister of South Australia and owned and imported some
of the first Arabians to come to Australia (1891) among which was
the 100% Blunt stallion Rafyk (1890) by Azrek x Rose of Sharon.
He was a great admirer of the Arab and shares some useful information
here with us. The scope of this chapter is rather broad in that
is also includes mention of other middle eastern Arab derivatives
such as Barb and Turkoman, but most often he distinguishes. The
important point of his chapter is to illustrate what a magnificent
horse was created by the Arab culture and to remind us in Al Khamsa
what oriental qualities we are obliged to preserve.
