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The Arab Horse

By

SPENCER BORDEN

Many illustrations
from photographs

NEW YORK
Doubleday, Page & Company
1906

Copyright, 1906, by

Doubleday, Page & Company

Published, September, 1906

All rights reserved,

including that of translation into foreign languages ,

including the Scandinavian

CONTENTS

Preface

J. i^iav^^ • « • • •

Introduction .....

;

CHAPTER

I.

Arab Horses Outside of Arabia

II.

Arabia, and Some of the Bedouins

III.

Early History and Families of
Horses . . . .

Arab

IV.

How Some Arab Horses Have
Obtained . . . .

Been

V.

Arab Horses in America

VI.

Some Last Words

vn

XV

3

19

37

49
81

97

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Godolphin Arabian . . Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Nimr ........ xx

Arabian Horses . . . . . . 27

Zem Zem ....... 58

Mares and foals at Crabbett Park . . 61

Antika, 4 years . . . . . .66

Raschida . . . . . . . 68

Mesaoud ....... 70

Greyleg 72

Euclid 72

Lanercost ....... 73

Blitz 73

Kismet ....... 74

A typical polo pony, sire Kismet . . .75

Maidan at 23 . . . . . . 77

Maidan at 23 years of age posing for his

portrait . . . . . • . -79

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS— Co«//n«^^

FACING PAGB

Heiress and half-bred daughter, 4 months old 80

Garaveen ....... 87

Heiress 88

Half-bred gelding by Garaveen ... 89

Raksh ........ 90

Segario, 4 years 91

Imamzada ....... 92

Rose of Sharon ...... 93

Rumeliya 95

Rosetta, 4 years ...... 98

PREFACE

In the present work Mr. Spencer Bor-
den brings together a most interesting
mass of information regarding the relation
of the Arab horse to the Hfe and history
of the Arabians, and he has kindly asked
me to preface the work by speaking more
particularly of the natural history and
of the antiquity of this breed.

About two years ago I began especially
to study the Arabian after having de-
voted many years to the study of the
horse in general. The anatomy, the
origin, and the natural history of the Arab
has naturally attracted less attention
than the relation of the Arab to the origin
of the thoroughbred racing horse. So I
directed my attention especially to the
structure of the animal as a perfect living
machine, to the part it has played in the
history of the world and to the domesti-
cation of horses from the earliest times.

vii

viii Preface

This proves to be a far more fascinating
subject than any of us suspected a few
years ago. Darwin, in treating of the or-
igin of the horse, among other animals,
did not give the Arab an especially dis-
tinct rank. Other writers, such as the
distinguished French anatomist Sansan,
have pointed out the important dif-
ferences in the structure of the Arab,
but have not fully sustained the theory of
its separateness. It remained for Pro-
fessor William Ridgeway of Cambridge
University to write what will prove to be
an epoch-making book on the natural
history of the Arab, since it forces the
question of the entire separateness of the
Arab breed, as a breed produced by
nature before domestication by man, and
entirely separate from the Northern horses
of Europe.

This raises two great questions :
Did the Arab horses spring from wild
horses entirely distinct from other wild
horses and superior in structure from
other wild horses?

Preface ix

Secondly, in what part of the world did
the wild horses which gave rise to the
Arabs have their natural home and breed-
ing grounds?

On the first point, as to the entire
separateness of the Arab breed as an
original or natural breed from other
horses, I am convinced not only by the
arguments and facts brought forth by
Sansan, Ridgeway, and others, but by
my own observations that nature en-
dowed the so-called Arab with many of
its finest qualities, and that the Arabs
have improved the breed but without
greatly modifying it. The methods of
horse rearing adopted among the Arabs
are calculated to produce a fine and hardy
race but the methods of selection chiefly
of mares are not calculated to modify a
race very rapidly. As soon as the English
took hold of the Arab breed and began
to select both mares and stallions for a
specific purpose, namely, for high speed
at short distances, they produced very
rapid modifications, so that the modern

X Preface

thoroughbred is a very different creature
from its Arab ancestor; in some respects
superior, in others inferior.

On the second great question, in what
part of the world this noble breed lived
in its wild state, Ridgeway has advanced
a largely original opinion, widely differing
from that of Blunt and other great au-
thorities on this subject, that the wild
ancestor of the Arab did not belong in
Arabia at all but had its home in Africa,
especially in the ancient country of Libya,
lying west of Egypt. He goes so far as
to give this wild horse a distinct name,
Equus lihycus, in reference to its Libyan
home.

I am strongly inclined to believe that
Ridgeway is right. He certainly brings
forth a great mass of evidence of every
conceivable kind that the noble horse
which has been raising the quality of the
horse blood of Europe and western Asia
from time immemorial came not out of
Arabia but out of northern Africa. His
view is naturally directly opposed to

Preface xi

many of the interesting Arab traditions
as to the great antiquity of the breed in
Arabia proper, but Ridgeway shows that
even Arab traditions may be interpreted
to point to a remote African origin.
Ridgeway 's work forces a more careful
discussion and examination of this ques-
tion than has ever been made before,
and will, I have no doubt, end in its
solution.

On sentimental grounds it will be hard
to take away the Arab from what we
have always considered its original home
and regard it as an importation into
Arabia from Africa. This question is
certainly not yet settled; but we may
regard it as settled that whatever the
issue the so-called Arabian is a very an-
cient breed, including characters which
were strongly established in a natural
state before domestication by man, and
which, therefore, have such great anti-
quity that they are extremely stable in
heredity and cross breeding.

The most profound of these heredity

xii Preface

characters are in the skeleton or bony
framework.

The skeleton of "Nimr," like that of
other Arabs, is distinguished by one less
vertebra in the back, a point long ago
observed by Sanson as characteristic of
the North African horses. I also find that
in the fore leg the ulna, or small bone of
the fore leg, is complete, whereas in other
horses it ends in a splint. There are only
sixteen vertebrae in the tail, as compared
with eighteen in the tail of the horses of
northern Europe. Other characters are
the horizontal position of the pelvis, as
in most animals of great speed, the large
size of the brain case, relative shortness
of the skull, the slenderness of the lower
jaw.

When one becomes once familiar with
the fine points of the Arab he can see
traces of the fine points of this breed
impressed everywhere: there is no ques-
tion that it has been the uplifting, en-
nobling quality which has been intro-
duced in the blood of commoner horses

Preface xiii

from a period dating back from 1600 to
2000 B. C.

To know the Arab horse is to love him.
Those who, like the author of the present
work, are endeavouring to maintain the
purity of the original breed, and to es-
tablish the value of its qualities, are
rendering a substantial, practical, and
theoretical service.

Henry Fairfield Osborn
New York, May 16, 1906.

INTRODUCTION

Some years ago there came into pos-
session of the writer, an old book. It
had not very many pages, and they
were yellow with age. One entire page
was devoted to the title:

The Genealogy of the English Race Horse;
With the Natural History of his Progenitors from the

earliest times Collected from the

best Authorities, etc,, etc., etc.

By T. Hornby Morland.

London.

Printed by J. Barfield, Waldour St.

Printer to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,

1810.

In common with other writers who
have studied the subject, the author
argues convincingly that the blood of
the pure Arab is the foundation upon
which the English thoroughbred horse
has been built by those responsible for
his creation and improvement. He
writes:

XV

xvi Introduction

** Arabian horses are the most beauti-
ful; they are larger, more muscular, and
handsomer than the Barbs. The Arabs
preserve with care, and for an amazing
length of time, the races of their horses;
they know all their alliances and genealo-
gies.

• ■••••

'* The Arabs, by long experience, know
all the races of their own horses, as well
as those of their neighbours."

Then follows a long account of the
care given to secure properly selected
mates inbreeding their horses, the formal-
ities observed when the horses are bred,
the solicitous painstaking when the foal is
born to make certain his identity, so
that it can never be questioned, the
methods of feeding and growth, of train-
ing and care. After setting out these
matters with great detail he concludes:

"From all these facts it appears,
that Arabian horses have always been,
and still are, the best horses in the world ;
that from them, or by the mediation of
the Barbs, are descended the finest horses

Introduction xvii

in Europe, in Africa, and in Asia; that
Arabia is not only the original climate
for horses, but the best suited for their
constitution, since, instead of crossing
the breed with foreign horses, the natives
anxiously preserve the purity of their own
race; that, at least if Arabia be not the
best climate for horses, the Arabs have
produced the same effect, by the scrupu-
lous and particular attention they have
paid toward ennobling their race, and
never permitting individuals to mix,
which were not most beautiful and
of finest quality; and that, by the
same attention continued for ages, they
have improved the species far beyond
what nature would have performed in the
most favourable climate."

These words, written a century ago,
may well serve as introduction in present-
ing the subject to be considered in the
pages of this book. The sources of
Morland's information are unknown to
the present writer. That he was well
informed, will, it is believed, become
apparent in what is to follow.

Professor Osborn, in his Preface, calls

xviii Introduction

attention to certain questions as worthy
of our consideration. First: Are Arab
horses so different from all others that
they are a class by themselves, distinct
and separate? Secondly: In what part
of the world did they first appear?

The latter question is one for scientists
to settle; it is a subject for academic
discussion alone. Before we are through
with the matters to be presented, there
will probably be few who will doubt
where Arab horses live at present and
have been found for hundreds of years in
a state of pure breeding. With this
view Professor Osbom is entirely in ac-
cord, for he writes:

''There is no question that it (the
Arab horse) has been the uplifting, en-
nobling quality which has been introduced
in the blood of common horses from a
period dating back from 1600 to 2000
B. C."

His statement not only coincides with
writings which will be quoted of those
who have studied the subject in Arabia

Introduction xix

within our own times, it is confirmed
by the discoveries of Layard in his exca-
vations of Nineveh, capital of the ancient
Assyrian Empire, on the border land of
Arabia itself. He found bas-reliefs repre-
senting men armed with spears, mounted
on horses of typical Arab conformation
and size, hunting lions. It is a curious
fact that no horse but an Arab has ever
been found endowed with the courage to
face a lion, but that in our own day Arab
horses are frequently used in hunting the
king of beasts.

The point of most vital interest to the
present discussion is Professor Osbom's
affirmative answer to his own first ques-
tion. He expresses no doubt when he
declares "the entire separateness of the
Arab breed, produced by nature before
domestication by man. "

In this he is in entire accord with those
other eminent authorities, Sansan, the
Frenchman, and Ridgeway, the English
scientist. Incidentally, it is of interest
that the scientific data from which Pro-

XX Introduction

fessor Osbom partially draws his con-
clusions, were gathered by study of the
skeleton of the great Arab horse Nimr,
whose picture, with that of his beautiful
son Segario, we are able to produce in
these pages; a horse for several years in
possession of, and ridden by, the writer of
these lines.

Vr

THE ARAB HORSE

CHAPTER I
Arab Horses Outside of Arabia

FOR many years in Russia, Hungary,
France, Germany and other
countries on the continent of
Europe, Arabian horses have been valued
at their true worth, and studs devoted
to their production have been maintained
at pubUc expense.

Peter the Great estabUshed the Im-
perial Russian Stud, and with his suc-
cessors sought at all times to strengthen
it by new infusions of pure Arab blood.
Captain Ismailoff, who was sent by the
Russian Government with horses to be
shown at the Columbian Exposition at
Chicago in 1893, tells us that as early
as 1772 Catherine the Great had in the
Imperial Stud, under care of Count
Orloff-Tchestmensky, twelve pure Arab
stallions, and ten Arab mares.

4 The Arab Horse

In our day the Hungarian Government
contributes annually $50,000 as added
money to the Budapest race meetings,
and $10,000 additional to meetings in the
provinces, for the purpose of encouraging
the breeding of superior horses. Not
only so, the Government maintains not
less than four great breeding studs at the
public expense, under direction of Prince
Louis Esterhazy. Of these, one at Bab-
olna is devoted exclusively to pure bred
and half bred Arabs, and much Arab
blood is also found in the other three.
Babolna was made a separate stud, an
offshoot from Mezohegyes in 1789; and
at Mezohegyes in 18 10 there were 13,386
animals, supplying at that time a thous-
sand cavalry remounts annually to the
army.

The influence of these studs of Arab
horses was forcibly illustrated in 1892,
at the time of the famous long distance
race of cavalry officers between Berlin
and Vienna. The Prussians starting at
Berlin rode to Vienna, the Austrians

Arab Horses Outside of Arabia 5

started at Vienna, and rode to Berlin.
The winner of the race was Maresa, a
brown gelding owned and ridden by an
Austrian. He was a small Magyar horse,
bred in a private stud on the Stukweissen-
berge Comitat, his sire a Gidran, his dam
an undersized Hotsul or Hoeul mare.
The mare had been given by her breeder
to one of the czikos or mounted stockmen,
who herd the mobs of mares that graze
on the mountains. One night a burglary
took place some ten German miles (fifty
English miles) from the stud to which
this horse herd was attached. Witnesses
swore they had seen him in the act of
robbing; but other reputable witnesses,
a number of them, were able to verify
the fact that the man was seen at his
post at eight in the evening and four in
the morning of the night of the burglary,
the alibi was decided to have been
established, and the man was acquitted
of the charge. Shortly afterward the
fellow became seriously ill and thought
himself about to die. He then confessed

6 The Arab Horse

that he was indeed the robber; and told
that he had ridden his mare the fifty
miles over the mountains and fifty miles
return in seven hours, besides having
committed the crime.

These Hotsuls are nearly the only
known tribe of riding mountaineers.
Their little horses are noted for great
weight-carrying power, are active, wiry,
sure-footed, untiring, and very gentle.
They are descended from the high caste
Arab horses brought into the Carpathians
by the Turks, who have invaded the
country no less than ninety times within
five hundred years. They are generally
black, bay or black-brown, and from
13 hands 2 inches to 14.2 high. They
are said to be the best shooting ponies
in the world, and can endure great hard-
ships, never tasting grain, and are pas-
ured on mountains where there is said to
be no day without rain. Bred in the
neighbouring stud of Radautz, or at that
of Mezohegyes, the Gidran — more pro-
perly Jedran, one of the highest caste

Arab Horses Outside of Arabia 7

of Arab families — is either of pure desert
blood, or an Arab crossed on select Eng-
lish thoroughbred mares. Those bred
at Radautz range in freedom over the
wild Carpathian plateaux during the
summer, and one of these was the sire,
the little robber Hotsul mare the dam, of
Maresa, who carried his rider from Vienna
to Berlin, four hundred and twenty-five
miles, between Monday morning and the
following Thursday noon.

Not only so, but the Prussian officer to
whom was awarded the gold medal for
having the horse which should finish the
journey in the best condition, Lieut. W.
von Gaffein, was mounted on a horse of
similar breeding, a brown gelding fifteen
hands high, bred by Count Potocki in
Galicia. Though Maresa made the jour-
ney in two or three hours less time, Von
Gaffein' s horse came through apparently
uninjured by the cruel test, whose severity
can be judged by the fact that of one
hundred and seventeen Prussian officers
to start, only seventy-one reached their

8 The Arab Horse

goal, the horses of the other forty-six
dying en route.

There is then some slight compensation
for the afflicted countries of the Balkan
peninsula, so often the scene of Turkish
rapine, in the fact that when driven out
the Turks left good horses behind them.
Constantinople was captured by Mo-
hammed 11. in 1453. His successors
Bajazet II. and Selim I. conquered Meso-
potamia, and overran Syria, Palestine
and Egypt. Selim also won a great
victory over the sheik of Mecca, Lord of
Nejd, so putting him in possession of
some of the finest horses in the world.
In 1522 the Turks invaded Hungary,
500,000 strong, including in the army
their terrible cavalry squadrons number-
ing 300,000 horsemen. Having twice
besieged Vienna, the wave of Mohamme-
dan conquest was finally rolled back on
itself by the great victory won under
Jan Sobeiski, King of Poland. It is told
that when Mustapha was finally repulsed
from Vienna, the Turkish Vizier lost his

Arab Horses Outside of Arabia g

own war horse, and that when finally
driven from the country he left behind
him ''horses of rare value."

From that day to the present time the
great nobles of Hungary demand the best
of Arabian blood in their stables; and
even now a Bedouin is attached to the
Hungarian Army as master of horse,
having the rank of major, charged with
the duty of selecting the best of Arabian
horses for the royal studs. Since these
were established, in 1785, the animals
have been chosen for their symmetry,
power and action. A careful record of
their pedigrees has been kept and the
breeding carried on by a scheme of in-
telligent selection. Outside the govern-
ment breeding establishments there are
to-day no less than one hundred and
fifty private studs, in which are to be
found 5,000 Arab mares of purest blood.

In Germany and France, also, im-
portant studs of Arabian horses are
maintained at the public expense. Some
of the animals from the stud of the King

lo The Arab Horse

of Wurtemburg were brought to the
United States, and are owned by Mr.
Heyl of Milwaukee, who showed them
at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago
in 1893. The French have extensive
heras of Arab horses both in France and
in Algeria. In the days of Napoleon III.
whole regiments of chasseurs mounted on
Arab horses could be seen at the great
French army manoeuvres.

The greater number of Arabs imported
to America in late years having come
from England, the history of the Arabian
horse in Great Britain seems to call for
somewhat extended consideration.

John Lawrence, whose *' History and
Delineation of the Horse " was published
in 1809 is one of the earliest writers on
this subject. From him we learn that
James I., Charles I., Oliver Cromwell,
Charles II. and James II. were all inter-
ested in horse breeding, and all looked to
the pure Arab horse as the source of im-
proving blood. The list of horses and
mares brought by them to England from

Arab Horses Outside of Arabia ii

the East is a long one, the '' Royal Mares"
being at the foundation of the English
thoroughbred horse of to-day. It was
in the reign of Queen Anne, however,
that the famous Darley Arabian was sent
from Aleppo by Mr. Barley's brother a
merchant of that city, procured by him
near Palmyra from the wandering Be-
douins. Within twenty years the papers
have been found which came with this
famous horse, confirming the independent
information obtained by H. M. Consul
General at Aleppo, concerning the family
to which the horse belonged.

The Byerly Turk was brought to Eng-
land some years before the Darley Ara-
bian, and the Godolphin Arabian came
a few years after him, in 1726. These
three horses of Eastern origin have always
been considered the blood that produced
the modem English race horse, the
Arabians being the more prized. John
Lawrence wrote in 1809:

'' But the fame of these two great
Arabians, the Darley and Godolphin,

12 The Arab Horse

has almost swallowed up that of the
rest; and our best horses, for nearly a
century past have been either deeply im-
bued with their blood, or entirely derived
from it."

Time has made the truth of this asser-
tion even more impressive. Not only so,
but the process of elimination has gone
on till the Darley Arabian blood has
become paramount even over that of
the Godolphin, several of whose sons and
grandsons came to America in the early
days, and were highly prized in South
Carolina.

Touchstone in his great book, pub-
lished by subscription in 1890, whose
preface was written by the Duke of
Beaufort, remarks (page 13):

"It is certain that when a thorough-
bred is taken out of training early,
when he is no longer subjected to that
special regime which changes his out-
ward form and modifies his constitution,
he reverts to the Arab type with astonish-
ing rapidity."

And again:

Arab Horses Outside of Arabia 13

*' Among the Eastern stallions which
are the originators of the thorough-
bred of the present day, the eldest is the
Arab horse purchased by Mr. Darley,
a commission agent at Aleppo, and a
thorough paced sportsman, to whose
influence and energy is due in large
measure the reaction which took place
in England at the beginning of the eight-
teenth century in favour of animals of
Eastern origin. In the course of a hunt-
ing excursion in the neighbourhood of
Aleppo, Mr. Darley met an Arab, who
was riding a very remarkable horse,
whose speed, endurance and lightness
gave him the appearance of being a
faultless animal.

"In exchange for an English musket,
a weapon very little known in the East,
and a good round sum of money, Manicka,
as this superb animal was called, became
the property of Mr. Darley, who sent
him to his brother, Mr. John Brewster
Darley, of Aldby Park, York, where he
arrived in the beginning of 1712 (1705 ?
S.-B.), he being at that time four years
old. . . . His two best representatives,
Flying Childers and Bartlett Childers,
bred by Mr. Charles Childers of Can*

14 The Arab Horse

House, were purchased by the Duke of
Devonshire and Mr. Bartlett.

''There is no authentic portrait of the
Darley Arabian, and we are unable there-
fore to reproduce him side by side with
his rival, the Godolphin Arabian. The
important part which he played in the
formation of a pure breed must be our
excuse for this digression, and we may add
that he was a dark bay with white mark-
ings on the two near legs and a long blaze
on the head. He was about fifteen hands
high, with a large head, well developed
haunches, plenty of length, and unex-
ceptionable limbs. He was in fact, both
on the paternal and maternal side, of
the breed held in highest esteem by the
Arabs.

" Thanks to Mr. Darley, a fresh impulse
was given, and it was not destined to
receive any further check. The foundation
of the Jockey Club in 1781 was the
final consecration of the work thus begun."

Major Roger Upton, with whom the
reader is to become quite well acquainted,
is most emphatic in his tribute to the
Darley Arabian. He writes (''New-
market and Arabia," page 84):

Arab Horses Outside of Arabia 15

**In itself I cannot help considering
the line from the Godolphin Arab or
Barb a very poor one, and, like that from
the Byerly Turk, it really owes what
celebrity it may have, and its continuance,
to the infusions of blood it has received
from the descendants of the Darley
Arabian. It is worthy of remark, although
not extraordinary, that almost in pro-
portion to the amount of Darley Arabian
blood has been the success of the indi-
viduals of this line."

By the end of the nineteenth century
it was capable of proof by statisticians
giving their attention to the subject, such
as Mr. Bruce Lowe and Mr. W. A. Allison
who had worked out the famous *' Figure
System" for the guidance of race horse
breeders, that of the winners of the
'' Classic " English races (the Derby, Oaks,
and St. Leger), since their establishment,
covering a period of a hundred years,
more than ninety-five per cent, were de-
scendants in the male line from the Dar-
ley Arabian, and thoroughly saturated
with his blood.

1 6 The Arab Horse

Recognition of the preponderating in-
fluence of this prepotent animal was made
in a most practical manner both in Eng-
land and America between 1850 and i860,
America acting first. In 1855 the New
Orleans Jockey Club, at a meeting at the
old Metaire Race Course, asked Mr. Keene
Richards of Kentucky to go to Arabia
and try to secure some of the coveted
blood. About the same time, Admiral
Rous of England, having conferred with
other great breeders, secured the ap-
pointment of Mr. W. S. Skene as H. M.
Consul General at Aleppo. He went
with the definite purpose of cultivating
the friendship of the Bedouin tribes,
especially of the Anazah, the great breed-
ing tribes of the desert, and of learning
from them, if possible, the family of
horses that produced the Darley Arabian,
also if more of the same blood could be
obtained. A few years later, Captain
(afterward Major) Roger D. Upton, of
the 7th Lancers impressed by the superi-
ority of the Turkish cavalry in the Crim-

Arab Horses Outside of Arabia 17

ean War, because of their better mounts,
urged upon the British War Office that
England should procure Arab blood to
freshen up the horses of the country — •
become tender weeds only fit to run dash
races — so providing suitable remounts
for the British cavalry.

Both Skene and Upton were fine Arabic
scholars, besides being excellent horse-
men.

For nearly twenty years Mr. Skene
remained at his post, cultivating the
acquaintance of the Arab Sheiks who
came to trade at Aleppo, making long
journeys with them into the desert,
assisting them in their intercourse with
the Turkish Government officials. At
one time he saved the life of Suleiman
ibu Mirshid, Sheik of Sheiks of all the
Anazah tribes of the Bedouins, and later
he interfered to save the life of another
great Sheik, Jedaan. Indeed, so fast
was the friendship he established with
them, that they adopted him as a brother
by formal rites. After eighteen years

1 8 The Arab Horse

of this service Mr. Skene was able to
write to Admiral Rous, that he was cer-
tain of the family of horses which pro-
duced the Darley Arabian, and his
friendship with the Anazah tribes made
it possible to procure a limited number
of choice animals.

On receipt of the news. Admiral Rous
communicated with certain English
breeders, and a syndicate of three, com-
posed of the Hon. Henry Chaplin, Min-
ister of Agriculture, Mr. Sandeman, M.
P., and Mr. Hazelwood, a director of the
Bank of England, agreed to send Major
Upton to x\leppo to Mr. Skene, they to
go into the desert and choose and secure
the horses. It is reported that the final
cost of the undertaking was ;£2o,ooo
($100,000).

CHAPTER II

Arabia, and Some of the •
Bedouins

A T THE northeastern comer of the
•^^ Mediterranean Sea, just below the
point where the southern coast of Asia
Minor joins the western coast of Syria,
lies the town of Scanderoon, the ancient
city of Alexandretta. This is the seaport
for Aleppo, ancient Haleb, about one hun-
dred miles to the east and a little south,
for centuries a trading centre whence go
caravans of merchandise to the towns far
down the [Euphrates, and where are
brought the grains and wool that come in
return. Almost due east of Scanderoon,
about five hundred miles distant, is Mosul,
on the River Tigris, which from this point
flows south and a little easterly about four
hundred miles till it joins the Euphrates
near Bussorah, the two rivers thus joined

19

20 The Arab Horse

flowing into the Persian Gulf. About
two hundred miles below Mosul is
Bagdad, also on the Tigris River. The
Euphrates and Tigris nearly unite at
this point, but again separate to join
farther down, as already noted. Still
farther east, nearly parallel with the
Tigris is the western frontier of Persia.

The line from Scanderoon to Mosul
may be taken as the northern boundary
of Arabia. The western frontier of
Persia, then the Persian Gulf and the
Gulf of Oman, mark its eastern boundary.
On the south lies the Indian Ocean. On
the west are the Red Sea, Palestine, and
Syria. From this rapid sketch one can
get an idea of the great area of the country.
Coming in at the northwestern comer
from the mountains of Asia Minor, the
Euphrates River crosses the upper end of
Arabia at a slant from northwest to south-
east, and the valley of the Euphrates
has for thousands of years been a most
important route of Communication be-
tween the Orient and western nations.

Arabia and Some of the Bedouins 21

Indeed, until the discovery of the way
around the Cape of Good Hope, and later
the construction of the Suez Canal, it was
the only route and its cities were the
great centres of commerce for the world.
When we speak of Arabia we are apt
to forget what the country once stood
for. Between the Tigris and Euphrates
is the land of Mesopotamia. Here was
believed to have been the Garden of
Eden — whatever that may mean — the
place whence the human race spread
abroad to populate the earth. Mosul,
already mentioned, is the site of Nineveh,
capital of the great Assyrian Empire.
Fifty miles south of Bagdad are the ruins
of Babylon, where the children of Israel
were in captivity, and within ten miles
of Babylon are still to be seen the remains
of the Tower of Babel. El Uz, below
Bagdad, on the Euphrates, was the home
of Job; and from Chaldea, east of the
Euphrates, came Abraham, father of the
Hebrew race.
Through this land Alexander the Great

22 The Arab Horse

marched to the conquest of India, after
having overthrown the Babylonian Em-
pire. In a straight line west of Deyr
on the Euphrates, and half way between
that point and Damascus, is Tadmur,
the ancient Palmyra, capital city of
Zenobia, that Queen who was conquered
by Aurelian, and carried away to Rome
to grace his triumphal entry.

Later in the Christian Era Mohammed
established his religion at Mecca and
Medina, far down in the Arabian pen-
insula. The Mohammedan Khaliphs after-
ward made Bagdad their capital, and
held a court there that was glittering in
riches, the home of art, science, poetry;
the scene of the Arabian Nights Enter-
tainments until Timour the Tartar with
his hordes of barbarians poured down
from the North and drowned the country
in blood. In ancient days this country
was the home of science. Some of the
earliest astronomers were Arabs of Chal-
dea, and our present system of num-
erals, which makes modem mathematical

Arabia and Some of the Bedouins 23

calculations possible, the decimal system,
was an Arabian invention, brought to
the Western world by the Saracenic
invasion of Palestine, upper Africa, and
Europe, which was an Arabian over-
running.

What is most germane to our present
investigation, however, is the fact that
this country is the place where the horse
has attained his highest perfection ; where
he has been bred pure by a careful system
of selection adhered to for hundreds of
years, a system not departed from in the
slightest degree. It has come to be
acknowledged by the most intelligent
breeders that thorough breeding in horses
is chiefly a calculation of the amount of
Arab blood they possess, just as gold
stands as a measure of value in the cur-
rency of a country, the value of a coin
consisting of the amount of gold it con-
tains.

The oldest and most exclusive registry
in the world — the one at the foundation
of all more recent works of the kind is

24 The Arab Horse

"Weatherby's General Stud Book of
Thoroughbred Horses," the only recog-
nised organ of the English Jockey Club.
The makers of that Stud Book recognised
in the beginning, and to-day make the
specific statement in writing that* 'Native
Arabs, with the Barbs, are the source from
whence the race horse springs."

The history of the Arab horse is not
merely the romantic tale of imaginative
writers, though poets have sung his praises,
artists have painted his graceful form on
canvas, and sculptors have made use of
him as their model. Job describes him
in words that could apply to no other
horse and the hordes from the frieze of
the Parthenon at Athens, the Elgin
Marbles now in the British Museum, could
have been modelled from none but
Arabians.

It is fortunate, however, that before it
was too late, careful travellers, scholars
and horsemen, such as Major Roger
Upton and the Blunts, have visited the
land of the Arab horse and written in

Arabia and Some of the Bedouins 25

books what they learned from original
sources of this interesting subject.

Upton and the Blunts both made two
journeys to Arabia in the years between
1870 and 1880. In both of Upton's
journeys he had the company and as-
sistance of H. M. Consul General at Alep-
po, Mr. Skene. His wanderings were ex-
tended both in distance and in time. Hon.
Henry Chaplin, former Minister of Agri-
culture in Great Britain, breeder and
owner of the famous Derby winner Her-
mit, tells us that Upton went a thousand
miles into the desert south of Tadmur to
get the horses procured for him, and
he was gone two years. Both Chaplin
and the Weatherbys are sponsors for
the truth of every statement made by
Upton.

After Upton went Mr. Wilfrid Scawen
Blunt and his wife, Lady Anne Blunt, a
granddaughter of Lord Byron. Their
first journey was in the winter of 1877-78,
three years after Upton, and they covered
much of the same ground as he, meeting

26 The Arab Horse

many of the same people, though they
went also further east than Upton.
Leaving Aleppo in January, 1878, they
reached the valley of the Euphrates as
soon as possible, then followed the river
as far as Bagdad. From Aleppo to Deyr
they had the company of Mr. Skene, who
went with Upton. Then he turned back
to Aleppo as his consular prerogatives
went no further in that direction, the
Blunts proceeding to Bagdad alone.
From that point, after crossing the Tigris
River they went north and east to Shergat,
nearly up to Mosul, traversing a quite
new country for Western voyagers. At
Shergat they turned west to again come
to Deyr, where Mr. Skene had agreed to
meet them on a fixed day. This he was
unable to do. He was old, infirm, and,
while waiting, his successor came from
England, so he was detained. The
Blunts w^ere most anxious to go among
the Anazah Bedouins, with whom Upton
spent the greater part of his time, and to
meet such of his friends as they might,

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Arabia and Some of the Bedouins 27

being especially anxious to see Jedaan,
their War Sheik — known as the "Rob
Roy of the Desert." After great dif-
ficulties they got away from Deyr, and
in due time reached Tadmur, about half
way in the direct line between Deyr and
Damascus. Near this point Mr. Skene
overtook them, went with them among
the Anazah, helped them to buy horses
and continued with them to Damascus.
From that point the Blunts returned to
England via Beirut, Mr. Skene went
back to Aleppo. The next winter found
the Blunts again at Damascus, from which
point they made a journey across the
southern desert to Nejd, a part of the
world not reached by Upton; in fact a
place that no more than half a dozen
Europeans are known to have ever seen.

The results of Upton's visit were writ-
ten in two books, "Newmarket and
Arabia," a sketchy statement of early
impressions, and a more serious work,
"Gleanings from the Desert of Arabia,"
published after his death; now, unfor-

28 The Arab Horse

tunately, out of print, and copies ex-
tremely difficult to obtain.

Lady Anne Blunt also wrote two books
of absorbing interest, "The Bedouin
Tribes of the Euphrates," a journal of her
first journey, and the "Pilgrimage to
Nejd," the story of the second. No one
can read these books without being im-
pressed with the veracity and intelligence
of the writers. Weatherbey & Sons,
publishers of the "General Stud Book," say
that they consider Mr. Wilfrid S. Blunt
and Lady Anne Blunt the foremost living
authorities on Arab horses. On these
sources of information the present writing
in large measure depends, wherever
they touch the matter in hand.

Some of the individuals met by Upton
and the Blunts were most interesting
personages. Their introduction to the
reader will help him to appreciate the
sources of information, and the sur-
roundings whence came many very great
mares and stallions.

The Anazah Bedouins have always been

Arabia and Some of the Bedouins 29

the greatest horse breeders. Each tribe
of the Anazah has its individual leader or
Sheik, and at the time of Upton's visit
all the tribes of Anazah were united under
one very remarkable man named Sulei-
man ibn Mirshid, who was called the
Sheik of Sheiks. He was not only a
great warrior, but also a wise adminis-
trator of the internal affairs of the tribes.
Some years before the time of Upton's
visit the Shammar tribes had been united
also under a great leader named Abd-ul-
Kerim. The Shammar were Bedouins
who came originally from Nejd, one
thousand or fifteen hundred miles lower
down in the Arabian peninsula. Some-
thing more than two hundred years ago,
under the guidance of a Sheik named
Paris, they had come north with their
flocks and camels, invading the pasture
lands always occupied by the Anazah.
These latter did not hesitate to wage war
on the Shammar, and drove them across
the Euphrates into Mesopotamia, to a
point near Mosul. Abd-ul-Kerim was

30 The Arab Horse

the descendant of that Paris in the sixth
generation, and inherited the feud that
always existed between the Shammar and
the Anazah, periodical raids across the
river being the consequence, in both
directions; the land between the Tigris
and Euphrates being considered the home
of the Shammar, that between the Eu-
phrates and Damascus, and reaching
from the neighbourhood of Aleppo far
south toward Jebel Shammar, being the
pasture lands conceded to the Anazah.
The vital importance of protecting these
pastures and the necessity for extensive
ranges will be understood as we read from
Lady Anne Blunt's first book, that she
saw together in one place a hundred and
fifty thousand camels, besides thousands
of sheep and many horses, all the prop-
erty of a single tribe of Anazah, the
Roala, whose tents covered an area of
12 square miles. These great encamp-
ments had to be moved every few days
because the pasturage was eaten down
to the bare ground in very short order

Arabia and Some of the Bedouins 31

by the thousands of animals feeding
thereon.

Yet Abd-ul-Kerim, though bound by-
hereditary obHgation to fight the Anazah
whenever and wherever they met, regarded
the amenites of Hfe, and his honour be-
came a proverb throughout the length and
breadth of the desert. It happened that
at one period of his life, in his boyhood,
he lived among the Anazah in the tents
of Jedaan's father. So, though when
they had grown to manhood these two
were bound to be always at war, Abd-
ul-Kerim never forgot his affection for
his boyhood friend. It happened then
that Abd-ul-Kerim, in the course of the
civil war, caught Jedaan's forces in such
a position that they were at his mercy.
The trap was to be sprung on the morrow
and Abd-ul-Kerim meant to push his
advantage to the utmost. Yet he wanted
to spare Jedaan individually. Therefore,
the night preceding the day of the climax,
he sent one of his men to Jedaan's camp
with his own white mare, bearing a mes-

32 The Arab Horse

sage to Jedaan that the morrow meant
certain defeat for the Anazah, and begging
him to accept Abd-ul-Kerim's mare, and
to ride her in the battle, as she was
swifter than any animal belonging to the
Shammar forces and could take him
safely away. This Jedaan did and saved
himself. Upton saw Abd-ul-Kerim's
mare in his possession when he visited
the Anazah in 1875, and describes her.

Shortly afterward Abd-ul-Kerim, who
had been successful in defeating the Turks
who sought to subdue the Shammar, was
betrayed into their hands by his secretary,
an Armenian. They hung him from the
bridge at Mosul.

His brother Farhan, a reprobate, sub-
mitted to the Turks, accepted from them
the title of Pasha, and at the time of the
visit of the Blunts to Mesopotamia was in
receipt from them of a salary of ;£3,ooo
per annum.

The more noble of the Shammar, how-
ever, joined themselves to a younger
brother named Paris, who declared unend-

Arabia and Some of the Bedouins 33

ing war on the Turks and all who held to
Turks. He was visited by the Blunts,
adopted Mr. Blunt as hi^ brother, by
solemn rites, and is described by Lady
Anne Blunt as a most brave, courteous
and intelligent genteman of distinguished
appearance and manners.

It is this policy of ** divide and conquer'*
that has marked the entire intercourse of
the Turks with the Bedouins. So long
as Suleiman ibn Mirshid lived he kept
the Anazah tribes solidly combined.
Shortly after Upton's visit, however, and
a little time before that of the Blunts,
he allowed himself to accept an invitation
from the Turkish Governor at Deyr, to
visit the town and make a treaty of com-
merce between his tribes and the Turks,
for exchange of products. At a banquet
which was served to mark the close of the
agreement, poison was put in the cup of
coffee which was handed Suleiman, and
he fell back dead as soon as he had drunk
it. Confusion followed among his tribes-
men.

34 The Arab Horse

Then the seeds of discord were sown
among the individual tribes of the An-
azah. Their herds of camels, their sheep,
their horses were so numerous that it
required a wise hand to guide them safely,
assigning pasturage to each tribe accord-
ing to its requirements. The Sebaa and
Gomussa tribes had always made use of
the district between Homs and Hamah,
above Damascus, on the western side of
the desert. The next year when they
came to their usual district they found
their brethren, the Roala, there before
them. These had been told by the wily
Turk that their fellow tribesmen of the
Sebaa and Gomussa were not treating
them justly. They were advised to take
their great flocks and herds, whose num-
bers have been mentioned, to the good
pastures before the others could reach
them, and were assured that the Turks
would help them hold what they seized.
In an evil hour they accepted the advice;
Suleiman ibn Mirshid having been mur-
dered was not at hand to arrange the

Arabia and Some of the Bedouins 35

difficulty, so when the Blunts were among
the Anazah they found a factional war
being waged. Sotaam ibn Shaalin was
leader of the Roala against the combined
Sebaa and Gomussa. Suleiman had been
succeeded by his two cousins, Beteyan ibn
Mirshid and his brother, neither of whom
had a tithe of his administrative ability,
and as neither was able to wage the war
against the Roala, they had made Jedaan
their Akil, or War Sheik, to manage that
end of the tribal business.

From what has been said it is easy to
understand the wretched condition of
affairs among the Bedouins for the ten
years between 1874 and 1884. Let us
remember, also, that during that period
the Russo-Turkish war was carried on,
so that relief from the usual aggression of
the Turks, left the Bedouins free to fight
among themselves. It was during the
raids and counter-.raids of this time
that many priceless animals changed
hands, to be run hot haste by their captors
into the towns bordering the desert for

35 The Arab Horse

sale to save them from recapture. It is
certain that in the decade mentioned
more high-caste Arab horses came out of
the desert than ever before or since. Some
of the animals thus coming into strange
hands will be mentioned specifically.

CHAPTER III

Early History and Families of Arab
Horses

npPIE Bedouins of Arabia are a pas-
"*• toral people who have lived for
centuries from their flocks of sheep and
herds of camels, and have bred their horses
on well established lines from time imme-
morial. They have always been indepen-
dent, acknowledging no rulers but their
own Sheiks; jealous of interference by
outsiders. Job was a Bedouin, and the
place of his origin, Ur of Chaldea, was
visited by the Blunts on their first
journey in Arabia.

All the Bedouins are descendants of
Ishmael, and they have genealogies dat-
ing from the earliest antiquity. It will
be remembered that Abraham himself
was a nomad, who came from Chaldea,
the country east of the Euphrates

37

38 The Arab Horse

and Tigris, between those rivers and
the Persian boundary. Hagar, mother
of Ishmael, was Abraham's concubine.
After the birth of Isaac, Ishmael's half-
brother, she was driven into the desert
with her fourteen-year-old son by the
jealousy of Sarah, Isaac's mother. Arab
tradition supplements Bible history by
telling us that when Ishmael was sent
away with his mother he lamented his
barren heritage. He was assured, how-
ever, that there was reserved for him the
most valuable gift to men. This he sub-
sequently discovered was the horse of
the Kuhl race, which he found in Hejaz.
The two branches of descendants from
Abraham were as follows:

Abraham

Isaac.

I

Ishmael

Jacob.

2

Kidai.

Judah.

3

Hamal.

Pharez.

4

Nabet.

(about 1635 B. 0.)Hezron.

5

Salaman.

Ram.

6

Alhamaisa.

Amminadab,

' 7

Alyasa.

Nashon.

8

Odad.

Salmon.

9

Oddo.

Boaz.

10

Adnan.

Early History of Arab Horses 39

(about 163s B.C.) Obed.

II

Maad.

Xcontinued] j^gg^

13

Nazar.

David,

13

Rabiah (al Faras)

(B. 0. 1033) Solomon.

14

Asad.

Rehoboam.

15

Anazah.

Salaman, fourth in descent from
Ishmael, living B. C, 1635, contempor-
ary of Hezron, is recorded as owner of five
mares of superlative value. Five hun-
dred years later, his descendant eight
generations further along, contemporary
of David, was a man named Rabiah. It
is recorded that although Rabiah was the
third son of Nazar (perhaps the fourth) he
was chosen by his father as the most suit-
able person to be entrusted with his very
valuable breeding mares, and to continue
their use properly, so they were given to
him. and the words al Faras (" of the
horses") were added to his name. Rabiah
al Faras was the grandfather of Anazah ;
and from him spring all those Bedouin
tribes that bear his name, who breed,
and have bred for three thousand years,
the purest and choicest Arab horses.
Anazah inherited them from his grand-

40 The Arab Horse

father Rabiah, descended without taint
of foreign blood from five famous mares
owned by Sheik Salaman, he being fourth
in descent from Ishmael son of Abraham.
Major Upton sums the entire matter in
these words: ''An authentic family of
horses has been preserved in Arabia for
3,500 years/'

Until Upton had made the researches
that opened up the true history of the
Bedouins and their horses, it was common
report that these latter were descended
from mares that belonged to Mahomet.
It is capable of proof that Mahomet
never owned a horse until he went to
Medina. He then became possessed of
seven mares, three of which were bought
— their names and former owners are
recorded — and four others were gifts.
The race of pure bred Arab horses was
in existence three thousand years before
Mahomet was bom.

Some writers have mentioned a family
of Nedjid horses, and of Kochlani, as
being the best strains of Arab blood.

Early History of Arab Horses 41

Major Upton and Lady Anne Blunt have
taught the world that these are not fami-
lies of horses at all. Nejd is the name of
a great district in the lower end of Arabia,
for centuries under the absolute control
of the Anazah tribes — Gomussa, Sebaa,
Raola, Welled Ali, Fedaan, etc. — though
not now in their possession. As these
tribes have none but the purest strains of
horses, animals whose blood has been
kept untainted for a known period of
3,500 years, the Nedjid horses (as Ameri-
cans would speak of Kentucky or State
of Maine horses) were highly esteemed by
those fortunate enough to possess them.
The word Kochlani is derived from
Kuhl, antimony. Lady Anne Blunt tells
us that Arab women apply antimony to
their eyebrows and eyelashes to increase
the brilliancy of their eyes, antimony
being black. Therefore, as all Arab
horses are supposed to have black rings
about their eyes, such are called Koch-
lani. Among the Anazah, Major Upton
found the words Keheilan and Keheilet

42 The Arab Horse

applied to the horses. Both words are
recognised as derivatives from Kuhl
(antimony) but Upton got another expla-
nation of the meaning of the words as
applied. He found that the entire race
of pure-bred horses among the Anazah had
black skins, no matter what the colour of
their coats. It has come about, then,
in course of time, that the Anazah have
adopted the words, to express what we
mean in speaking of ** thoroughbreds."
It is even more exclusive than our word.
We speak of *' thoroughbred " horses,
"thoroughbred" cattle, ''thoroughbred"
dogs, meaning improved animals that
are bred to a type, and have not varied
from the type since the breed was estab-
lished.

With the Bedouin Kekeilan means but
one thing, a horse (male) of pure Arab
blood, and Keheilet a mare of pure Arab
blood, whose lineage traces without break
to one or more of the five mares of Sala-
man (not King Solomon, David's son), an
Arab Sheik who lived B. C. 1635, fourth

Early History of Arab Horses 43

in descent from Ishmael, son of Abra-
ham.

The Bedouins use two other words that
indicate especial quaHty among their
Keheilans and Keheilets. Asil is equiv-
alent to noble, or distinguished; Hudud
means approved. This appellation is
used in connection with a Keheilan, who
is so well and widely known among the
tribes, that many seek his service for their
mares, and his name only needs to be
mentioned.

Upton also learned that all pure-bred
Arabians were included in Al Khamseh,
which means The Five. That is, the
Anazah Bedouin refuses to recognise
any animal as a Keheilan or Keheilet
that cannot trace direct to one of the five
mares of Sheik Salaman.

Al Khamseh he found is divided into
the following great families:

I — The descendants of Keheilet Ajuz.
2 — The Manakhi family, with three sub-families.
3 — The Hadban family, with five sub-families.
4 — The Jelfon family, with two sub-families.
5 — The Homdani family, with two sub-families.

44 The Arab Horse

The first two families are the creme de la
creme of all horses, the descendants of
Keheilet Ajuz being still further divided
as follows:

I — The Seglawi family (Seglawi-Jedran, Seglawi-

Obeiri, Seglawi-al-Abd.)
2 — The Abeyan family, with seven secondary families.
3 — The Dalman family, with four secondary families.
4 — ^The Abu-Arkab f amily.with three secondary families

The following are also believed to belong
to the same great family of Keheilet
Ajuz:

5 — The Rishon family, with two secondary families.
6 — The Radban family, with three secondary families.
7 — The Twaissan family, with two secondary families.
8 — The Milliah family, with three secondary families.

The history of Keheilet Ajuz comes to
us surrounded by a romantic halo thrown
around her by the people among whom
she was bom and lived. It is related
that a certain Sheik was flying from an
enemy, mounted on his favourite mare.
Arab warriors trust themselves only to
mares, they will not ride a stallion in war.
The said mare was at the time far along
toward parturition; indeed she became

Early History of Arab Horses 45

a mother when the fleeing horseman
stopped for rest at noonday, the new-
comer being a filly.

Being hard pressed the sheik was
compelled to remount his mare and again
seek safety in flight, abandoning the new-
born filly to her fate. Finally reaching
safety among his own people, great was
the surprise of all, when, shortly after
the arrival of the sheik on his faithful
mare, the little filly, less than a day old,
came into camp also, having followed her
mother across miles of desert. She was
immediately given into the care of an old
woman of the tribe (Ajuz — an old woman) ,
hence her name, Keheilet Ajuz, " the
mare of the old woman," and grew to be
the most famous of all the animals in the
history of the breed. That such a mare
really lived is not to be doubted, what-
ever credence we give to the story of her
early life. Upton seems in doubt just
where to place her. He says that some
believe all the present families of Al
Khamseh (the five) are descended from

46 The Arab Horse

Keheilet Ajuz, she being descended from
one of the original Al Khamseh. Others
beUeve that the hne of Keheilet Ajuz,
with her sub-families, and numerous
single strains, is collateral with the other
four Keheilets of Al Khamseh, and that
all the families are not descended from
Keheilet Ajuz. There seems testimony
both ways.

Again some think the second family
named as descended from Keheilet Ajuz,
namely the Abeyan (Aba — a cloak — so
named because they carry their tails so
high that a sheyk once casting away his
cloak in flight, it was caught on his mare's
tail and carried along with him) with its
seven sub-families, should not be con-
sidered by itself, though it is very choice
(asil), but is really a part of the family of
Seklawi Jedran.

The names of these last show how the
sub-families come about. A man named
Jedran had three mares, full sisters, of the
Seklawi family. One he kept himself,
so she was known as Seklawi Jedran.

Early History of Arab Horses 47

Another he gave to his brother Obeiri,
hence Seklawi-Obeiri. The third he gave
to his slave, so Seklawi al Abd (of the
slave). It is interesting to know that
Seklawi al x\bd proved a choicer strain
than Seklawi Obeiri.

In closing his remarks on Keheilet Ajiiz
Upton says:

** Whether the era of Keheilet Ajuz
was before or since the days of Rabiah,
and if before, whether the horses in-
herited by Rabiah were solely from her,
I cannot say. But it certainly appears
to me that a special selection of horses
does exist in the Anazah tribes, and their
tenacity and persistency in keeping it
pure and select is shown by their refusing
to acknowledge or return to any strain
which has departed from them into
other hands."

The reader will have noticed that the
Arabs always mention the mares from
which their animals are descended, and
so designate the families to which they
belong. In this they are quite right.
They speak with contempt of "the son of

48 The Arab Horse

a horse." Such an animal is Kadish
(a mongrel), his dam is lacking in his
pedigree, and no number of generations
of pure blood, superimposed on an impure
foundation, can wash away the stain of an
impure mare at the bottom of the pedi-
gree. But a Keheilan is a different prop-
osition; he is the son of a mare, a Keh-
eilet, and no mare among the Anazah is
allowed to be bred, excepting in the pres-
ence of witnesses, who can testify that her
offspring is a Keheilan, son of a Keheilet.

This founding a family on a mare rather
than a stallion is a certain guarantee
against mongrelisation; and the Anazah
do not recognise the possibility of a taint
ever being covered by the intervention of
never so many pure-bred sires. They
look with contempt on even the best
English thoroughbred, since there is not
one of them whose family is not lacking
in some of its female lines.

The English have an expression, "as
thoroughbred as Eclipse." Yet Eclipse
had 70% of unknown blood in his veins.

CHAPTER IV

How Some Arab Horses Have Been
Obtained

A S ALREADY noted, the journeys
-^ ^ and subsequent writings of the
Blunts and Major Upton have done
much to enlighten the world at
large concerning Arab history and the
breeding methods of the Bedouins.
Through their agency, also, came to
England many pure Arabs, indeed nearly
all the pure bred mares that were acquired
from the desert by reason of the civil
wars in Arabia just preceding and fol-
lowing the Russo-Turkish conflict of the
late seventies. One other channel only
through which mares were obtained was
the purchases and breedings of Abbas
Pasha, Khedive of Egypt. He realised
the value of pure Arab blood in horses,
and spent money like water in getting the

49

50 The Arab Horse

best that could be had, both from the
Anazah in the upper desert, and also
from Nejd. In one instance, having
bought a mare of rare strain in Nejd,
and thinking her too old to make the
journey to the seacoast by using her own
legs. Abbas sent a bullock cart for her,
bringing her one thousand five hundred
miles on wheels.

All of these, Upton, the Blunts, and
Abbas Pasha, got stallions also, as did
Hon. Miss Ethelred Dillon and others,
while a number of valuable animals
were taken to India by the Arab horse
dealers of Bombay, Abdur Rhaman,
Eyssa bin Curtis and Eyd et Tenimi, who
sold them to British officers and Indian
Rajahs for racing purposes. We owe
the mares, however, to Upton, the Blunts,
and Abbas. When the last named was
deposed, his breeding stud was continued
for some time by Ali Pasha Sherif , and on
the breaking up of the stud the choicest
animals were purchased by the Blunts,
who, in addition to the Crabbet Park

How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 51

stud in England, continue the breeding of
Arab horses at Heliopolis, near Cairo,
Egypt, under the superintendence of
Sheik Obeid, to the present day.

As descendants of many of these ani-
mals have come to America from 1888
to the present time, it will be of interest
to note some of the most valuable in-
dividuals and trace their antecedents and
subsequent history. We have already
noted that all Arab breedings are founded
on the female line, to the extent that if a
foal is offspring of a stallion and a mare
of different families, it takes the family
name of its dam, not its sire, we there-
fore will first consider the mares.

The first time Upton visited Arabia he
secured three animals, two mares, Zuleika
and Haidee, and the stallion Yataghan.
Zuleika produced one colt foal named
Symmetry, then died. Yataghan was
bred to Haidee and then sold to the antip-
odes. Haidee produced one foal, Naomi,
then she died also.

After the death of Major Upton, Naomi

52 The Arab Horse

was bought by Rev. F. F. Vidal of Need-
ham Market, Sufifolk, an enthusiastic
admirer of the Arabian horse, who
owned her for several years, and bred
four foals from her. In 1888 Mr. Vidal
sold Naomi to Mr. Randolph Huntington
of Rochester, New York, who afterwards
removed to Oyster Bay, Long Island,
where Naomi died at the age of twenty-
two years.

Naomi produced the following off-
spring :

In England, i. ch. h. Gomussa, by Kars.

2. ch, m. Kushdil, by Kars.

3. ch, m. Nazli, by Maidan.

4. b. m. Naama, by El Emir.
In America, 5. ch, h, Anazah, by Leopard.

6. & 7. (a mare and stallion by a trotting
horse!)

8, ch, h. Nejd, by Anazah, her own son.

9, ch, h. Khaled, by Nimr, her grand son.

10, ch, ra. Naomi II, by Nimr, her grand-

son,

11, ch. m, Narkeesa, by Anazah, her son,

12, ch, m, Naressa, by Anazah, her son.

On his second journey Upton secured
five animals whose families are recorded
pages 386, 387, and 388 of his "Glean-

How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 53

ings from the Desert of Arabia." The
pedigrees of the two horse colts and
of one of the mares are certified under
seal by Suleiman ibn Mirshid, of one
mare by Jedaan ibn Mahaid, and of
the other mare by both Suleiman and
Jedaan.

Of these, the only mare to produce
offspring was Kesia, a bay mare, a
" Keheilet of Nowak, " imported '' in foal
by a hudud Seylwi al Abd." This mare
produced in 1876, in Hon. Henry Chap-
lain's stable at Blankney, the bay mare
Kesia n.

The offspring of Kesia H. were:

1887, ch. m. Nowagich, by Hadeed.

1888, b. h.

1889, b. h.
1890, ?

1891, b. h. Imamzada, by Imam.

1892, ch. m. Dabeh, by Hadeed.

1893, ch. mi. Mimosa, by Mameluke,

1894, ch. m. Shabaka, by Mameluke,

1895, ch. m. ? by Mameluke.

Kesia n. was struck by lightning in 1898
and killed. She was the property of
Hon. Miss Dillon.

54 The Arab Horse

The horse colts brought in 1875 by
Upton were Joktam, that was sold to
Australia for ;£ 1,000, a Keheilan Tamri
and Ishmael that was kept by Mr. Chap-
lin.

Kesia had no offspring by a pure Arab
horse other than Kesia II, though she
produced, in 1878, a chestnut filly by
the great Derby winner Hemiit, as repre-
hensible an act in breeding as coupling
Naomi with a trotting stallion.

The first visit of the Blunts to Arabia
resulted in their bringing to England with
them three mares — rather they were for-
warded after them by Mr. Skene — Hagar,
Sherifa, and a chestnut mare, Saadah
Togan.

Hagar was perhaps the best mare, cer-
tainly one of the best, that ever came out
of the desert. Lady Anne Blunt says of
her:

'' Endurance of fatigue on the road and
hardiness under want of food are qualities
that may always be reckoned on in buy-
ing an Arab horse, no matter what his

How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 55

looks or what his pedigree; but speed is
exceptional, and confined to the best
strains of blood. Hagar, as we called her,
was of theKeheilan Ajuz breed, the fastest,
the stoutest, and the most English looking
of them all. When purchased, she was
in very poor condition, having just gone
through the severe training of a campaign.
She was bred by the Gomussa, the most
notable of the horse-breeding tribes,
had passed from them to the Roala, and
had now been captured and ridden some
two hundred miles in hot haste for sale
at Aleppo. She was a five year old mare,
a bay, with black points. We never met
anything in our travels which could com-
pete with her over a distance, and she
has often run down foxes, and even hares,
without assistance; carrying thirteen
stone (182 lbs.) on her back. She was
of a mild, gentle temper, and always
went smoothly on, without fret or worry,
and with the long low stride of an Eng-
lish race horse. She never galloped
better than when she seemed worn
out with work. She had the advan-
tage, too, for Wilfrid, of being tall,
fifteen hands — an unusual height among
Arabians."

56 The Arab Horse

Lady Blunt's book, ''The Bedouin
Tribes of the Euphrates," is full of the
praises of Hagar's performances, and one
of the best was after having been ridden
more than twelve hundred miles in three
months of travel in the desert, from
Aleppo to Deyr, Bagdad, through Meso-
potamia to Shergat, then west again across
the Euphrates and to Tadmar. It was
when they turned back to meet Mr.
Skene at Arak, after having started
from Tadmar to join Jedaan in the
desert.

" It was still nearly dark when we
mounted, but we would not wait longer
than for the rise of the morning star, and
started at a gallop as soon as we had it
for a guide. The Zaptiehs on their tired
horses made a show of accompanying us,
declaring it was impossible they should
allow us to go alone. But Hagar had
quite other ideas, and after the first two
miles they dropped behind and were
lost to sight. And now began the longest
gallop I ever took in my life. It was
fifteen miles to Arak, and we never

How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 57

drew rein till we got to the foot of
the hill behind which the village stands.
For the first few miles my
mare behaved very well, going on at
her easy stride without unnecessary
hurry, and allowing Tamarisk to keep
more or less beside her; but after this,
although she was not in the least ex-
cited, she would not be kept at any
reasonable pace. She does not mind
uneven ground, full of Jerboa holes,
and went faster and faster, till soon
Tamarisk and Wilfrid were as much out
of the race as the soldiers were, and
yet she would not be steadied. It
was only when we came to the hills
and very broken stony ground, fully
twelve miles from where we started, that
I got a pull at her, and at last stopped
her. . . . We were just forty-five
minutes doing the twelve miles. . . .
The last two miles we travelled at a more
sober pace, and the sun appeared as
we rode in through the stone gateway
of Arak."

No wonder she brought Hagar to Eng-
land as a brood mare! There she pro-
duced the following:

58

The Arab Horse

I

1880,

2

1881,

3

1883,

4

1884,

5

1885,

6

1886,

7

1888,

8

1889,

9

189I,

lO

1892,

II

1895.

12

1896,

13

1897,

Offspring of Hagar.

b. h. Hadramant, by Kars.

ch, m. Haifa, by Kars.

b. m. Hijaz, by Pharaoh .

b. m. Harik, by Kars.

b. m. (died) by Rataplan.

b. h. Himyarite, by Kars.

b. h. Hafiz, El Emir.

br. m. Zem Zem, El Emir.

b. h. Havileh, by Imam,

b. h. Hail, by Jamrood.

ch. h. Sohail, by Jamrood,

b, m. Hamada, by Imamzada.

b. h. Hauran, by Jezail.

Hagar died in 1898, twenty-five years of
age. The chestnut mare Saadah Togan
bought at Deyr is said to have been sold
to Miss Dillon under the name of Zenobia
but we have no record of her offspring.
Hagar also had been owned and used for
breeding purposes for a number of years
by Miss Dillon, whose property she was at
the end.

Sherifa, the white mare was a very
marked animal, '' a white Hamdani Simri
purchased for us by Mr. Skene at Aleppo."
She was bred in Nejd, and was given by
Ibn Saoud, Emir of Riad, in 1873, ^^ the

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How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 59

Turkish governor of Mecca. He brought
her to Aleppo and gave her in turn to the
chief Ulema there, who used her only as a
brood mare and to carry him once a day
to the mosque. Lady Blunt says she had
" the most extraordinarily beautiful head
ever seen, and the sweetest of tempers."

The full list of her offspring cannot be
known, as she had foals both in Arabia
and after coming to England. In the
latter country her blood is highly prized,
not only that through her daughters,
Sherezade and Shibboleth, but also at the
present day where her grand-daughters,
Shieka and Shibine, the first a daughter of
Shiraz, the second a daughter of Shohba,
represent her in the Crabbet Arabian
Stud.

The Blunts have owned and bred so
many pure Arabs since they first became
interested in them in 1877 that it would
be a long list were all the animals named.
In 1905 they had about a hundred and
twenty-five in the Crabbet Stud, besides
many others in Egypt. A few more of

6o The Arab Horse

their mares, however, deserve at least
passing mention.

Rodania, dam of Rose of Sharon, Rose-
mary, Rose of Jericho, and others. This
mare, far famed among the tribes of the
" Hamad," was the much prized property
of Beneyeh Ibn Shaalan, of the Roala
tribe of the Anazah. She was a chest-
nut Keheilet Ajuz of the Rodan strain,
bred by Ibn Rodan of the Roala tribe.
Sotaam Ibn Shaalan, supreme Sheik
of the tribe when visited by the Blunts
in March 1878, took her from his cousin
Beneyeh by unfair means, her theft being
the occasion of a feud between the two.
War breaking out between the Sebaa and
Roala tribes, Beneyeh refused to help
Sotaam, the Roala were badly beaten,
and they lost much plunder of camels
and mares, including Rodania. She was
taken by Tais Ibn Sharban of the Gor-
mussa tribe of the Sebaa Anazah, from
whom the Blunts bought her in 1881.

Bint Helwa, a white Seglawieh Jed-
ranieh of the strain of Ibn Sudan of the

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How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 61

Roala tribe. This is the famous " broken-
legged mare," now to be seen at Crabbet
Park. When visiting this stud in Sep-
tember 1905, the writer had first one and
then another particularly attractive ani-
mal pointed out as the offspring of " the
broken-legged mare." Finally he asked,
''What is the broken-legged mare, and
where is she?" ''You shall see," said
Lady Anne Blunt, leading the way to a
box stall, of which Bint Helwa was the
sole occupant. Here we saw a broken-
legged mare sure enough. Were it not
for her injury she is a beauty, pure white,
with a head such as Schreyer would seek
as a model. But, her off fore leg! This
was broken between the knee and shoulder
so that it wabbled loosely. Her shoulder
was also broken, and the gentle creature
stands always on three legs, the fourth
can support no weight, the toe just
touches the ground, and when she would
move about the mare rears a bit, hops
around with the good front leg, dragging
the poor useless member.

62 The Arab Horse

The exclamation was spontaneous,
"For heaven's sake how long has that
mare been in that condition?" ''Oh,
for eight years," answered Lady Blunt.
Then she told the story. Bint Helwa
had come from the Egyptian stud with
two other mares, and the three turned to
pasture together on arrival in England.
In the evening the other two came up to
the stables. Bint Helwa was missing. On
searching, she was found in a ditch.
She had jumped the enclosing fence of the
pasture, landed in the ditch so that her
leg and shoulder were terribly broken,
and the other mares following had jumped
on top of her, breaking two of her ribs.
As she was within six weeks of foaling it
was decided not to destroy her, but take
her to the stable and try to save the foal.
The mare was gotten out on to a drag,
pulled as gently as possibly to her box
stall, suspended in slings, and cooling
applications made to the injured parts.
The breaks were too extensive to knit,
but such was the soundness of her health

How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 63

and constitution that the days passed
and no rise in her temperature ensued.
When the day came for her foal to be
bom, she was lowered gently in the stall,
the little one came into the world all
right, she made good recovery, and since
that time has bred seven perfect foals. Now
in 1906, the broken-legged mare is nine-
teen years old, and she is due to foal this
spring. This authentic history of a mare
that is to be seen by any visitor to Crab-
bet Stud is a tale of endurance and sound-
ness that might lead us to give credence
even to the tradition associated with the
beginnings of life of the famous Keheilet
Ajuz. If there is a finer Arab stallion
in the world than Harb, the six year old
son of Bint Helwa and Mesaoud, the writer
would go a great distance to see him.

Queen of Sheba is the name of a bay
mare foaled in 1875, which Lady Anne
Blunt saw and coveted at the time she
was with the Sebaa Bedouins in March,
1878. At that time the mare belonged
to Beteyen Ibn Mirshid, who had succeed-

64 The Arab Horse

ed his murdered cousin Suleiman Ibn
Mirshid, Upton's friend, as supreme
Sheik of the Gomussa. She was bred
by Erheyen Ibn AHan of the Gomussa
tribe, was an Abeyeh Sherrakieh, and
was sold by her breeder, on shares, to
Beteyen. At the time of their visit the
Blunts sought by every means to buy
the filly, and the account of their efforts
as told in *'The Bedouin Tribes of the
Euphrates" is highly interesting. The
mare is thus described by Lady Blunt:

''But our chief delight was to follow,
when Beteyen Ibn Mirshid, Sheyk of
the Gomussa, rode up to Mohammed
Dukhi's tent to pay a visit. He had just
purchased from one of his people the
'bridle half of a three year old mare, an
Abeyeh Sherrak, and was riding her
home when he heard we were at Mo-
hammed Dukhi's tent. The mare is so
much more remarkable than the man
that I must describe her first. She is a
dark bay standing fifteen hands or over.
Her head, the first point an Arab looks
to, is a good one, though I have seen

How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 65

finer, but is perfectly set on, and the
mttbakh, or join of the head and neck,
would give distinction to any profile.
Her neck is light and well arched, the
wither high, the shoulder well sloped, and
the quarter so fine and powerful that it
is impossible she should be otherwise than
a very fast mare. Her length of limb
above the hock is remarkable, as is
that of the pastern. She carries her
tail high, as all well bred Arabians do,
and there is a neatness and finish about
every movement which reminds one of
a fawn or a gazelle. We all agreed that
she is incomparably superior to any-
thing we have seen here or elsewhere
(Mr. Skene was of the party at the time)
and would be worth a king's ransom, if
kings were still worth ransoming."

They did not get the mare at that time,
but Mr. Skene secured her for them later
at a cost of ;£24o ($1,200); and when
they returned to Damascus the next
winter to make a start for their " Pil-
grimage to Nejd," they heard ''all that
had happened in the desert during the
summer. First of all, the sensation that

66 The Arab Horse

has been caused there by our purchase of
Beteyen's mare, which after all we secured
and the heart-burnings and jealousies
raised thereby."

Asfura, daughter of Beteyen's mare,
and several of her offspring are to be
found at Crabbet Park to-day. As-
traled, the son of Queen of Sheba* and
Mesaoud, foaled 1900, is the only horse
in the entire collection that is perhaps
more attractive than Harb, son of Bint
Helwa,

Another mare brought from Arabia by
Lady Anne Blunt that should be men-
tioned was Basilisk, a grey Seglawieh
Jedranieh of the strain of Ibn ed Derri.
Basilisk was bought by the Duke of
Westminster for breeding to thorough-
bred horses, and produced for him some
winners of races in the best of company.

Wild Thyme, a bay mare foaled 1876,
which they bought of the Baggara tribe
of the Euphrates, was the only animal
secured by either the Blunts or Upton,

*The name given to Beteyen's mare by the Blunts.

Photograph by Schreibtr

ANTIKA, 4 YEARS

Dam — Asfura, daughter of Queen of Sheba (Betteyan's mare)
Sire — Mesaoud

How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 67

of the coveted family of Ras elFedawi, to
which belonged the famous Darley Ara-
bian. It has often been stated that he
was a Manekhi Hedruj, Both Major
Upton and Lady Anne Blunt say he was
Ras el Fedawi. This is one of the sub-
families of Keheilet Ajuz, and the nearest
Major Upton was able to secure was the
bay mare Kesia, a Keheilet of Nowak,
closely akin to the Ras el Fedawi. Upton
says (Gleanings page 324): "Of the
strain called Ras el Fedawi, of which
family I understand was the Darley
Arabian, we saw some mares in another
tribe and in the hands of single Arabs,
but I do not remember to have seen any
in the Sabaah." The only one he could
buy was so badly broken down that he
would not take her.

Wild Thyme was bred to Kars, a bay
Seglawi Jedran horse of the Ibn Sbeni
strain, purchased at Aleppo by Mr. Blunt,
and considered of very choice blood.
Lady Anne Blunt ranks him as one of the
most valuable horses they secured. The

6S The Arab Horse

offspring was Raschida, a very remark-
able mare, still owned (1906) by Hon.
Miss Dillon, who bought her, with Hagar,
and Jedrania, besides other choice ani-
mals, from the Blunts.

Raschida is a bay mare, foaled 1883, a
Ras el Fedawi, 15 hands high. She has
won nineteen jumping prizes, besides one
second prize in the hunter class at Blan-
ford. She carried 13 stone (182 tbs) in
the hunting field ten weeks before foaling,
and is the only pure Arab mare in the
Hunters' Improvement Stud Book, besides
being registered in Weatherby's '' General
Stud Book," Vol. XV.

Offspring of Raschida.

1887, b. m. Rommia, by El Emir.

1889, b. m. Rakusheh, El Emir.

1890, b. m. Rahatlakoum, by Gomussa.

1 89 1, b. m, Aziza, by El Emir.

1893, b. h. Rasoul, by Imam,

1894, b. m. Laili, by Jamirood.

1895, b. h. Ras el Fedawi, by Havilah.

1896, ch. f. (dead), by Volomel.

1897, b. m. Riad, by Hail.

1898, b, m. Raz-za-za, by Imamzada.

1904, b. m. Mahal, by Imamzada.

1905, b. m, Nessa, by Hauran.

3
4

5
6

7
8

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10
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12

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How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 69

Jedrania also proved one of the very
valuable producers among the Arab
mares of England. She was foaled in
1875, a Seglawi Jedranieh, bred by Ali
Aga of Milich, at Deyr Hafa, on the
Euphrates. Her dam was captured in
war and given as a bribe to Ali Aga the
Turkish-Pasha of Deyr, in whose posses-
sion she foaled Jedrania. From him the
mare was purchased by Mr. Blunt.

Offspring of Jedrania.

1881, ch, h. Jamschyd, byAbeyan el Khush.

1882, ch. h. (dead) by Pharaoh.

1884, b. m. Jebel Druz, by Kars.

1885, b, m. Juniper, by Kars.

1886, b. m. (dead), by Abeyran.

1887, b. m. (dead), by Nizam.

1888, b. m. Jedran, by El Emir.
1 89 1, b. h. (dead), Jebel Shammar.

1893, b, h, Jezail, by Imam.

1894, b. h. Jadoo, by Jamrood.
1896, br. m. Yasimeen, by Imamzada.
1898, b. h. Jezza, by Rasoul.

3
4

5
6

7
8

9
10
II
12

These are some of the fine mares that
have been owned in England through
the efforts of a few enthusiastic and
persistent breeders. It will be noted

70 The Arab Horse

that they have produced sufficiently to
account for King Edward's dominion
being the source whence raany other
countries have been able to supply them-
selves with pure Arab blood.

A number of the choicest stallions also
were brought by the Blunts, some from
Arabia, others from the Abbas Pasha
Stud, still others from Bombay. Among
the best of the first was Kars, a very
beautiful and impressive animal. Wea-
therby thus records him in Vol XIV of the
General Stud Book:

*'Kars, a bay horse (foaled 1874) a
Seglawi Jedran of the Ibn Sbeni, pur-
chased at Aleppo by W. S. Blunt, from
Mahmoud Aga, chief of the irregulars.
This blood is considered the best in the
Syrian Desert."

Mesaoud is also a very choice Seglawi
Jedran horse of Ibn Sudan's strain of the
Roala Anazah, bred by Ali Pasha Sherif
from a mare bought in the desert by
Abbas Pasha. He won many prizes in
England and on the continent, his blood

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How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 71

saturates the animals now at Crabbet
Park, and he was purchased in 1903 by
the Russian Government for use in the
Imperial vStud.

Rataplan was bought by Mr. Blunt in
Bombay. Visiting India in 1882 to see
the great races for Arab horses which
had become established events in that
country, he recognised in Rataplan a
horse he had seen ridden in Arabia by
Jedaan ibu Mahaid of whom mention has
been made. Inquiry proved his identi-
fication accurate, the horse had been
brought to Bombay by Abdur Rhaman
after Jedaan' s death, and was raced
successfully, winning the following
events :

Wellington, May 15, 1882, Arab Handicap, i^ miles,
500 Rs., beating Snowdrop, Ruby, and Copen-
hagen.

Bangalore, July 18, 1882, Arabian Purse, i^ miles, 500
Rs., beating Dictator, Copenhagen and Khusroo.

Bangalore, July 22, 1882, Winner's Handicap, if miles,
500 Rs., beating Dictator, Grey Warrior, Euphra-
tes, and Copenhagen.

Baroda, Dec. 28, 1882, Gaekwar's Purse, i^ miles, 800
Rs., beating Blotting Paper, Robin Grey, Duch-
ess, Slug, Morar, Redoubt, and Reserved.

72 The Arab Horse

Mr. Blunt then bought Rataplan and
shipped him to England for use in the
Crabbet Stud.

Many other Arab horses greatly dis-
tinguished themselves in racing in India;
but as they never came to England or the
Continent of Europe have left no influ-
ence upon modern occidental horse breed-
ing. A rapid enumeration is all the
attention that can be given them in the
present writing.

Grey leg won 51 races at Bombay,
Mysore, and Bangalore between 1861 and
1868. Hermit won 34 races during the
same period. Rex, Euclid, and Lanercost
were also great winners. The demand for
anything that could win races from the
rich Rajahs who made racing their pas-
time, caused standing offers of fabulous
prices at all times by British officers, and
the demand brought a partial supply. In
1893 not less than 16,000 rupees were
added to the stakes at the Calcutta meet-
ing alone. To win such prizes the Mahara-
jah of Cooch Behar paid R5,ooo ($2,500)

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How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained j^

for Dominant, and Rii,ooo for Good
Hope, while R3o,ooo were offered and
refused for either Rex or BHtz. This
last-named horse was certainly one of the
greatest stake winners for his inches that
the world has ever seen. Bought origin-
ally by Lieut. O'Farrell of the 6th Dra-
goons for R400 ($200) he never was
beaten. After winning the Civil Service
Cup for the second time, his owner and
partners bought him in no less than four-
teen pools, whose actual aggregate value
was $60,000. Later, he was bought by
Lord William Beresford, and used in the
stud in England, to a limited degree.
Afterward he passed into the possession
of the Maharajah of Patiala, who took
him back to India and used him for breed-
ing. He is described by one who knew
him well, in these words:

"He is for his size, the most remark-
able animal ever foaled. He is milk white
with black muzzle, which can be put in
a pint pot. Weight makes no difference
to him."

74 The Arab Horse

Another remarkable horse, who must
be rated in the same class with Blitz,
was Kismet. He was foaled in the
desert in 1877, a Manakhi Hedruj, and
taken to India by Abdur Rhaman, in
1882. In i883-'84 he swept everything
before him on the race track, never losing
a race or heat, his total winnings for those
seasons in India amounting to ;^3o,ooo
($150,000).

Kismefs Races in India

Bangalore, July 12, 1883, the Mysore Cup, li miles,

carrying 139 lbs.
Bangalore, July 14, 1883, the Mysore Purse, i^ miles,

carrying 134 lbs.
Bangalore, July 19, 1883, -^g^ Khan's Purse, i J miles,

carrying 134 lbs.
Poonah, Sept. 8, 1883, Aga Khan's Plate, li miles,

carrying 126 lbs.
Poonah, Sept. 11, 1883, Aga Khan's Purse, if miles,

carrying 131 lbs.
Hyderabad, Nov. 22, 1883 Deccan Handicap, i^^miles,

carrying 119 lbs.
Bombay, Feb. 12, 1884, The Derby, ij miles carry-
ing 136 lbs.
Bombay, {Feb. 14, 1884, Aga Khan's Purse, i^ miles,

carrying 133 lbs

Immediately after this race Lieut.
Broadwood brought Kismet to England,

How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 75

where he was owned by Col. R. D. Coyn-
ingham V. C. He landed after a tem-
pestuous voyage in the latter part of
April, and so confident was his owner
of his prowess, that he matched him to
run against Asil, without training, at
Newmarket. Asil beat him in this race
for the only time in Kismet's entire career.
Twice afterward Kismet turned the
tables on Asil, showing that it was lack of
condition that lost him his first race with
that horse. In 1885 Kismet was ridden
at Newmarket by Fred Archer, who rode
the Derby winner five different times,
and he pronounced Kismet the gamest
horse he ever rode. Such, also, was the
opinion of Wood, who rode him in his
races against Asil at Newmarket and
Sandown Park. Both these races were
for two miles, and Kismet won ''hands
down, ' ' carrying 126 pounds. After that he
was bought by Hon. John Corbett, M. P.,
as a saddle horse, and he sold him to Rev.
F. F, Vidal, who kept him in the stud until
1 89 1, when he leased him to Mr. Ran-

76 The Arab Horse

dolph Huntington, of Oyster Bay, Long
Island. After a long and stormy passage
Kismet reached New York by Str.
Canada, Nov, 11, 1891, only to die two
hours after landing, of pleuro-pneumonia
contracted on the voyage. This rather
extended history of Kismet has been
given because, though his untimely
death was so serious a loss, he has had, and
will continue to have, an important in-
fluence on horse breeding in America,
two of his pure bred sons having come to
this country in 1893, as will be noted
later.

Maidan is the last of the great horses
that came to England from Arabia
through India, whose name can have our
especial attention. Many who knew him,
including Lady Anne Blunt and the Hon.
Miss Dillon, place him even above Kismet,
and the opinion is concurred in by others
who knew him only by his offspring.
Maidan was foaled in 1869 in Nejd, a
chestnut (as was Kismet) , said by some
to have been a Manakhi Hedruj, though

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How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 77

this was doubted by others because of his
great beauty, the Manakhi being a
family of rather plain appearance, though
great race horses. He was brought to
Bombay by Abdur Rhaman in 187 1, and
sold to Captain Johnstone, who imme-
diately commenced racing him, though
the colt was but two years old. Captain
Fisher and Major B rough were also inter-
ested in Maidan; and as these English
officers had tested him they were free in
taking the long odds which were laid
against him by the Australian sports who
came to the races and were ready to lay
against an untried colt. It is said that
after Maidan won the Punjab Cup, the
Australians had hardly money enough
left to pay their passage home. For
three years, from 187 1 to 1874, Maidan
continued his winning career, until no
further matches could be made for him.
Then, at 5 years of age, he was sold to
Lieut. Col. Brownlow of the 7 2d High-
landers, as a charger. Brownlow was
a heavyweight of nineteen stone (266 lbs.)

78 The Arab Horse

with his equipment, yet Maidan carried
him for twelve years in campaigns
through the mountainous regions of India
and Afghanistan, until the soldier was
killed in the fight at Kandahar, at the
end of the famous forced march of Lord
Roberts's Army from Cabul, three hun-
dred miles distant. After carrying
Brownlow for ten years Maidan won the
Ganges Hog Hunt Cup, and also a four
mile steeplechase across difficult country.
At seventeen years of age, on the death of
Brownlow, Maidan was bought by Lord
Airlie who again put him to racing where
he won a number of races both on the
flat and steeplechases. He was then sold
to Captain the Hon. Eustace Vesey, who
bought him to take to England. Leaving
India on the troopship Jumna Maidan
got as far as Suez, where the ship met
the expedition going to the relief of
Suakim, where Osman Digna was har-
rassing the garrison, and was pressed into
service as a transport for troops to Mas-
sowah, near the lower end of the Red Sea.

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How Some Arabs Have Been Obtained 79

So it happened that the old race horse and
charger had his journey lengthened, to
the degree that he stood on his feet one
hundred days without once lying down,
before he reached Marseilles. Yet Capt.
Vesey raced him successfully at Pau, and
afterward in England. He won a steeple-
chase when twenty-two years of age.
When he had to be destroyed, because of
a broken leg, at twenty-three, he was
absolutely sound. In 1890 he was de-
scribed in the London Live Stock Journal,
as ''fresh and well, with immense bone
below the knee (he measured eight inches)
and as clean in the legs as a four year old,
notwithstanding the fact that he was
hunted in Suffolk last year."

He was a very beautiful horse, the
finest type of a high caste Arab, fifteen
hands high. Maidan's blood is also to be
found in the United States, though
the U. S. Department of Agriculture
decided that his daughter, from a pure-
bred Ras al Fedawi Arab mare, and
registered as thoroughbred in Weather-

8o The Arab Horse

bey's " General Stud Book," also, present-
ing the certificate of Weatherbey & Sons,
must pay duty, because the sire and dam
of Maidan were not so registered, though
Maidan himself had been accepted and
registered. The reason his sire and dam
were not registered was that they lived
and died in Nejd, and there was no
occasion for them to be registered at the
English Jockey Club.

1

HEIRESS AND HALF-BRED DAUGHTER, 4 MONTHS OLD

CHAPTER V
Arab Horses in America

/CONTRARY to generally accepted
^^ opinion, many good Arabs have
come to America, even from the
early days. It cannot be doubted that
they have imparted their good qualities
to some of our most useful horses, the
influence of Arab blood being especially
noticeable in the old Morgans, that of the
Barb in the descendants of Henry Clay.

General Washington's famous grey
charger was an entire son of the desert-
bom horse Ranger, imported to New
London, Connecticut, about 1765. He was
a dapple grey, fifteen hands high, of the
finest form, symmetry, and finish. As
Washington was six feet, three inches tall,
and weighed more than two hundred
pounds, it is evident that the little son of
Ranger must have been a weight carrier.

81

82 The Arab Horse

It is related that Washington had his
attention attracted to the superiority of
the horses ridden by the Connecticut
cavalry when he took command of the
Continental army at Boston. Calling
"Light Horse Harry Lee" into his coun-
sels, they found that these were sons and
daughters of Ranger. Captain Lindsay
was thereupon sent to the Connecticut
valley to purchase the horse, and he was
taken to Virginia where he was after-
ward known as the Lindsay Arabian.
The horse that General Israel Putnam
rode when he galloped down the steep
declivity of a hundred steps at Green-
wich, Connecticut, later in the war, so
escaping the British, was own brother to
Washington's charger.

The four famous grey stallions that drew
Lady Washington's coach to Philadelphia
when Congress convened, were bred on
the Washington plantation at Mount
Vernon, and were half-bred Arabians.

In the first volume of *' Bruce's Ameri-
can Stud Book" we find a list of no less

Arab Horses in America ^t,

than forty-two Arab horses imported
into the United States during the century
between 1760 and i860, besides twelve
Arab mares, four Barb horses, and two
Barb mares. Since that time the number
has been increased greatly.

Mention has already been made of the
Keene Richards importations. It was
in 1 854-' 5 5 that he was induced to go
to Arabia for horses, backed by the New
Orleans Jockey Club, accompanied by
Troyon, the animal painter, who was to
assist him in making his selections. He
went among the Anazah tribes and
brought back with him some very valu-
able animals of the choicest families. In
this country they failed of the recog-
nition they deserved for many reasons,
one being the unfortunate time of their
arrival. The great Civil War was brewing,
and people had their attention drawn to
more serious questions than horse breed-
ing in 1857, when the Keene Richards
Arabs reached Kentucky. The best of
his horses was bred to but five mares, yet

84 The Arab Horse

one of them produced the great race horse
Limestone, and another the dam of Dor-
sey's Golddust. General W. T. Withers,
one of the most successful breeders of
trotters in Kentucky, had two or three
mares in his stud sired by one of the Keene
Richards Arabs, that he considered the
choicest of any he had. In 1861 the Civil
War burst upon the land, and the Keene
Richards' s Arabs were scattered and lost,
as were other valuable animals of other
breeds.

It is told that after the battle of Pitts-
burgh Landing (Shiloh) the Confederate
General Breckenridge went to George-
tow^n, Kentucky, to Mr. Richards, begging
conveyance to Virginia as quickly as
possible, as the Federal troops were pur-
suing him. Richards had nothing to offer
but a pair of three year old half-bred
Arab fillies. These he hitched to a buck-
board and started. The Federals pur-
sued on thoroughbred horses, but though
they gained for a while, their bolt was
soon shot, and they had to draw rein.

Arab Horses in America 85

The Arab fillies never stopped until
they had Breckenridge safely within
the Confederate lines. It is doubtful
if he would have proved a good wit-
ness for the case of those who prate
about the failure of the Keene Rich-
ards's Arabs.

Other notable Arabian horses that
came to America were the two, Maaneke
Hedragi and Siklany Gidran (note these
names), sent as a present to Hon. Wm.
H. Seward when Lincoln's Secretary of
State, Umbark, sent to President Van
Buren, Linden Tree and Leopard, pre-
sented by the Sultan of Turkey Abdul
Hamid n.,to General U. S. Grant. The
so-called Arabs or Barbs brought to New
York in 1905, said to be intended as a
present for President Roosevelt, need no
attention. They were a fraud. Mr. Roose-
velt would have none of them, and when
sold by auction to pay their feed bills at
Hoboken, they did not bring the value
of the oats they had eaten. It is such
beasts as they, when called Arabs, that

86 The Arab Horse

discredit the entire race with the un-
informed.

Mention has not been made of a con-
siderable consignment of Arabians, both
mares and stallions, brought over by-
Commodore Jesse D. Elliott, U. S. N.,
in 1838. They were procured by him
during a cruise to the coast of Syria in
1837, on the frigate Constitution, They
are registered in Bruce's American Stud
Book, but the disposition made of them
is not noted.

Since 1885 quite a number of really
high -caste Arabs have come to the
United States. Naomi, foaled in Upton's
stable in England, her dam brought
from Arabia on his first visit, was im-
ported in 1888. She was a very valuable
mare, well known and esteemed in Eng-
land. The list of Naomi's offspring has
already been given. She greatly en-
riched the horse breeding of America by
her blood, and died full of years and
honours.

In 1893 Mr. Huntington bought Nazli,

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Arab Horses in America 87

daughter of Naomi and Maidan. She
is still owned by the Huntington Stud
at Oyster Bay, and has produced some
most valuable animals. Two of these, a
son and a daughter, both by her half-
brother Anazah (son of Naomi and Gen.
Grant's Leopard) are owned by Mr.
Herman Hoopes, of Philadelphia. Mr.
Huntington also imported on same ship
with Nazli, two pure bred sons of Kismet,
Nimr, son of Nazli, and Garaveen, whose
dam was Kushdil, another daughter
of Naomi, Kushdil' s sire having been
Kars.

Garaveen was bought by Mr. J. A P.
Ramsdell of Newburgh, who also bought
Ras Aloula and Rakusheh from Miss
Dillon, and Shah wan from Mr. W. S.
Blunt. He also secured a white mare
from an Arab Sheik who brought her
to the Columbian Exposition at Chicago
in 1893. Her breeding is not known, and
she lacks registration; yet Nejme bears
every indication of being a high caste
Arab mare.

88 The Arab Horse

This, however, is by no means a safe
way to judge of a horse's breeding. A
chestnut mare by Maidan, imported from
England by the writer in 1898, has the
most perfect conformation and courage,
such as would cause her to be judged a
pure-bred Arab in the choicest company.
No other son or daughter of Maidan can
surpass her in beauty of head, loftily
carried tail, perfect form and symmetry.
Yet she is only a half-bred Arab; her dam
was a thoroughbred English racing mare.
She has distinguished herself in the hunt-
ing fields of England, France, Algeria,
America, won first prize in jumping at
the Crystal Palace, London, in 1896, and
has bred eight beautiful foals. If ap-
pearance and performance were all that
need be sought for as credentials. Heiress
would pass for a pure-bred Arab of the
very highest type. If further evidence
were needed that appearance is not al-
ways a safe ground for judging a horse to
be pure-bred, a son of Garaveen owned
by Mr. Ramsdell, whose dam was a polo

PhoCi k;rttfr

HEIRESS

Daughter of Maidan ; her dam a thoroughbred mare by Herbertstown

Seventeen years old, has hunted in England, France, Algeria, America. First

prize in jumping class at Crystal Palace, London, 1896. Dam of 8 foals

HALF-BRED GELDING BY GARAVEEN

Arab Horses in America 89

pony mare, and in the same stable with
Nejme, may also be cited. Nothing
could be more beautiful than this chest-
nut gelding, yet we know that he is but
a half-bred.

Speaking of the necessity for care in
making certain of the origin of horses
claiming to be pure bred Arabians, Lady
Anne Blunt writes:

"As it is a fundamental principle at
the Crabbet Arabian Stud that no stal-
lion, however individually excellent, is
eligible for service if there is any doubt
or lack of information as to a true Arabian
descent, it follows that at this stud any
'not proven' element must remain an
insuperable objection. I have heard of
disastrous results from the neglect of
this rule, for example from Prince San-
gusco, who told me of the immense
trouble he had to eliminate the blood of
horses he had accepted on insufificient
testimony.

"On the other hand there are cases
where, the risk having been run, results
have justified the experiment, as any
flaw in blood is sure to come out in

90 The Arab Horse

descendants sooner or later, and if results
are persistently good they may practi-
cally be treated as proof. But that takes
years."

Mr. W. vS. Forbes, of Boston, about the
same time, biought two Arabs, the
chestnut mare Jamilla and the bay
stallion Bedr, from the Crabbet Arabian
Stud, with the great race horse Meddler,
to this country. Hon. W. C. Whitney
also imported a bay horse from Bombay
somewhat later, and Mr. Eustis got the
bay mares Bushra and Backaret from Mr.
Blunt in 1900.

In 1898 there came from Miss Dillon's
Pudlicote Stud the two mares Raksh
and Shabaka. The former was a most
beautiful animal, a daughter of Maidan,
her dam by El Emir from Rachida, and
so of the much prized Ras al Fedawi
strain. Her death, leaving no progeny,
was a serious loss. Shabaka was bred
by Lord Arthur Cecil, her sire the Duke
of Bedford's Mameluke, her dam Mr.
Chaplin's Kesia H, already mentioned in

RAKSH

SEGARIO, ch. h., 1902

Shabaka ch. m.
Bred by Lord Arthur
Cecil, England.

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Arab Horses in America 91

connection with Major Upton's impor-
tations.

She is dam of the very beautiful
horse Segario, whose sire was Nimr. In
1905 Shabaka was sold to the proprietors
of the Huntington Stud, together with the
grand Russian Arab Gouniead, bred at
the Imperial Stud at Streletsky, and
sent to America by the Russian Govern-
ment in 1893. Shabaka foaled a very
promising filly by Gouniead in February
1906.

In 1905 Miss Dillon sent the bay horse
Hail, a son of the famous mare Hagar.
Hail is 15.3. His sire was Jamrood,
son of Maidan and Jerud.

Two months after Hail, came the bay
stallion Imamzada, son of Imam and
Kesia II. Imam was a bay son of
El Emir, that Miss Dillon bought at
Damascus, a Manakhi ibu Sbeyli, and
Ishtar, a white mare, one of the first
bought in the desert by the Blunts. For
ten years Imamzada has been distin-
guished in the Midland Counties of

92 The Arab Horse

England, as a hunter and a sire of hunters.
He is about 15.2 and of immense bone,
measuring more than eight inches below
the knee. Imam also greatly distin-
guished himself in the hunting field with
the Heythorpe Hounds, calling forth
most laudatory notice in the London
sporting papers for his jumping, manners,
and endurance. At the Oxfordshire Show
he won a prize of £^0 in a jumping con-
test, where he cleared six feet. He was
also a fine horse in harness. In the
autumn of 1894 Miss Dillon drove him
to Cirencestor Fair, twenty-eight miles,
in two hours and thirty-five minutes,
hitched to a heavy cart, in which were
Miss Dillon, and a groom, besides saddles
and rugs. Imam returned by another
route to Charlbury, the same day, thirty-
three miles, in three hours and five
minutes.

A notion of the service a good Arab
can perform may be gathered from the
record of Imam's doings in the eight days
beginning November 11, 1894:

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IMAMZADA

Imamzada, b. h., i8gz

Bred by the Hon. Miss E. Dillon. England

Kesia II. b. m.
Foaled property of
Hon. Henry Chaplin.

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* Pedigree of Kesia as given by R. D. Upton's " Gleanings from the
Desert of Arabia," p. 387.
4. Breed — a Keheilet of Nowak .
Her color, bay (red).
Breed of her sire — Dabeh Nowak.
In foal by the hudud Seglawi al Abd.
His tribe, *. e. the tribe of the horse, Ruallah Anazah.
17th Jammaz, (July) of the Christian year 1875.
The testifier of this writing is the Shaykh.

SULEYMAN IBN MIRSHED.

Imam. b.

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Bred by Miss DiUon,

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Arab Horses in America 93

Saturday— Carried Edwards (Miss Dillon's Stud
Groom) hunting, rider thirteen stone (182 lbs.)

Monday — Ridden to hounds to pilot Miss Roberts
(daughter of Gen. Lord Roberts); out seven hours,
with plenty of galloping and jumping.

Tuesday — Fourteen miles in harness at a fast pace.

Thursday — Thirty miles in harness.

Friday — harness again.

Saturday — Sixteen miles in harness.

At the outbreak of war in South Africa,
Imam went as a charger. He was the
only horse on the ship that stood the 6,000
mile voyage without apparent injury,
and he served with distinction through-
out the whole war.

In October 1905 there came also the
famous old mare Rose of Sharon, a chest-
nut, foaled in 1885, her sire Hadban, dam
Rodania, a Keheilet Ajuz of Ibn Rodan's
strain, whose romantic history is men-
tioned in connection with the mares at
Crabbet Park.

Offspring of Rose of Sharon.

1890, ch. h. Rafyk, by Azrak.

1891, ch. h. Rasham, by Azrak.

1892, ch. h. Ridaa by Merzuk.
1894, ch. m. Rishmeh, by Shahwan.
1894, ch. mRotuba, by Ahmar.

94 The Arab Horse

1898, ch. m. Rayyana, by Ahmar.

1899, ch. m. Rebekdar, by Mesaoud.

1900, ch. h. Ras el Jeyr, by Mesaoud.

1 90 1, ch. h. Rijin, by Mahruss.

1902, ch. m. Rumeliya, by Rejeb.

1906, ch. h. Rodam, by Harb, son of the "broken-
legged mare."

The death of Raksh left no animal in
America of the Ras el Fedawi family,
and the only place where it was known
to exist was in Miss Dillon's two old
mares Raschida (24 yrs. old) and Rommia
(19 yrs.). Rommia had failed to pro-
duce a foal for ten years. Raschida had
by her side a beautiful bay filly by Haur-
an, and Miss Dillon also had a yearling
daughter of Raschida (foal of 1904) by
Imamzada. After much persuasion
these were both secured, and safely
reached America in October 1905. Ras-
china's breeding has been mentioned,
also that of Imamzada. Hauran is a
son of Hagar, his sire Jezail a son of
Jedrania. The combination of blood
in the younger filly, therefore, is not less
choice than that of the older. They

'

RUMELIYA

Photograph by Schreibcr

Dam — Rose of Sharon, daughter of Rodania
Sire — Rejeb, son of Rosemary (also a daughter of Rodania) and Mesaoud

Arab Horses in America 95

both unite the choicest strains of Major
Upton's importations, with the earHer
of the Blunts, and are believed to be the
only animals in America of the Ras al
Fedawi family.

In 1906 three more mares came from
Crabbett Park, (i) Rumeliya, 4 years, a
daughter of Rose of Sharon, her sire Rejeb,
son of Rosemary and Mesaoud — in foal by
Astraled, son of Queen of Sheba (Betey-
an's mare) ; (2) Rosetta, 4 years — a daugh-
ter of Rosemary and Mesaoud — also in
foal by Astraled ; and (3) Antika, 4 years
— daughter of Asfura, and grand- daugh-
ter of Queen of Sheba — in foal by Harb,
son of Bint Helwa (the broken-legged
mare) and Mesaoud. These three, com-
bining the choicest strains of blood that
ever left Arabia, and joining the same
stud where are owned the Rose of Sharon
and two of ^Raschida's daughters, must
prove a valuable addition to the Arabs
in America.

CHAPTER VI
Some Last Words

^O PERSON who reads the books
from which much of the infor-
mation conveyed in these pages has
been obtained can fail to be impressed
with the idea that the blood of Keheilet
Ajuz is a preponderating influence in the
best Arab horses. The animals pos-
sessed of this blood are not a separate
breed among Arabs — all pure Arabs are
of one breed. But, as we know of the
old Morgans in America, there were separ-
ate families, for example, Woodburys,
Giffords, Bulrushes, and all were Morgans,
so in Arab horses, there is a choice; and
of them all the descendants of Keheilet
Ajuz are the first. Upton says in ** Glean-
ings From the Desert" (p. 320):

'* It appears to me that although there
are numerous offshoots from the Keheilet

97

98 The Arab Horse

Ajiiz, each with a specific name, there is
still a main line or strain of descent
carried on of Keheilet Ajuz without any
distinguishing name, and that the name
Keheilet Ajuz is sufficient to mark any-
such horse or mare."

He also explodes the tradition that
mares are not to be had of the Arabs,
and makes evident the fact that if a man
knows what he wants, and has the money
to pay the price; he can get it, or could
at the time of his visits (p. p. 365-6).

"Before leaving this portion of the
subject, it is convenient to allude to an
assertion which has been made, and so
oft repeated that it has been accepted as
an established fact — that it is impossible
to obtain an Arabian mare; that
the Arabs will not part with a mare; that
they will sell horses, but nothing will
tempt them to part with a mare. The
least informed on the subject of Arabians
will tell you this as glibly and with as
much assurance as if he had been brought
up in the desert. One certainly announ-
ced that there was a law forbidding the
export of an Arabian mare; Now, I

r

^23B

Photograph by Schrttbtr

ROSETTA, 4 YEARS

Dam — Rosemary, daughter of Rodania
Sire — Mesaoud

Some Last Words 99

can assure my readers that it is not by
any means impossible to obtain a genuine
Arab mare. We visited the most ex-
clusive of all Badaween tribes and never
heard of such a law. If any law did
exist, it would be against selling, not
exporting; but we never heard of such a
thing in the desert. I can assure my
readers that among the genuine Badaween
of the Arabian desert we found no prej-
udice against parting with or selling a
mare. Difficulty there certainly is to
induce such people as the Anazah to sell
either horses or mares, for they do not
traffic in horses ; but if there be any dif-
ference, you might get a good mare with
less trouble than a good horse.

''I have the best of possible authority
for refuting the statement that mares are
not to be got, for mares were not infre-
quently offered to us, and among the
Anazah (not the wandering people of
Erack) we obtained both mares and horses,
and the former without more difficulty
than the latter."

The idea has also been given currency
that Manakhi Hedruj was a strain so
rare as to be seldom seen in these days,

loo The Arab Horse

was no longer to be had even for large
sums of money, and that they are always
chestnuts, of a size so much above the
other Arab families that these others are
merely '' pony xA^rabs."

Upton says of them (Gleanings p.

321):

*'The Manakhi appeared to us a
favourite strain, for both horses and mares
of this family are to be found in most
tribes of the Badaween; and we thought,
with the exception of Keheilet Ajuz,
there were more horses and mares among
the Anazah, certainly among the Sabaah,
of the Manakhi family than any other."

The Blunts, four years after Upton,
had no difficulty in securing several
animals of the Manakhi family, which
they brought with them to the Crabbet
Arabian Stud. Of their colour and size
Upton remarks (Gleanings p. 321):

" There was a nice clean-made, lengthy,
useful, and racing-like dark grey three
year old filly of the Manakhi Hedruj
family which belonged to Shaykh Jedaan

Some Last Words loi

ibn Mahaid. There were four mares of
Suleiman ibn Mirshid picketed in front
of his tent, the best of which he considered
to be the bluish-grey (Azzrak) mare, four
or five years old. She was also of the
Manakhi Hedruj family, and stood
fourteen hands, three inches high.'*

Speaking of colour of Arab horses he
says (p. 341):

*' As to colour, I do not pretend to re-
strict it; but among the Anazah bay
appeared to us the most general, and,
I think is the favourite colour among the
Arabs; chestnuts and greys are less
numerous, and together would not equal
the number of those of a bay colour."

Finally, the question seems pertinent —
Why, if Arab horses are so valuable, their
value so well known, and they can be
procured, have they not become more
widely distributed?

Various answers, all good, may be
given to this question. In the first place
the average horseman has come to be-
lieve their qualities and reputation to be

I02 The Arab Horse

figments of the imagination, like the
Arabian Nights tales, and having similar
origin. He has never seen one of these
wonderful horses, and none of his friends
have seen one. Therefore, the horse as
he is represented does not exist. Again,
even if he becomes convinced there is
such a horse he does not know where to
look for him, does not feel certain he can
secure the genuine article if he parts with
his good money to obtain one, and if he
does find what he becomes convinced is
what he wants the price is sure to be a
stiff one. The fact is the whole business
involves the question of supply and de-
mand, which is the key to all economic
calculations.

From this time forward it will pay less
and less to breed anything but the best
horses, and those which will yield the
safest return will be such as will be best
adapted for use under the saddle, either
for pleasure or as cavalry mounts. In
either of those forms of utility no horse
that ever lived can compare with one of

Some Last Words 103

Arab blood, and the supply of animals of
that kind is extremely limited. The
people possessing them, whether the
Bedouins or those who have bought
from them, have never had an over supply.

A reason for this is perhaps to be found
in one statement of conditions for which
Mr. Wilfrid Blunt is authority namely:
that the pure Arab is not a prolific breed-
ing animal. He thinks one cause for this
may be his intense inbreeding. In-
breeding is the only way to secure fixity of
type in any form of animal life; but the
penalty carried with it is limitation of
the reproductive tendency. Mr. Blunt
informed one inquirer that if fifteen
mares out of twenty-five produced off-
spring each year at Crabbett Park, he
felt satisfied.

The tendency of this condition of
affairs is to make the supply of pure
Arabs always short, and the price high.
A careful study of the lists presented to
the readers of this book, however, will
show that certain mares have been con-

I04 The Arab Horse

sistent and uniform producers of num-
erous and valuable offspring. By ac-
quiring, therefore, from breeders of
reputation, animals whose history has
been so well defined as to admit them
into authoritative records such as
Weatherbey's General Stud Book, and
the American Jockey Club Stud Book,
selecting carefully among them such as
are of the choicest strains and those
coming from long lived and prolific
families — for such are certainly to be
had — it is possible to secure the means
of breeding horses that shall be both a
pleasure and a profit to the breeder.

FINIS

VB HORSE

■;i*ENCER. BORDEN

AMNH LIBRARY

, . „, . -^'Jfe^*'