THE
HISTORY OF THE HORSE:
ITS ORIGIN, PHYSICAL AND MORAL
CHARACTERISTICS,
ITS
PRINCIPAL VARIETIES, AND DOMESTIC ALLIES.
By W. C. L. martin.
WITH AN APPENDIX ON THE DISEASES OF THE
HORSE, BY W. YOUATT.
LONDON:
CHARLES KNIGHT & CO., LUDGATE STREET.
1845.
1X5NDON : WItXIAM CLOWES AND SONS. STAMFORD STREET.
C iii )
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
ON THE FOSSIL REMAINS OF THE HORSE 5
CHAPTER II.
ON THK WILD SPECIES OF THE GENUS EQUCJS 17
CHAPTER III.
ON THE SEMI- WILD HORSE OF AMERICA 46
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE HORSE OF ANTIQUITY 72
CHAPTER V.
ON THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE HORSE 104
iv
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
PAGE
ON THE PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS OF THE HORSE 13i
CHAPTER VI
ON THE ASS AND MULE 199
APPENDIX :— ON THE DISEASES OF THE HORSE 225
THE
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE FOSSIL EBMAINS OF THE HORSE.
Contemporary with se\ eral species of mammoth, mas-
todon and rhinoceros, and with various huge edentate
animals — the megatherium, the mylodon, and glyptodon
— was the horse, or rather a species of the genus
JSquus; and apparently more than one existed, as the
fossil remains deposited in the same strata with the re-
lics of those huge extinct beasts abundantly testify.
These fossil remains of the horse occur alike in Europe,
in Asia, in Africa,* and in North and South America,
and that too in considerable abundance. They are im-
bedded in fresh-water deposits ; in superficial gravel,
sands, and clays ; in the osseous breccia ; in the Eppels-
heim sand, and in ossiferous caverns — in the formations
assigned by geologists to the third or Pleiocene period
of the tertiary series of strata.
Cuvier, speaking of the fossil horse, says, " Its teeth
accompany in thousands the remains of the animals just
mentioned (viz. mammoth, mastodon, &c.) in almost all
their localities ; but it is not possible to say whether it
was one of the species now existing or not, because the
* Col. H. Smith lias seen fossil teeth of the horse from
Barbary.
E
6
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
skeletons of these species are so like each other that
they cannot be distinguished by a mere comparison of
isolated fragments."
Without attempting to enter into osteological mi-
nutiae, we may observe that an examination of a collec-
tion of the fossil remains of the genus Eqiius, in that noble
institution the British Museum, has convinced us that (as
in the case of the fossil elephant or mammoth) more than
one species may be determined ; but whether the horse,
or any other now living species of equus^ derive its origin
from one of these contemporaries of the mammoth and
mastodon, is a point which cannot be very easily settled.
From the remains which we looked over, we were led
to conclude that on continental Europe a species of horse
of middle size, and one of the size of a zebra {equus
nanus ; hippotherium nanum, Kaup) existed ; while in
our island the relics of a large species, equalling a cart-
horse in stature, and others apparently identical with
those of the smaller of the ancient continental species,
are found. In India the fossil bones of two, if not three,
species have been brought to England by Captain
Cautley : they were found, among other relics, lying
on the slopes among the ruins of fallen cliffs, and partly
in situ in the sandstone of the Sewalik hills at the
southern foot of the Himalayas, between the Sutlej and
the Ganges. One species appears to have closely re-
sembled the Arab breed of the present day ; — the skull
is broad between the eyes, and the chafiron concave.
Another species was small in size, but long limbed, and
probably very fleet : the bones of the extremities are
remarkable for their slenderness, and remind us of those
of the antelope.
In North America, fossil remains of a horse were
brought home. by Captain Beechey from the mud cliffs of
Eschscholtz Bay : they were found associated with the
remains of the mammoth and fossil ox. To this we add
Mr. Darwin's observation, That horses' bones, mingled
with those of the mastodon, have several times been
transmitted for sale from North America to England ;
but it has always been imagined, from the simple fact of
FOSSIL REMAINS OF THE HORSE.
1
their being horses' bones, that they had been accidentally
mingled with the fossils."
In South America Mr. Darwin found the fossil tooth
of a horse, together with one of the extinct toxodon, at
St. Fe, in the red clayey stratum of the Pampas ; and
also part of another tooth at Bahia Blanoa, imbedded
with numerous other fossil remains of extinct edentata,
in a beach which was covered at spring tides.
In the caverns of Minas Geraes, a mining district of
Brazil, relics of a species of horse (equus curvidms,
Owen) have^een found in considerable abundance.
If, then, we except Australia, from which portion of
the globe we are not aware that any fossil bones of the
horse have been brought', species of the genus Equus have
been dispersed throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and
America, at an epoch in which the huge extinct pachy-
dermata were also living, as their relics mingled together
attest. The mammoth and the mastodon, the wild ox
and the horse, roamed over vast regions, from which a
series of geological changes have ultimately extirpated
them ; and it is somewhat curious that the modern horse
should have been, by man's agency, introduced since the
time of Columbus into America, where it now roams at
liberty, the successor of an extinct species.
" Very few species of living quadrupeds," observes
Mr. Darwin, " which are altogether terrestrial in their
habits, are common to the two continents, and these few
are chiefly confined to the extreme frozen regions of the
north. The separation, therefore, of the Asiatic and
American geological provinces appears formerly to have
been less perfect than at present. The remains of the
elephant and ox have been found on the banks of the
Amadir (long. 175° E.), on the extreme part of Si-
beria, nearest the American coast; and the former re-
mains, according to Chamisso, are common in the Pe-
ninsula of Kamtschatka. On the opposite shores, like-
wise, of the narrow strait which divides these two great
continents, we know from the discoveries of Kotzebue
and Beechey that the remains of both animals occur
abundantly, and as Dr. Buckland has shown, they are
B 2
8
ir^TiHisasQBa: qf t-he house-. ^o^
associated with the bones of the horse, the teeth of which
animal in Europe, according to Cuvier, accompany by
thousands the remains of the pachydermata of the later
periods. With these facts, we may safely look at this
quarter as the line of communication, now interrupted
by the steady progress of geological change, by which
the elephant, the ox, and the horse entered America,
and peopled its wide extent." That such might have
been the channel of introduction by which these extinct
animals entered America, we will not deny ; a continuity
of land, unbroken by water, might undoubtedly have
existed, and afforded a free passage ; but another view
of the subject may be taken — a view involving a
brief consideration on the geographical range of typical
genera, — that is, genera in which the great leading cha-
racters of the class are most fully exemplified. It is an
idea started by our friend Mr. Waterhouse, and we
concur in the correctness of it, that typical genera are of
the most extensive distribution ; for example, — among
the carnivora, the Felidge or cats are the most typical ;
and of the genus Felis, no quarter of the globe, with the
exception of Australia, is destitute of its own recent
species. The same remarks apply to the canine race, —
dogs, wolves, and foxes (Gen. Canis). Among the true
pachydermata, the genus Elephas stands conspicuous.
Only two living species are known, — one Indian, one
African ; but species now extinct from geological causes
operating in the regions where they dwelt were once
spread over Europe and Asia, and were distributed also
to America. The genus Mastodon, another typical
group of the pachydermatous order, now known only
from its fossil relics, was spread alike through Europe,
Asia, and America ; and that an allied gigantic form ex-
isted in Australia, is proved by various fossil bones re-
cently transmitted from that vast region by Sir Thomas
Mitchell. These fossils consist of a portion of a molar
tooth, of the shaft of a thigh bone, part of the spine, a
scapula, and other fragments. They were found on the
Darling Downs, extensive plains at the source of the
river Darling, and upwards of 4000 feet above the level
9
of the sea. Sir Thomas Mitchell, in his communication
to Professor Owen, to whom the relics in question were
forwarded, states that these huge bones are found in
some abundance. According to Professor Owen, they
prove the animal to have been allied to the Mastodon
and dinotherium, and " tell us plainly that the time
was when Australia's arid plains were trodden by the
hoofs of heavy pachyderms ; but could the land then, arf
now, have been parched by long-continued droughts,
with dry river courses, containing here and there a pond
of water? All the facts and analogies which throw
light on the habits of the extinct mastodons and dino-
theres indicate these creatures to have been frequenters
of marshes, swamps, or lakes. Other relations of land
and sea than now characterize the southern hemisphere,
a different condition of the surface of the land, and of
the meteoric influences governing the proportion and dis-
tribution of fresh water, on that surface, may therefore
be conjectured to have prevailed when huge mastodon-
toid pachyderms constituted part of the quadruped
population of Australia. May not the change from a
humid climate to the present particularly dry one have
been the cause or chief cause of the extinction of such
pachyderms ? Was not the ancient Terra Australis,
when so populated, of greater extent than the present
insular continent ? The mutual dependencies between
large mammalian quadrupeds and other members of the
animal kingdom suggest other reflexions in connection
with the present fossils. If ever the extinct species so
abounded as to require its redundancy to be suppressed
by a carnivorous enemy, then some destructive species
of this kind must have co-existed, of larger dimensions
than the extinct Dasyurus Laniarius, the ancient de-
stroyer of the now equally extinct gigantic kangaroos,
Macropus Titan, &c., whose remains were discovered
in the bone-caves of Wellington Valley." These and
other speculations are naturally suggested by the highly
interesting fossils in question,— speculations bearing upon
the geological and the meteorological condition ; upon the
botanical, mammal, and even entomological productions
10
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
of the regions of Australia, at the period when this huge
pachyderm in its living person represented the contem-
poraneous mammoths and mastodons of other portions
of the globe. If from these gigantic pachydermata we
turn to the solidungulous group of that order, constitut-
ing the natural genus Equus (or if Mr. Gray's arrange-
ment be adopted, two genera, namely, Equus and
Asinus), we shall find the same law of geographical dis-
tribution still to prevail. Passing by doubtful species
vaguely mentioned by travellers, and the Isabelline
zebra of South Africa, described by Le Vaillant as being
of a uniform cream colour, three species, viz., the zebra,
BurchelFs zebra, and the quagga, are African — two at
least, the dziggetai, and the koulan or wild ass are
Asiatic, — the latter also extending into North Africa ; —
and, setting aside the domestic horse, — horses of dif-
ferent species were once spread over the whole of
Europe, Asia, and America. Consequently there is no
necessity for us to adopt the theory, that the fossil-horse
of America was (as confessedly its moderfi representative
is) an introduced species ; we have no reason to doubt
that it was aboriginal, and peculiar to that continent,
which presents us still with two distinct species of
Ifapir, while another species is peculiar to Malacca and
Sumatra. In the same manner, if we look at the bovine
group, genus Bos, we find that every quarter of the
globe has its respective species, setting aside the species
now extinct, of which the fossil remains are spread so
abundantly. It is sufficient to have hinted at this view
of the case, upon which it is not necessary to ' assume
that the ancient horse of America must have migrated
thither from the old world, seeing that America might
have had her own indigenous species. But our conjec-
ture from this mode of reasoning becomes converted into
something more positive, when we learn that the fossil
relics found in the caverns of Minas Geraes belong to a
peculiar and distinct species. These remains were
brought to Europe by their discoverer, M. Claussen, and,
as the teeth prove, are reliquiae of the same species as
that to which the teeth collected by Mr. Darwin be-
FOSSIL REMAINS OF THE HORSE.
11
longs. This species, fropi a peculiarity in the form of
the teeth, is termed by Professor Owen Equus curvi-
dens. As far as we yet know, the fossil bones of the
Equus curvidens have not been found in the older con-
tinents. It is true that our knowledge of the fossil
forms of the genus Equus, in Afric^i, is at present
limited ; but we have no reason to believe that the par-
ticular form in question will be found in that country.
Such is a summary review of the extensive range of
ihe fossil relics of various species of the genus Equus, —
found with those of the ox and elephant in tertiary
formations, geologically speaking, of a recent era, but
really of a distant and mysterious period of time, antece-
dent to all historic records, perhaps even to man's ex-
istence on the surface of the globe. Have these species
of equus all passed away : has no remnant of one species
survived the general fate, continuing its race even to our
day ? or, as in the case of the fossil species of elephant,
are they all specifically distinct from the now existing
races ? To look at a parallel case : fossil remains of an
ox, with large horns, and with skulls, as Cuvier says,
''resembling those of tbe domestic ox," are found in
recent deposits, gravels, caverns, &c.; and these Cuvier
thinks to be the relics of the ancient urus (not aurochs),
and consequently the origin of our domestic breed of
cattle, the race of which was continued in a state of free-
dom after the extinction of the contemporaneous elephant,
rhinoceros, deer, bear, and hysena. Such is also the
opinion of Mr. Bell ; and we are ready to admit that it
is possible (we will not say probable), but it is destitute
of proof. In like manner, from one of the species of
fossil equus, of which perchance a few in some favourable
spot survived the general destruction, may the domestic
horse have arisen, which under the care of man con-
tinued and multiplied, when the last of its wild type
had followed the fate of its progenitors. And thus,
though no aboriginal wild horse may exist (an opinion
entertained by many but not by ourselves), the domestic
breed may tread above the fossil remains of primitive
ancestors, the associates of the mighty mammoth. This,
12
HfSTORY OF THE HOESE.
we may repeat, is possible, but is unsupported by posi-
tive proof. As possible is it also that some of the wild
asses, koulan or dziggetai, zebra or quagga, may claim
their primaeval source from other species whose fossil
remains engage the study of the geologist. If, in the
case of the ox and the horse, this be the fact, it is, we
think, an exception to the general rule, at least as re-
gards the vertibrate section, and especially the mammalia.
Passing over the mastodon, the megatherium, the mega-
lonyx, the scelidotherium, the mylodon, the toxodon,
dinotherium, and others, which have no living congeners,
but looking solely to those which have existing and
allied repr^t^ntatives, as the bear, the hyaena, the ele-
believe that in every instance the fossil and the modern
extant species are truly distinct. With respect to some
of the smaller mammalia, as rodents of various kinds, in
which, from the minuteness of the bones, considerable
difficulty in coming to a conclusion is experienced, we
think that as far as rigid examination has gone, the
specific distinctness of those most closely resembling
each other has been ascertained. In the case of the
large-homed fossil ox, regarded by Cuvier as the type
of the domestic race, of which he considers the wild
Chillingham ox as an example in an unreclaimed or
natural state, and taurus sylvestris, we may observe that
the horns in the latter are small, sharp, and curved up,
and differ greatly from those huge-spreading osseous
cores of the horns of the fossil ox which have come
under our notice, some of which have been found to
measure nearly four feet in their greatest expansion.
The subject is environed with many difficulties, and it
is hazardous to be positive, the iriore especially as we
know that numerous fossil and recent bivalve and uni-
valve shells are identical. It is true that in the latter
instance the parallel as to the circumstances attending
their deposit and that of the relics of mammalia does
not hold good. Shells accumulate age after age, at the
bottom of bays, in straits, and in shallow, or even in
deep seas ; there they form beds impacted in mud or
armadillo, and others, we
FOSSIL HEMAINS OF THE HOUSE.
13
fine sand, the sediment of the waters : by some up-
heaving agency these masses rise above the surface and
become soHd rock, — yet the species are not extermi-
nated (unless the water becomes itself changed in
quality), — and it will be found that the living testacea
around the shores where the fossil shells abound, are of
the same species with the imbedded exuviae. Our ob-
servations apply to the tertiary series only, a series
replete with extinct vertebrata, not only as respects
species, but forms or genera, — forms blotted out of the
page of creation ; while on the contrary, when we turn
to shells, we find that numerous fossil and living species
are identical, and of such the number increases in pro-
portion as we ascend from the oldest to the newest strata.
In the oldest or eocene deposits of the tertiary series,
there occur from three to five per cent, of existing
species ; in the middle or meiocene deposits, about
eighteen or twenty per cent. ; but in the newest, or
pleiocene deposits, from forty to ninety-five per cent. ,
according to the order or family. Amidst these shells,
imbedded in the strata containing them, the remains of
utterly extinct mammalia, originally carried into a bay or
strait by a river no longer flowing, are frequently to be met
with ; — the quadruped has disappeared from the face of
the earth, but the sea is still the home of living thou-
sands identical with the fossil species entombed with the
bones of the megatherium or toxodon. Thus then do
we Jearn that the period of existence allotted to a species
among the mammalia is of a far briefer term than the
period allotted to the continuation of species among the
testacea.
To what cause or causes, it may be asked, are we to
attribute the extinction of the fossil species of the genus
Equus ? The same query is applicable to other extinct
mammalia. Geological alterations in the surface of the
earth, gradual elevations of vast tracts, attended by de-
cided botanical changes, periodical droughts and floods,
a combination of agencies which in the present aspect of
Europe are not easily appreciable, may have operated
in the extinction of races, and prepared the field for
14
HISTOKY OF THE HORSE.
their successors. Of the effects of those periodical
droughts which occur in Australia and South America
more particularly, a fearful picture is given by Mr.
Darwin, which, as it is connected with the subject in
question, we shall take the liberty of extracting : — "While
travelling through the country (St. Fe) I received
several vivid descriptions of the effect of a great drought,
and the account of this may throw some light on the
cases where vast numbers of animals of all kinds have
been embedded together. The period included between
the years 1827 and 1830 is called the ' gran seco,' or the
great drought. During this time so little rain fell that
the vegetation, even to the thistles, failed ; the brooks
were dried up, and the whole country assumed the ap-
pearance of a dusty high road. This was especially the
case in the northern part of the province of Buenos
Ayres and the southern part of St. Fe. Very great
numbers of birds, wild animals, cattle and horses, pe-
rished from the want of food and water. A man told
me that the deer used to come into his courtyard to the
well which he had been obliged to dig to supply his own
family with water, and that the partridges had scarcely
strength to fly away when pursued. The lowest esti-
mation of the loss of cattle in the province of Buenos
Ayres alone was taken at one million head. A pro-
prietor at San Pedro had previously to these years
20,000 cattle ; at the end not one remained. San Pedro
is situated in the middle of the finest country, and even
now again abounds with animals ; yet during the latter
part of the ' gran seco' live cattle were brought in vessels
for the consumption of the inhabitants. The animals
roamed from their estancias, and, wandering far to the
southward, were mingled together in such multitudes,
that a government commission was sent from Buenos
Ayres to settle the disputes of the owners. Sir Wood-
bine Parish informed me of another and very curious
source of dispute ; the ground being so dry, such quan-
tities of dust were blown about, that in this open country
the landmarks became obliterated, and people could not
tell the limits of their estates.
FOSSIL EEMAINS OF THE HOUSE.
15
"I was informed by an eye witness that the cattle in
herds of thousands rushed into the Parana,* and being
exhausted by hunger, were unable to crawl up the muddy
banks, and thus were drowned. The arm which runs by
San Pedro was so full of putrid carcasses, that the master
of a vessel told me that the smell rendered it quite im-
possible to pass that way. Without doubt several
hundred thousand animals thus perished in the river.
Their bodies, when putrid, floated down the stream, and
many, in all probability, were deposited in the estuary
of the Platk. All the small rivers became highly saline,
and caused the death of vast numbers in particular spots ;
for when an animal drinks of such water it does not
recover. I noticed, but probably it was the effect of a
gradual increase rather than of any one period, that the
smaller streams of the Pampas were paved with a breccia
of bones.
" Subsequently to this unusual drought a very rainy
season commenced, which caused great floods. Hence,
it is almost certain that some thousands of these skeletons
were buried by the deposits of the very next year.
What would be the opinion of a geologist viewing such
an enormous collection of bones of all kinds of animals,
and of all ages, thus buried in one thick earthy mass ?
Would he not rather attribute it to a flood having
swept over the surface of the land, rather than to the
common order of things ?"
Let us picture to ourselves a more or less gradual
elevation of the whole of Europe, attended by periodical
droughts of two, three, or four years' continuance, — suc-
ceeded by tremendous floods, and with a change in the
* Azara talks of the fury of the wild horses rushing into the
marshes during a dry season : — " Et les premiers arrives sont
foules et ecrases par ceux qui les suivent. II m'est arrive
phas d'nn fois de trouver plus de mille cadavres des chevaux
sauvages morts de cette faQon." — " Those which arrive first
are thrown down and crushed by those who follow. More
than once I have found upwards of a thousand carcases of wild
horses that had been killed in this manner."
16
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
temperature of the atmosphere, affecting the botanical
productions of the earth,— let us by this gradual eleva-
tion, suppose inland seas, bays, and large lakes, to be con-
verted into sandy deserts or steppes, — and tracts once fer-
tile and clothed with luxuriant vegetation into icy plains,
bordered by a frozen ocean, — and we shall find some at
least of the causes which may have contributed to the
extinction of the mammoth, and the ancient wild horse,
and the dispersion of their remains through fluviatile
deposits.
Tliat such an elevation as this, which we have assumed
has been, and is going on in the great continent of
South America, owing, doubtless, to volcanic agency,
is abundantly proved ; — and it is almost equally demon-
strable that it is accompanied by a corresponding de-
pression of the bed of the South Pacific ocean, and its
numerous islands, once perhaps forming a large conti-
nent, but of which the mountain peaks now only rear
their heads above the waters, while many of these even
are submerged, and serve the coral polype to build on.
The theory of the alternate oscillations of level on the
surface of our globe, owing to vast and deeply seated
causes, is ably elucidated by Mr. Darwin, in his valuable
journal, the perusal of which we recommend to those
who wish to pursue the investigation. Well does his
accumulation of facts impress upon the mind " the never
ceasing mutability of the crust of this our world."
3 a^oH ^Hi7?o)Yiioa:8iH
CHAPTER II.
ON THE WILD SPECIES OF THE GENUS EQUUS.
Leaving the point in uncertainty as to whether any and
what species of the genus Equus may be specifically
identical with animals of which the fossil remains alone sur-
vive to attest their previous existence, let us take a review
of the present species of the genus Equus with which
naturalists are acquainted ; and remembering that we
have two domestic Equi, endeavour to ascertain whether
among the wild races we can discover their origin. We
may premise by observing that the genus Equus is di-
visable into two or perhaps three sections, by some re-
g-arded as genera. In the first the mane and tail are full,
long, and flowing ; there is no dorsal line, and horny cal-
losities are seated on the inside of both the fore and hinder
limbs, — example the horse only. In the second (Gen.
Asinm, Gray) the tail is furnished with long hair towards
the extremity only, — the mane is thin and short, — and
horny callosities exist on the inside of the fore legs
only, — examples — ass, dziggetai, &c. The third sec-
tion agrees substantially with the asinine ; but in this the
markings or stripes, indicated only by the cross-bar of the
ass, are greatly multiplied, being more or less generally
diffused, and producing a most beautiful effect, like the
striping of a tiger. To this group Colonel H. Smith
has applied the title of Hippotigris, — examples — zebra,
dauw, quagga, &c. These sections are not generic,
excepting indeed that in the present day genera are
founded on such unphilosophical grounds that more than
one instance has occurred in which a male and female
bird have been made respectively the types of two dis-
tinct genera. The rage for genus-making, and the taste
18
HISTORY OF THE HOKSE.
for obscuring zoological science in a maze of ill-derived
technicalities, are characteristics of the day. Onomology
is overshrouding zoology, as some parasitic plants do the
trees that support them.
Of the zebra or hippotigrine section, we find, as we
have said, three, perhaps four species in South Africa, —
the zebra, Burchiell's zebra or the dauw (pronounced
dow), and the quagga. To these, on the authority of
Le Vaillant, must be added a wild ass of a pale yellow
or Isabelline colour, called by the greater Namaquas the
white zebra. It exists, he says, in South Africa, in
large herds. We are not aware that other travellers
have seen it ; but as Le Vaillant was an experienced ob-
server of animals in a state of nature, and expressly says
" it is certainly a wild ass," we may safely place the
species among those on which farther information is
needed.
A striped species of zebra was undoubtedly known to
the ancients under the name of hippotigris ; and as they
were unacquainted with southern Africa, it must have
been procured in some portion of that continent acces-
sible to them. We are informed that Caracalla exhi-
bited in the circus an elephant, a rhinoceros, a tiger,
and a hippotigris, that is, a tiger-striped horse, so called
from its beautiful and regular markings. Of the pre-
sence of this animal in northern Africa, no definite ac-
counts reached Europe, until travellers of comparatively
recent date made known its existence in Abyssinia and
Nigritia. The earliest description of it is by Pigafetta :
it is noticed by Lobo as the zeuru of Abyssinia, and by
Ludolph as the zeora, or zecora of the Gallas. Bruce
states that the zebra is found in Abyssinia, but nowhere,
except in the south-west extremity of Kuora, amid the
Shangalla and Galla; in Narea and Caff, and in the
mountains of Dyre and Degla." .
This species is by many naturalists regarded as the
zebra. Mr. Blyth says the zebra *' is dift'used from
Cape Colony to Guinea, Congo, and even Abyssinia,
according to Ludolph ;" it would appear, however, that
this Abyssinian species is not the zebra, but is closely
WILD SPECIES OF THE GENUS EQUUS. 19
Zebra.
allied to the dauw, from which Col. H. Smith regards
it as being still distinct, and describes and figures it
under the name of " Hippotigris Antiquorum, the Congo
dauw, or zebra of Pigafetta." It appears to extend its
range from the Gareep, or Orange River, into Angola,
Congo, and Loanga, and thence through Nigritia into
Abyssinia, and the desert of Ethiopia. This species
perhaps only variety) is more graceful and elegant in
gure than the dauw of Burchell, found in the plains of
south Africa, and is more beautifully marked ; the ears
are more open, with two black bars and white lips, and
the stripes extend lower down the limbs. Col. H.
Smith says, " The Abyssinian and Galla chiefs adorn
the necks of their horses with a wreath made of the mane
of these 'animals, secured near the throat-band of the
bridle. One of these we have examined, and recognised
the three colours, white, brown, and black, which formed
the bars."
The zebra, or wild paard of the Cape colonists, is gre-
20
HISTOKY OF THE HORSE.
garious, tenanting the mountain ranges from CaiFraria
eastward to beyond Mozambique, perhaps to Adel and
the south of Abyssinia, but this is not certain. It is
essentially an inhabitant of rugged mountain districts.
The dauw, or Burchell's zebra, inhabits the vast plains
north of the Gareep, associating in large herds, among
which it is very common to see the towering ostrich. It
is very fleet, but is, nevertheless, often rode down and
speared by well mounted hunters.
If the Congo dauw be truly distinct, still its habits are
precisely those of the preceding — it scours the plains of
the desert.
The quagga tenants the plains of South Africa, and is
often seen in vast droves, intermixed with gnus and
ostriches. It is a bold powerful animal, and will de-
fend itself resolutely against the hyaena and wild hunt-
ing dog. It is sometimes tamed by the Dutch boors,
and kept in company with their horses, which it will de-
fend at night against the attacks of beasts of prey. The
Quagga.
WILD SPECIES OP THE GENUS EQUUS.
21
predilection of the ostrich for the company of these
animals is not a little remarkable. Xenophon observed
the same with regard to the ostrich and wild ass of the
plains of Syria and Mesopotamia. The ostrich is still
found in the great Syrian desert, and more especially in
the plains extending from the Haouran to Jebel Sham-
mar and Nejed.
Such, then, are the wild equine animals of Africa, as
far as we know at present. With countless herds of an-
telopes, gnus, hartebeests, with ostriches, and birds and
beasts of prey, the lion, the hyaena, and the hunting-
dog, they roam the vast solitudes of the interior of
southern and central Africa, in the enjoyment of native
freedom. Individuals, indeed, of each species have from
time to time been reclaimed ; but no enslaved race owes
to them its primitive origin. From none of them is the
domestic horse or ass derived ; yet we have seen the
domestic ass striped on the lower parts of the limbs like
the zebra, when we had no reason to suspect a cross with
the latter ; and it may be added that mules between the
zebra and common ass, partaking of the characters of
both, have been bred and trained to labour in the gar-
dens of the Zoological Society. They were remarkably
powerful. A mule breed has been procured between a
blood mare and quagga, to which we shall hereafter
revert.
We shall not enter more minutely into the history of
these striped African species, constituting the genus Hip-
potigris of Col. H. Smith. Their flesh, as is well known,
is highly esteemed by the Calfres and other natives.
Let us now leave these animals, and turn to those
species which may be called wild asses in contradistinction
to the striped zebra species peculiar to Africa. And here,
on the outset, we find ourselves in some degree of con-
fusion.
In the Asiatic deserts, travellers have met with wild
asses in abundance, and have alluded to them under va-
rious names, which renders it difficult to say whether or
not t\ij^y have seen the same, or different species. We
have, for example, the dziggetai, or djigguitai, with a
22
HISTOEY OF THE HOESE.
broad dorsal stripe from the withers to the tail, but no
shoulder stripe. This is the Equiis Hemionus of Pallas.
Next we have the khur, or wild ass of Persia, ob-
served by Mr. Ainsworth (' Travels in Assyria, Baby-
lonia, and Chaldea'), near Mount Taurus. This animal
is graphically described by Sir Robert Ker Porter
(' Travels,' i. p. 459): — " The sun," he says, " was
just rising over the summits of the eastern mountains
when my greyhound suddenly darted off in pursuit of an
animal which my Persians said, from the glimpse they
had of it, was an antelope. I instantly put spurs to my
horse, and with my attendants gave chase. After an un-
relaxed gallop of full three miles, we came up with the
dog, who was then within a short stretch of the creature
he pursued, and to my surprise, and at first vexation, I
saw it to be an ass. Upon a moment's reflexion, how-
ever, judging from its fleetness that it must be a wild one,
a creature little known in Europe, but which the Per-
sians prize as an object of chase, I determined to ap-
proach as near to it as the very swift Arab I was on
would carry me ; but the single instant of checking my
horse to consider had given our game such a head of us,
that notwithstanding all our speed we could not recover
our ground on him. I, however, happened to be con-
siderably before my companions, when at a certain dis-
tance the animal in its turn made a pause, and allowed
me to approach within pistol shot of him. He then
darted otf again with the quickness of thought, capering,
kicking, and sporting in his flight, as if he were not blown
in the least, and the chase were his pastime.
" He appeared to me to be about ten or twelve hands
high ; the skin smooth like a deer's, and of a reddish co-
lour ; the belly and hinder parts partaking of a silvery
grey ; his neck was finer than that of a common ass,
being longer, and bending like a stag's, and his legs
beautifully slender ; the head and ears seemed large in
proportion to the gracefulness of these forms, and by
them I first recognised that the object of my chasC was
of the ass tribe. The mane was short and blacky as was
also a tuft which terminated his tail. No line lohatever
WILD SPECIES OF THE GENUS EQUUS.
23
ran along his back or crossed his shoulders, as are seen in
the tame species with us. When my followers of the
country came up, they regretted that I had not shot the
creature when he was within my aim, telling me that his
flesh is one of the greatest delicacies in Persia, The pro-
digious swiftness and peculiar manner in which he fled
across the plain coincided exactly with the description
that Xenophon gives of the same animal in Arabia
(vide ' Anabasis,' book i.) ; but, above all, it reminded
me of the striking portrait drawn by the author of the
Book of Job.
" I was informed by the mehmendar who had been
in the desert when making a pilgrimage to the shrine of
Ali, that the wild ass of Irak Arabi differs in nothing
from the one I had just seen. He had observed them
often for a short time in the possession of the Arabs,
who told him the creature was perfectly untameable.
A few days after this discussion we saw another of these
animals, and pursuing, it determinedly, had the good
fortune, after a hard chase, to kill and bring it to my
quarters. From it I completed my sketch."
There is in Persia besides, an animal called goor-khur,
ghore-kur, gur-khor, gour-khor, and gour, — which some
naturalists suspect to be distinct from the khur, but we
know not on what positive grounds. The Hon. Mount-
stewart Elphinstone, in his account of the kingdom of
Caboul, notices it as an inhabitant of the deserts between
India and Affghanistan. He names it goor-khur, and
says that it is called gour (khur ?) by the Persians,
and that it is usually seen in herds, though often singly,
straying away in the wantonness of liberty.
Again, Moorcraft, in his ' Travels in the Himalayan
Provinces,' notices a species called kiang. He says,
" In the eastern parts of this country (Ladakh) is a non-
descript wild variety of horse which I may call equus
kiang. It is perhaps more of an ass than a horse, but its
ears are shorter, and it is certainly not the gurkhor, or
wild ass of Scinde. Its activity and strength render its
capture difficult." Subsequently he adds: "we saw
many herds of the kiang, and I made various attempts
^4
to bring down one, but with invariably ill success. Some
were wounded, but not sufficiently to check their speed,
and they quickly bounded up the rocks, where it was
impossible to follow. They would afford excellent sport
to four or five men well mounted, but a single individual
has no chance. The kiang allows his pursuer to ap-
proach no nearer than five or six hundred yards. He
then trots off, turns, looks, and waits until you are almost
within distance, when he is off again. If fired at he is
frightened, and scampers off altogether. The Chan-than
people sometimes catch them by snares, sometimes shoot
them. From all I have seen of the animal, I should
pronounce him to be neither horse nor ass. His shape
is as much like that of the one as the other, but his cry
is more like braying than neighing. The prevailing
colour is light reddish chesnut, but the nose, the under
part of the jaw and neck, the belly and legs, are white ;
the mane is dun and erect, the ears are moderately long,
the tail bare, and reaching a little below the hocks ; the
height is about fourteen hands. The form, from the
fore to the hind legs and feet, and to a level with the
back, is more equal than that of an ass. He is perhaps
more allied to the quagga, but is without stripes, except
a reported one along each side of the back to the tail.
These were distinctly seen in a foal, but were not distin-
guished in adults."
We have next a wild ass, described by Bell in his
* Travels' as occurring in the country of the Tzulimm
Tartars. These animals, of which he saw many skins,
he says, "have in all respects the tail and hoofs of an
ordinary ass, but their hair is waved white and brown,
like that of a tiger." Was it one of these animals which
Bishop Heber saw at Barrack pore, in the menagerie of
the governor-general of India, and which he says (most
probably from incorrect information) came from the
Cape of Good Hope ? " It is extremely strong, bony,
of beautiful form, has a fine eye and good countenance,
and although not striped like the zebra, is beautifully
clouded with diflferent tints of ash and mouse colour."
We have next the koulan, onager, or wild ass of
WILD SiPl€*ES../^l igiE;^^f^:EQUUS. 25
Pallas, which he describes as silvery white, with the
upper part of the face, sides of neck, and body flaxen ;
the hind part of the thighs, belly, and legs white ; a
longitudinal dorsal stripe of a deep copper colour, and a
cross stripe over the shoulders of the male only (?). In
winter the coat becomes fine, soft, and undulated.
This koulan inhabits the high mountain parts of the
deserts of Great Tartary, not higher than lat. 48°, and
is migratory in its habits, arriving in vast troops to feed
during the summer in the tracts north and east of Lake
Aral. About autumn the multitudes which had dis-
persed themselves collect again, forming vast squadrons,
and direct their course to the north of India and Persia.
Its flesh is in high request.
Col. H. Smith describes a wild ass under the name of
Yo-To-Tze (Asinus equuleus), from a specimen which he
saw in London, and which was brought from the Chinese
frontiers north-east of Calcutta. It was somewhat under
three feet in height at the withers ; the profile of the
chafFron was straight, the mouth small, the nostrils deli-
cate ; the ears were only four inches long, with the tips
suddenly contracted, and then again slightly dilated ;
their insides white ; the upper third black ; the neck
was ewe-like with a coarse abundant mane, longer than
in the ass, but still standing upright. The tail did not
reach the hocks by six inches, and was scantily supplied
with long hair nearly to its root. No tubercles on the
hind legs. Limbs clean but strong. The general colour
was a reddish clay, the tips of the ears, the mane, and
long hair on the tail, black ; a well defined black line
along the back, with a broad cross-bar over the shoulders,
and three or four cross streaks over the knees and hocks.
On reviewing these several animals we think them re-
solvable into,
1st. The dziggetai or diggetai (JEquus Hemionus,
Pallas), characterized by a simple dorsal line of dark
brown. This is the great wild ass or ghoor-khur, of
which specimens have existed in the menagerie of the
Zoological Society ; one was brought from Cutch, and
the other most probably from the coast of Scinde, Cutch,
26
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
Dziggetai.
or Persia. Its range is very extensive ; it spreads
through Bucharia to the deserts of Gobi, and thence to
Tartary, Thibet, and South Siberia. It is also found in
India, and is described by Colonel Sykes as the wild
ass of Cutch. He observes that it is not found further
south in India than Deessa on the banks of the Bunnas
river, in lat. about 23" 30', nor had he heard of it east-
ward of the 75° of longitude, on the northern side of the
Himalayan mountains. In Cutch and Northern Goojrat
it frequents the salt deserts and open plains of Thood-
poor, Jaysulmer, and Bickaneor. By swimming the
Indus it may communicate through Scinde and Balooch-
estand with Persia. Everywhere it delights in salt
WILD SPECIES OF THE GENUS EQUUS. 27
narshes. Its fleetness and hardihood are extraordinary.
!' My friend Major Wilkins (says Colonel Sykes), of
'he cavalry of the Bombay army, who was stationed
vith his regiment for years at Deessa, on the borders of
he Run, or salt marshes east of Cutch, in his morning
ides used to start a particular wild ass so frequently that
t became familiar to him, and he always gave chase to
p, and though he piqued himself on being mounted on
In extremely fleet Arabian horse, he never could come
ap with the animal." This is, we suspect, the ghoor-
Lhur or gour, which the Honourable Mountstewart El-
ohinstone notices as living in the deserts between India
md AfFghanistan, where it is usually seen in herds. It
is doubtless migratory.
2. The khur, or wild ass of Persia, figured and de-
scribed by Sir Robert Ker Porter. This species has
neither dorsal stripe nor cross ; it is smaller than the
dziggetai, and the head is larger and heavier in propor-
tion. It is the hamar or hymar (Asinus hamar) of
Colonel H. Smith, and he says probably the chamor of
the Hebrews. It appears to be more solitary in its
habits than most of its congeners.
3. The kiang (Equus kiang) described by Moor-
craft, which he says is decidedly not the Dziggetai, or
wild ass of Scinde. It was observed in the eastern parts
of Sadakh. We have yet to learn everything respecting
this species.
4th. The onager, koulan, or wild ass {Equus
Onager), distinguished by a dorsal stripe and decided
cross-bar over the shoulder. As we have said, the winter
coat of this species becomes fine and undulated; and we
suspect that a wavy style of colouring is meant by Pallas,
Pennant, and others, in which case we see not why the
wild ass noticed by Bell in the country of the Tzulimm
Tartars, the hair of which is waved white or brown,
should be regarded as distinct. The same observation
applies to the animal seen by Bishop Heber at Barrack-
pore. The koulan is found in the country of the Ker-
guise, the Bucharians, and Kalmucs ; it occurs in
Northern Persia, where it meets the Plamar ; it is the
28
miSTOHY OF THE HORSE.
baja mural of the Tartars, and the ouaypos of the an-
cients. It would appear that the terms gour, ghur,
ffhore-khur, &c. are applied to this species, to the
dziggetai and to the hamar, and are, in consequence,
very loosely used.
We learn from various authorities, that the wild ass
is found west of the Euphrates, and is spread over Syria,
Arabia Petraea, and Northern Africa. Burckhardt ob-
serves that wild asses are found in great numbers in
Arabia Petraea, near the Gulf of Akaba. " The
Sherarat Arabs hunt them, and eat their flesh, but not
before strangers. They sell their skins and hoofs to the
pedlars of Damascus, and to the people of the Haouran.
The hoofs furnish materials for rings, which are worn by
the peasants on their thumbs, or fastened under the arm-
pits as amulets against rheumatism."
Rauwolf, travelling from Tripoli to Aleppo, says, In
these countries are a great many wild asses called
onagri." He then proceeds to describe the use made
of their skins in forming the scabbards of swords and
daggers. Wild asses are common in the Thebaid, and
are mentioned by Marmol as abundant above the cata-
racts; a wild ass is mentioned (p. 571) in the narrative
of Lander's expedition. In the island of Socotra, off
Cape Guardafui, Lieutenant Willsted remarks that,
" Amidst the hills over Tamarida, and on the plains con-
tiguous to it, there are a great number of asses, which
were described to me as diflerent from the domestic ass ;
but after repeated opportunities of examining them, I
could find no reason for such a distinction." He con-
siders them as emancipated animals, set free on the
introduction of camels; adding, "they wander about in
troops of ten or twelve, evincing little fear unless ap-
proached very near, when they dart away with much
rapidity" ('Jour. Geog. Soc' 1835, p. 202). May
not these be real wild asses — koulans ? from their man-
ners we should be inclined to believe so.
This species is the djaar of the Arabs ; and Col. H.
Smith informs us that it is said formerly to have been
found on the Canary Islands. Leo Africanus states that
30
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
wild asses of an ash colour inhabit the deserts' of North-
ern Africa. The foal of the wild ass (Lalisio) was a
favourite dish among the Romans (as were also sucking
puppy-dogs). According to Pliny, those obtained in
Africa were esteemed the best for the table by the epi-
cures of that day :
" Cum tener est onager, solaque, Lallsio, matre
Pascitur ; hoc infans, sed breve nomen habet.'"*
MartiaL
Adults, however, were captured for the combats of the
amphitheatre, where they fought with great courage and
obstinacy, as indeed will the domestic ass when urged
by necessity to defend itself.
5. The Yo-To-Tze {Asinus equuleus) of Col. H, Smith.
We have never seen an example of this animal, which no
one previously to Col. H. Smith had described or figured.
The individual he examined was said to come from
some part of Chinese Tartary. It is upon this learned
naturalist's authority only that we set this animal down j
as a distinct species ; not, however, without a suspicion
that it might have been a dwarf variety of the dziggetai.
Before leaving the wild races of the asinine group, we
may observe that Col. H. Smith considers the kiangasa
wild horse, not ass, and the root of the piebald breed of
horses, a breed of great antiquity (see Zechariah i. 8),
and highly valued in the middle ages. He says, " Al-
though we possess a series of drawings of the pied form '
of horses, derived from Indian, Tahtar, and European
specimens, it is to be regretted that of the kiang, in
either his winter or summer coat, no trustworthy figure
has ever reached us. We therefore have been compelled
to offer a specimen of one of the domesticated breeds of
horses, known, it appears, in India by the name of the
Targum race, which came from Sikim, in Lower Thibet.
It appears to be taller than the ' tanghers ' of the hills
near Katmandoo." His reason for regarding the kiang.
* When the wild ass is tender, and is fed by the luother^B
only, it is called Lalisio: it has this name when very youngy^B
and but for a short time.
WILD Sf g6{E& 0# ME^'eMtl^ EQUUS. 31
as a horse, is, first, that Moorcroft denies it to be the
dziggetai or great ghoor-khur ; and secondly, that the
wild horse mentioned by Dr. Gerrard in his observations
on the Skite valley (' Asiat. Res.' xviii. pi. ii. 247) must
be the kiang. " Horses alone," says Dr. Gerrard, un-
dergo the transition from the elevated pastures ; but they
lose the woolly covering that invests the roots of their
long hair." Comparing this animal with the domestic
horse, he further remarks, " both would appear to have
the same origin ; yet the circumstance of their eluding
every effort to tame them when caught, and their uniform
speckled colour of fawn and white, demonstrate them to be
a distinct species." This distinctness, however, is denied
by Col. H. Smith.
If we turn to Moorcroft's account of his kiang, we shall
find that he does not describe it as mottled or speckled,
and, moreover, expressly states that the tail is bare —
I asinine in character, and he compares the animal to an
unstriped quagga. With Moorcroffs account, and with-
out a trustworthy figure, we must pause before we coin-
! cide with Col. H. Smith's opinion. It is true that Moor-
croft, in the account of his journey to Lake Manasuro-
vara ('Asiat. Res.' vol. xii.), remarks that " the wild
horse {E. quagga), the wild ass {ghoor-khur, onagra),
and, I believe, the mule, the offspring of these animals,
are found in abundance on the mountains of Tartary."
And again (p. 462), This day we saw more wild
horses than on any former one, also several wild asses of
the kind called gurkhor, and, I believe, the mules. The
asses are little less than the horses." At page 512 he
again notices the occurrence of many wild mules, and
some animals which are thought more like mules than
"either horses or asses." In these passages where " wild
horse " is mentioned we are not sure that the kiang may
! not be intended ; but his observation that the kiang is
quagga-like, would lead us to suppose, if the kiang be
[meant, that the term " wild horse" is used in a general
sense, or if not, merely by way of contradistinction to
jwild ass or ghoor-khur. In the ' Trans, of Royal Asiat.
iSoc' i. 55, the kiang is described as " a nondescript wild
variety of horse which appeared to be of about fourteen
c 2
32
hands high, of a round muscular form, with remarkably
clean limbs. Not more than a dozen came in view, and
they were all out of shot. A native of the district
was desired to lie in wait, and a suitable remuneration
was offered for the skin, head, and organs of voice
for dissection. The man has completed his task, and
I shall have these matters as soon as the pass of
Changlung will admit of, being traversed." Unfortu-
nately, the death of Mr. Moorcroft subsequently took
place, and we have yet to learn the characters at full of
his quagga-like kiang.
Such is the general amount of information which we
possess respecting the wild asses of the Asiatic deserts,
from one or more of which the various breeds of our
domestic animal, so much undervalued and so harshly
treated, may be derived. How unlike is this patient
laborious slave of a cruel tyrant, to the free-born wild ass
of the desert, that snuffeth up the wind at its pleasure !"
As in the case, however, of the quagga and dauw, indi-
viduals have been captured and domesticated. M. Du-
vaucel saw a tamed breed of dziggetais working along with
asses at Lucknow ; and Col. IJ. Smith thinks that either
the onager or hemionus were anciently trained to draw
chariots of war or peace.
Having thus given a succinct sketch of the wild species
of the asinine group of the genus Equus, as far as any
clear and authentic details enable us to go, let us endea-
vour to ascertain whether any and what wild species of
the equine group or true horse can be substantiated.
There is a very general and strong feeling among
naturalists, that no genuine wild horses are in existence ;
that those so called are feral or the emancipated descend-
ants of a tame race, which on the recovery of their liberty
have resumed the wild habits of the species, and perhaps
in some measure regained their primitive external cha-
racters. That highly talented zoologist Mr. Bell, in his
' British Quadrupeds,' says — " The early history of the
horse is. involved in much obscurity. It is, indeed,
only in the Sacred Writings that we have any probabl
trace of its original subjugation, or even a hint to wha
nation the world is indebted for so valuable a boon. I
WILD -^ttftS OF litfiE GElS^tJS EQUUS. 33
natural history is no less doubtful ; for there is every reason
to believe that it has long since ceased to exist in a state
of nature, and that, like some other domestic animals, not
a single indication remains by which we can judge of the
form, the colour, or the habits, by which it was charac-
terised before it became the servant of man, or how far
it may have differed from the present domesticated races."
Again, The wild horses which are now to be found in
several parts of the world afford us no clue to the clearer
elucidation of their original character. They appear in
all cases to have been derived from a domesticated stock.
Gn the plains of Tartary there still exist numerous
troops of these animals, which evince, however, no mark
of being originally indigenous in that country."
That herds of emancipated horses exist in the wilder
tracts of the old world, and in North and South America,
the origin of which may be traced, is not for a moment
disputed ; but we cannot legitimately argue from this
admission, that no genuine wild horses scour the plains
of Tartary and Mongolia. At the same time we must
admit with caution the vague and hasty assertions of early
historians and travellers, who would scarcely draw any
difference between wild and feral horses, or between
these and the dziggetai, partly because such nice points
in natural history were not attended to, and partly be-
cause a doubt of the wild animals they saw being abori-
ginally so might not cross their mind. Yet, seeing that
wild horses, no matter whence sprung, do exist in the
vast deserts of Asia and Eastern Europe, and, retiring to
impenetrable fastnesses, mountain chains, and deep soli-
tudes, bid defiance to man, elude his pursuit, and main-
tain their independence, are we to suppose that on the
subjugation of a few at some remote period, by various
tribes, the whole wild race passed away ? or that man
was so fortunate as to take, educate, and preserve the last
relics of a wild race on the eve of extinction ? a race —
" Cnjus extremum trepidavit aetas
Claudere lustrum !" *
* Whose age has hastened to close its last period.
84
HISTORY or THE HORSE.
Are we to believe this, and yet acknowledge that in the
present day (when wandering hordes once thinly scat-
tered have become mighty nations, and the deadly gun
has supplanted the hunter's bow and spear) wild horses
escaped from bondage are capable of maintaining an inde-
pendence which in the primeval ages of man's strife and
toil upon this globe their free-born progenitors utterly
lost ? We question such a theory. It may be asked,
where is the wild camel, the wild sheep, the wild ox, the
wild goat ? Show the wild stocks of our ordinary do-
mestic animals, and then talk about original wild horses.
With respect to the camel, it is only fitted for certain
isolated localities, in which its extirpation or subjugation
presents no great difficulties ; and, as we may glean from
the Scriptures, wholesale must have been its subjugation.
The camel does not multiply rapidly, yet Job possessed
3000 camels ; and we read that the Reubenites took
from the tribe of the Hagarites of camels 50,000, of sheep
250,000, and of asses 2000 (1 Chron. v. 21). Other
passages might be adduced. Besides, the existence of
tlie camel in a wild state in Arabia is asserted by Diodorus
and Strabo ; and, according to Desmoulins, it so existed
in the time of Hadrian. We learn also that in some
parts of Central Africa, where Europeans have never
penetrated, wild camels are asserted by the natives to
exist. There are also, according to Pallas, who obtained
his information from Bucharians and Tartars, wild camels
in the deserts of Middle Asia. We have yet to learn
positively whether these are emancipated, or originally
wild. W^ith respect to the sheep and goat, they are so
crossed by different species, so altered by climate and the
breeder s art, that it is no easy matter to know what their
primitive stock really may be. The sheep may be the
descendant of several species of mouflon, interbreeding
with each other ; and many wild mouflons exist through-
out the mountain chains of Asia and Eastern Europe.
In like manner we may regard the goat as of mixed pa-
rentage. The ordinary goat of Europe is probably the
descendant of the ibex of the Alps and Pyrenees. The
same observations apply to our domestic cattle. But we
WILD ei^ lTHB GENUS EQUUS.
35
must remember that the huge-horned urus of Caesar,
a different species from the aurochs of Lithuania, the
bonassus of Aristotle, the bison of Pliny (still called
bisent or wisent in some parts of Germany), roamed over
the hills and plains of Central Europe in the time of that
great warrior; and that various species of wild ox, which
may have contributed to modify the race, as the gour-ox,
exist in India. But if we are to believe some naturalists,
though wild species of the asinine group still exist, no
truly wild species of the equine section lingers in the
remotes and solitudes of the Asiatic deserts. Now, though
we admit the difficulty of tracing our domestic animals or
rather quadrupeds to their precise source, yet there is not
one that has not truly wild congeners of the closest
affinity, unless, indeed, the camel, and the horse of the
restricted genus Equus, are to be regarded as exceptions.
This fact being incontestable, we ought, before the horse
be considered as an exception to the rule, to be quite sure
that none of the wild breeds are so in the true sense of
the word, instead of taking it for granted, and that on
mere opinion. Is it because the wild horses so nearly
resemble the domestic breeds, that a reluctance to admit
their claims is entertained ? Surely we do not expect to
pnd wild horses, anything but horses ; and though long
domestication, climate, and the care of the breeder may
have impressed their signs on the reclaimed race, still, in
the main essentials, in those features which recommended
this animal at first to man as a most valuable and efficient
servant, and in those characters which distinguish be-
tween the horse and the ass or dziggetai, the true wild
horse must be identical with the domestic. The former
may be rougher, heavier in the head, lower at the
withers, wilder in aspect, with higher instinctive facul-
latter ; but here the amount of real distinction must end ;
md in this opinion we are the more confirmed because
irom the time of Job— from the days of the chariot-
Iriving Pharaoh to the present — the horse, as figures and
sculptures prove, has continued essentially the same.
Though by no means unsusceptible of modification, it has
suspicious temper than the
36
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
not the same physical pliability as the dog ; and its. ati-
Dty, though of the utmost importance, is limited to a more
circumscribed routine. The horse is essentially an animal
of burden or draught. In the first case, it may bear its
rider into the melee of battle, scour with him over the
plain, transport him in his migrations, or carry him 1
through the toilsome chase. In the second case, it may ■
dash along with his war-chariot, it may drag his heavy
car, the plough, the harrow, or the cart ; it may apply
its force to machinery, or strain at the loaded barge on the ;
winding canal, but still, carriage and draught are the :
labours for which it is fitted by nature ; hence, therefore, j
is it that we may expect to find the wild horse the same, I
though ruder than the descendant of a long line of re-
claimed ancestors interbred for special purposes.
If we are to credit ancient authorities, wild horses,
termed by Oppian hippagri, by Pliny equi-feri, existed
in Scythia, Thrace, along the Danube, and even in
Europe. In Spain, according to Varro, in Sardinia and
Corsica ; in Eastern Europe from the Pontus northwards
into unknown regions. We are informed by Oppian
that the wild horse existed in Ethiopia, and, according \
to Julius Capitolinus, it was from Africa that the j
Gordians were said to have procured eighty wild horses 1
for the spectacles of Rome. A more modern authority,
Leo Africanus, states that wild horses exist in North j
Africa, and though seldom to be seen and rarely to be
captured by the hunters with dogs, they may be taken .
by means of snares disposed about the fresh-water
springs to which they resort. Their flesh is eaten by
the Arabs.
It would appear that in the wild forests of Poland
and Prussia there were w ild horses up to a comparatively
late period. " Beauplan," says Col. H. Smith, " as- '
serts their existence in the Ukraine ; and Erasmus Stella, ;
in his work ' De Origine Borassorum,' speaks of the
wild horses of Prussia as unnoticed by Greek and Latin
authors. " They are," he writes, " in form very like
the domestic species, but with soft backs, unfit to be
ridden ; shy and difficult to capture, but very good
WILD SlifiECIES OF THE GENUS EQUUS.
37
venison." These horses are evidently again referred to
by Andr. Schniebergius, who states that " there were
wild horses in the preserves of the Prince of Prussia
resembling the domestic, but mouse-coloured, with a
dark streak on the spine, and the mane and tail dark.
They were not greatly alarmed at the sight of human
beings, but inexpressibly violent if any person attempted
to mount them. They were reserved for the table like
other game." The colour of these horses is remarkable,
resembling that oF the dun domestic breed, with a black
dorsal stripe, not often to be met with in England :
perhaps this breed is derived from the wild race in
question.
Pennant, who drew his materials from Pallas and
other sources, informs us that wild horses exist about
Lake Aral, near Kuzneck ; in lat. 54", on the River
Tom in the south of Siberia, and in the great Mongolian
deserts. The Mongols call them takija. They are
less than the ordinary domestic horse, of a mouse-colour
(dun), and are clothed with thick hair, especially in the
winter. They associate in large herds, and often sur-
round the horses of the Mongols and Kalkas, and carry
them away. Fleet as they are, they are often sur-
prised and killed by the Kalmucs with lances. Their
flesh they account excellent, and their skins are very
' serviceable, being cured for beds.
Pennant, after describing these wild horses, states that
a distinction must be made between these animals and
those in the deserts on each side of the Don, particu-
larly towards the Palus Maeotis and the town of Bach-
mut ; for these latter are feral or emancipated, being
the offspring of Russian horses employed in the siege of
Azoph in 1697, when, for want of forage, numbers were
turned loose to wander at will. They are chased by
the Cossacks in winter, are excessively swift, and when
taken young, easily reclaimed. They are valued for
strength and hardihood.
Pennant alludes to the assertion of Leo Africanus as
to the existence of wild horses in the African deserts.
How far the distinction between these supposed
c 3
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
emancipated horses and the truly wild races really
exists is not very plain, nor is it very material to ascer-
tain. Probably there is more or less intermixture be-
tween them, for it is not quite certain that the males
turned loose at the siege of Azof, or Asoph, were
capable of breeding. Col. Hamilton Smith, a writer of
no trifling authority, and who has had opportunities of
obtaining personal information on the subject, in the
very regions tenanted by these wild horses, gives us \
some interesting details, supplied by persons on whose I
accuracy he had every reason to rely. Though the .
passage is long, we must take the liberty of extracting
it entire, as it is impossible to condense the details into ,
a short summary.
".Whatever may be the lucubrations of naturalists in
their cabinets, it does not appear that the Tahtar or
even the Cossack nations have any doubt upon the sub-
ject, for they assert that they can distinguish a feral
breed from the wild by many tokens ; and naming the
former takja and muzin, denominate the real wild i
horse tarpan and tarpani. We have had some oppor- '
tunity of making personal inquiries on wild horses !
among a considerable number of Cossacks of different {
parts of Russia, and among Bashkirs, Kirguise, and '
Kalmucs, and with a sufficient recollection of the
statements of Pallas and Buffon's information, obtained
from M. Sanchez, to direct the questions to most of the
points at issue. From the answers of Russian officers
of this irregular cavalry, who spoke French or German,
we drew the general conclusion of their general belief
in a true wild and untameable species of horse, and
in herds that were of mixed origin. Those most ac-
quainted with a nomadic life, and in particular an
orderly Cossack attached to a Tahtar chief as Russian
interpreter, furnished us with the substance of the fol-
lowing notice. The tarpani form herds of several
hundreds, subdivided into smaller troops, each headed
by a stallion ; they are not found unmixed excepting
towards the borders of China ; they prefer wide, open,
elevated steppes, and always proceed in lines or files,
WILD SPECIES OF THE GENUS EQUUS.
39
usually with the head to windward, moving slowly for-
ward wliile grazing, the stallions leading, and occasion-
ally going round their own troop. Young stallions are
often at some distance, and single, because they are
expelled by the older, until they can form a troop of
mares of their own ; their heads are seldom observed to
be down for any length of time ; they utter now and
then a kind of snort, with a low neigh somewhat like a
horse expecting its oats, but yet distinguishable by the
voice from any domestic species, excepting the woolly
Kalmuc breed. They have a remarkably piercing
sight, the point of a Cossack spear at a great distance on
the horizon seen behind a bush being sufficient to make
a whole troop halt ; but this is not a token of alarm ; it
soon resumes its march, till some young stallion on the
skirts begins to blow with his nostrils, moves his ears in
all directions with rapidity, and trots or scampers for-
ward to reconnoitre, the head being very high,,and the
^ail out ; if his curiosity is satisfied, he stops and begins
10 graze ; but if he takes alarm, he flings up his croup,
turns round, and with a peculiarly shrill neighing warns
the herd, which immediately turns round, and gallops
plf at an amazing rate, with the stallions in the rear,
stopping and looking back repeatedly, while the mares
iand foals disappear as if by enchantment, because, with
unerring tact, they select the first swell of ground, or
ravine, to conceal them, until they re-appear, at a great
distance, generally in a direction to preserve the lee-side
of the apprehended danger. Although bears and wolves
occasionally prowl after a herd, they will not venture to
attack it, for the sultan-stallion will instantly meet the
enemy, and, rising on his haunches, strike him down
with his fore-feet ; and should he be worsted, which is
seldom the case, another stallion becomes the champion ;
and in the case of a troop of wolves, the herd forms a
close mass, with the foals within, and the stallions
jcharge in a body, which no troop of wolves will venture
.jto encounter. Carnivora, therefore, must be contented
||with aged or injured stragglers.
I " The sultan-stallion is not, however, suffered to
40
HISTORY OF Ttti:'HOWfi.
retain the chief authority for more than one season
without opposition from, others rising, in the confidence
of youthful strength, to try by battle whether the leader-
ship should not be confided to them, and the defeated
party driven from the herd in exile. These animals are
found in the greatest purity on the Kara Koom, south of
the lake Aral, and the Syrdaria, near Kusneh, on the
banks of the river Tom, in the territory of the Kalkas,
the Mangolian deserts, and the solitudes of the Gobi.
Within the Russian frontier there are, however, some
adulterated herds, in the vicinity of the fixed settle-
ments, distinguishable by the variety of their colours,
and a selection of residence less remote from human
habitations. Real tarpans are not larger than ordinary
mules ; their colour is invariably tan, Isabella, or mouse,
being all shades of the same livery, and only varying in j
depth by the growth or decrease of a vvhitish surcoat, 1
longer than the hair, increasing from Midsummer, and
shedding in May ; during the cold season it is long,
heavy, and soft, lying so close as to feel like a bear's
fur, and then is entirely grizzled ; in summer much falls
away, leaving only a certain quantity on the back and
loins ; the head is small ; the forehead greatly arched ;
and the ears far back, either long or short ; the eyes
small and malignant ; the chin and muzzle beset with
bristles ; the neck rather thin, and crested with a thick
rugged mane, which, like the tail, is black, as are also
the pasterns, which are long ; the hoofs are narrow,
high, and rather pointed ; the tail, descending only to
the hocks, is furnished with coarse and rather curly or
wavy hairs, close up to the crupper ; the croup is as high
shriller than that of a domestic horse ; and their action,
standing, and general appearance resemble somewhat
those of vicious mules. Such is the general evidence
obtained from the orderly before mentioned ; a man who
was a perfect model of an independent trooper of the
desert, and who had spent ten or twelve years on the
frontier of China."
Several distinctions, with regard to habits, appear to
voice of' the tarpan is loud, and
WILD SPECIES OF THE GENUS EQUUS.
41
exist between the wild tarpans and the feral muzin.
The former are regularly migratory, proceeding on the
approach of summer to the northern latitudes, and re-
turning on the approach of autumn ; in the winter they
resort to high grounds where the winds have swept
away the snow, or where it is so much disturbed that
they can dig through it with their feet to the buried
herbage. They dislike water, and refuse to cross rivers ;
yet with singular address they thread their way through
extensive swamps, apparently guided in their choice of
the fordable passes by the sense of smell, a tried leader
pioneering the way, and followed by the herd. Their
indocility is extreme. Doubtless by judicious methods
they may be reclaimed ; but when captured they often
break their necks during their violent struggles ; and if
not, turn sulky, and pine till they die. In fighting they
rise up, strike with the fore-limbs, try to crush their
foe, and bite furiously. Towards domestic horses they
are said to evince great animosity, attacking and en-
deavouring to destroy them. We should suppose that
this account refers only to the males ; otherwise how
comes it that there are herds of the mixed races ?
The muzin or feral horses vary in colours, and have
the head larger and the neck shorter than the tarpans ;
they stray in feeding, and scatter themselves more irre-
gularly ; nor is their migration definite, their wander-
ings being rather directed by the abundance of pasturage
than by a fixed routine to which instinct impels them.
They court the society of the domestic breed, but have
often a few expelled stallions of the tarpan race amongst
them ; and the more that the tarpan blood prevails in
the troop, the more do they display the manners of the
wild race, and the more do they avoid the precincts of
man. The young, when captured, though at first obsti-
nate, are in due time subdued to bondage.
Col. II. Smith alludes to the woolly Kalmuc breed
kept in a domestic state among the wandering Tartars.
In the Museum at Paris is the specimen of a horse enti-
tled " Cheval Bashkir it is covered with fur somewhat
like that of a white llama. The head is heavy, the
42 HISTOEY or THE HORSE.
limbs moderate, the ears short and pointed, and the
lower jaw bearded like that of a goat. Herodotus,
speaking of the Sigynes, a nation inhabiting the wild
deserts north of the Danube, describes them as having
horses covered over with hair like bristles, five fingers
long, low in stature, unable to carry a rider, having short
noses turning upwards, and yet capable of drawing cha-
riots with swiftness, for which purpose they are em-
ployed. Of these he only heard by report, and though
the details are exaggerated, still it seems very probable
that this peculiar and perhaps original breed of semi-
wild horses is intended. This woolly horse occurs in a
wild state in the Kara Koom and the Pamere, an ele-
vated plateau destitute of trees, but covered with pas-
turage, and giving rise to the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes ;
and it is from this source that the Bashkirs and Kirguise
have derived the domestic woolly breed. These animals
are low at the shoulder ; the colour is grisly white,
somewhat darker in the summer ; the coat consists of
an underlayer of soft woolly hairs and an outer covering
of hard shining hairs, and it is to these perhaps that
Herodotus refers when he describes the hair of the
horses of the Sigynes as resembling very long bristles.
To revert to the statement by Pennant, that the wild
horses on the banks of the Don are the freed descendants ,
of numbers abandoned at the siege of Azof, about the '
year 1697, — though we dispute not the circumstance, \
still what are we to say to the fact that abundant testi- i
mony may be adduced to prove that wild horses existed ,
in those very regions ages prior to such an occurrence ?
Whence then was their origin ? That they sprung from
a domestic source remains to be proved ; to assert it
merely, is a gratuitous assumption, quite as much so as
to say the horse never existed as a wild animal at all in
the present condition of the surface of our earth. This ;
opinion, however, no one will venture to hazard. What,
then, it may be asked, has happened to immolate a whole
race of animals, save and except the fortunate slaves, —
animals, from their fleetness, their power, their courage,
and their wariness and caution, of all others the most
WILD SPECIES OF THE GENUS EQUUS. 43
likely to maintain their ground in the vast elevated de4
serts, as yet unexplored, stretching from eastern Europe
through the centre of Asia ? These deserts, intersected
by mountain ranges, and bordered north and south by
mountain ranges giving birth to mighty rivers, and re-
plete with lakes resembling inland seas, w^ere to the
ancients a terra incognita, and such they still remain.
Here now exist troops of wild horses, which maintain
their ground — why must they necessarily be of domestic
origin ? Surely if animals of domestic origin can now
maintain their ground, a wild race could ; and if so,
jiwhere is the proof it has not from remote antiquity ?
I We have already stated that Oppian assigned a species
|of wild horse to the deserts of Ethiopia, and that Leo
lAfricanus asserts the existence of such an animal in the
Iwilds of Northern Africa. Under the name of koomrah
f(JEquus Hippagrus) Col. H. Smith describes a wild
equine animal, which, till his notice of it appeared, had
Bscaped the observation of naturalists. For ourselves,
we have never seen a specimen, and it appears to be an
mimal of great rarity.
The koomrah, unlike the wild horse of Asia, is not
gregarious ; it inhabits the mountain forests, coming
down to the wells and drinking-springs in small families
)r singly, and is there liable to be attacked by men, as.
well as by hyaenas and other beasts of prey : its wariness,
its keen sense of smell, its fleetness, and its instantaneous
md rapid retreat up the mountains to its forest cover,
"ender it, in spite of all attacks, very difficult to be sur-
prised, and taken or killed : it is said, moreover, to defend
i tself courageously, biting very fiercely when brought to
pay. Col. Hamilton Smith says, " Of the real koomrah
kve have seen a living specimen in England, and the
skin of another. The first came from Barbary, the
second died on board of a slave-ship on the passage from
;he coast of Guinea to the West Indies in 1798, the
ikin, legs, and head having been carefully preserved by
;he master, who kindly permitted a sketch and notes tQ
3e made of it at Dominica.
*' The koomrah of the mountains is about ten or ten
44
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
and a half hands high ; the head is broad across the
forehead, and deep measured to the jowl ; it is small,
short, and pointed at the muzzle, making the profile
almost triangular; instead of a forelock between the
ears, down to the eyes the hair is long and woolly ; the
eyes are small, of a light hazel colour, and the ears large
and wide ; the neck thin, forming an angle with the
head, and clad with a scanty but long black mane ; the
shoulder rather vertical and meagre, with withers low,
but the croup high and broad ; the barrel large ; thighs
cat-hammed, and the limbs clean but asinine, with the
hoofs elongated ; short pasterns, small callosities on the
hind legs, and the tail clothed with short fur for several
inches before the long black hair begins. The animal
is entirely of a reddish bay colour, without streak or
mark on the spine, or any white about the limbs. We
made our sketch at Portsmouth, and believe it refers to ^
the same animal which lived for many years, if we are [
rightly informed, in a paddock of the late Lord Gren- j
ville's. There was in the British Museum a stuffed \
specimen exactly corresponding in size and colour, but ;
with a head (possibly in consequence of the taxidermist ,
wanting the real skull) much longer and less in depth. '
The other specimen, which came from the mountains i
north of Accra in Guinea, was again entirely similar.
We were told that in voice it differed from both horse
and ass; and in temper, that which died on shipboard,
though very wild and shy at first, was by no means
vicious, and fed on sea-biscuit with willingness."
We are informed that the hinny, or mule, between
the male horse and female ass, is occasionally shown
among the Arabs and Shellahs as the koomrah. Of
these mules some are gray, others black ; they must not
be confounded with the real wild koomrah, which Col.
H. Smith asserts to be a genuine species, and one known
to the ancients, perhaps the boryes of Herodotus, the
bourra of Koldagi. (See Herodotus, ' Melpomene,' iv.,
for an account of the animals of Libya.)
Here then we have a true wild horse of Northern
Africa ; and if, as we think they are, our arguments are
WILD S^W^W ©MP'S EQUUS. 45
to be trusted, a true wild horse in the vast table-lands
of central Asia, from the Don and Volga, through the
'Kirguise wilderness, Great and Little Bucharia, Tur-
kestan, Sangaria, Kalmoukia, and the great desert of
II Gobi, Mongolia, and the region of the Kalkas and Soyoti.
Over such parts of this enormous extent of territory
as Europeans have visited, or of which they have ob-
tained accounts, horses living in a state of nature, and
herding in troops, each headed by one mighty steed,"
are known to roam. Without any reason, except that
it was received as the opinion of Pallas (though he never
decidedly advanced it), naturalists, with few exceptions,
have all concurred in regarding these horses as the
descendants of an emancipated race ; but when, and
under what circumstances, emancipated, we are left to
discover as we may. The Gordian knot is cut, because
it is easier so to do than disentangle its intricacies.
Surely we may as reasonably argue that the wild duck
is nothing more than an emancipated descendant of a
tame race, and adduce as a proof that in our sheets of
water in various places we have breeds between the
tame and wild races. The assertion is gratuitous, the
argument pointless.
From the free-born horses of Asia, some of which are
between the true wild breed and the domestic, as may
be expected, in the stronghold of the wild horse, tra-
versed by horsemen of nomadic habits time immemorial —
themselves the breeders and reclaimers of horses — let
us turn to an acknowledged feral or emancipated race,
viz., the semi-wild horse of America. Our subject
demands a separate chapter.
CHAPTER III.
THE SEMI-WILD HORSE OF AMERICA.
We have already stated that at a remote period, geologi- t
cally recent as it may be called, a species of the genus i
Equus was associated with the mastodon, the megathe- f
rium, the megalonyx, the mylodon, and other extinct
beings, the remains of which fill the mind of the reflective
student of nature with wonder and admiration. They
once roamed over plains, through swamps, or vast forests ; >
but ages rolled on — agencies, the effects of which were
perhaps at first but little felt, gradually increased in J
extent and severity, thinning their numbers, till at last ^
came the climax, and of all that were then living none
survived. Their existence became a blank ; and but for
their relics, who would have dreamed of their having
lived and moved where the hand of nature has strewn
their sepulchres ? Their relics are medals of time gone
by! They speak, how impressively, of the changing
dynasties of organic being on the ever-altering surface of
our planet! It is not then from the equine race, com-
panions of the mighty extinct, that we deduce the horse
of the Pampas ; on the contrary, the horse of America
is a modern importation, and in this instance may we not
say that man has unwittingly replenished a void which
in ages past Nature herself had effected ? The agency
of man on the lower animals is seldom considered : his
direct agency indeed is palpable enough, but his in-
direct agency, though not so prominent in bold relief,
is far more extensive. He transports the plants of
Europe and the animals of Europe to islands in the
Pacific, to Australia, to South America ; he imports the
plants and animals of far distant realms into the various
THE SEMI-WILD HORSE OF AMERICA.
47
countries of Europe. But this is not all : with these
plants are brought, or sent, the eggs of the insects de-
pendent upon them for nourishment ; and of these insects
how many have proved the bane of the country which
has received them! On quadrupeds again depend
plants and insects ; on plants in turn quadrupeds ; on
insects, on quadrupeds, and on plants, birds ; and thus
is a reaction ever going on, man being, so to speak, the
great disturber of the polity of creation.
To man, and that within modern times, the introduc-
tion of the horse into America is due. Herds of wild
horses revel in the vast plains of that new world ; but
these horses, wild as they are, differ from the tarpans of
Mongolia both in temper and habits. They have not
lost the impress of domestication transmitted from their
Spanish progenitors ; and the spur and bridle of the
Gaucho will subdue the boldest in a day.
Whether the Norwegian discoverers of Newfoundland
and various parts of North America during the tenth
and eleventh centuries, and who attempted settlements
on various parts of the coast of North America, left
horses behind them or not, we have no means of ascer-
taining. Most probably not ;, and if so, we are to look
to a still nearer date for the introduction of the horse.
In South America, confessedly, it is not until the time
of Cortez and Pizarro that the horse gained a fair foot-
ing in the new world. Cortez carried the horse to
Mexico, Pizarro to Peru. Brazil derived the horse
from the Portuguese. Previously, however, Columbus
(a.d. 1494) introduced the horse into Hayti : it was in
1494 that he returned from Spain to Hayti (whence he
had previously departed, leaving a garrison behind him)
with horses and ferocious dogs. As this was the first
time that horses had appeared in the new world, they
were objects no less of terror than of admiration to the
Indians ; who regarded them as rational creatures, and
imagined that the horse and rider formed one animal,
the speed of which astonished them, and the impetuosity
and strength of which they considered irresistible.
Within a century afterwards Hayti, and we believe
" flJlSTO^y^jaW' THE HOUSE.
Cuba, which Columbus discovered in 1492, abounded
with horses. In 1519 the brutal Cortez left Cuba with
troops and sixteen horses to make war on the un-
offending natives of New Spain. The terror of fire-
arms and the dreadful appearance of the horses humbled
the spirits of the natives at every place he touched at.
The Mexicans gazed with awe on those strange animals :
at first they imagined horse and rider, like the centaurs
of the ancients, to be some monstrous creature of terrible
form ; and supposing that their food was the same as that
of men, brought flesh and bread to nourish them.
Even after they discovered their mistake, they believed
the horses devoured men in battle, and when they
neighed thought that they demanded their prey. It
was not the interest of the Spaniards to undeceive them.
(Herrera.)
In 1530 Pizarro entered Peru, as an adventurer, with
a small body of troops and about sixty-two horsemen.
The Inca, Atahualpa, advanced in state to meet the
treacherous invader, who had established himself at
Caxamala in a court, on one side of which was a palace,
on the other a temple of the sun. As the Inca drew
near the Spanish quarters, Father Vincent Valverde ad-
vanced with a crucifix and breviary, and made a long
or^ion on the new religion he came to teach. Little
understanding the discourse, badly translated by an in-
terpreter, the Inca inquired where such things were to
be learned. Valverde gave him the breviary : the mo-
narch, ignorant of letters, held it to his ear, and said,
" This tells me nothing," and immediately threw it to
the ground. The enraged priest cried, "To arms!
avenge this profanation on these impious dogs !" The
sudden attack, the roar of musketry, the irresistible rush
of the cavalry, struck the natives with panic : the slaugh-
ter was continued till the close of day ; the Inca was
taken. History paints the rest in colours of blood.
Such were the occurrences which took place on the in-
troduction of the horse, by demons in human form, into
the Peruvian empire. In the course of a short time
Chili, the provinces of Tucuman and Rio de la Plata,
THE OTiMIiWIEn HSilSl W ^AMERICA. 49
including Paraguay and the country extending south-
wards to Patagonia, became annexed to Spain. In the
rich pasture-grounds of these vast territories, horses and
cattle rapidly multiplied, and spread far and wide, in
troops or herds, living a life of freedom.
Brazil was discovered in 1 500 by Pedro Alvares de
Cabral, who was sent by the King of Portugal to thie
East Indies with a large navy. Having visited the
coast and taken possession in the king's name, he con-
tinued his voyage to the East Indies, transmitting, how-
ever, an account of his discovery to Lisbon. Upon the
receipt of this despatch, the King of Portugal sent out
the Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci, to survey the country ;
but his report was not very favourable. Subsequently
King John III. encouraged the emigration of a few
wealthy families, granting them vast extents of land ;
and during the interval between the years 1531 and
1545 the towns of St. Vincent, Espirito Santo, Porto
Seguro, and Pernambuco were founded. In 1549 a
governor was sent from Lisbon, the town of Bahia
founded (in the bay of Todos os Santos), and a regular
colonial ministration established. By the Portuguese
settlers, previous to and about the year 1531, the horse
was introduced into Brazil, and now abounds in several
of the provinces, roaming in a state of liberty. *^
Such is a brief account of the early introduction by
the Spaniards and Portuguese of the horse into Mexico
and South America. Who would have predicted the
results, even as respects the distribution of animal life,
consequent upon the hazardous voyage of Columbus in
the year 1492 ?
The habits and manners of the wild horses of South
America have been described by various travellers, from
Azara to Mr. Darwin, and that with such graphic truth
as completely to familiarise us with them. They exist
in great abundance in the Pampas, between the Rio de
la Plata and the southern parts of Patagonia ; vast herds
are spread through different parts of Brazil, and they
also occur on the borders of the Orinoco. In some re-
gions, as the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, their numbers
50
HISTOKY' OF THE HO^E.
are almost incredible ; they associate in troops of thou-
sands, and scour the plains in the exuberance of their
vigour. Their colour is principally bay. In North
America, around the Gulf of Mexico, and in the open
districts of California, herds of feral horses still occur,
and were formerly abundant in the Floridas. In the
extensive prairies that lie to the west of the Mississippi
they were met with by Dr. Richardson, who regar ded
them as having migrated from Mexico. They do not,
it appears, extend beyond 53° N. latitude. They
herd in considerable numbers on the plains of the Co-
lumbia river : among these, black horses are not un-
common.
The Hon. C. A. Murray, in his ' Travels in North
America,' has given an animated picture of the rush of a
troop of these animals, consisting of several thousands,
across a wide extent of plain. This rush, or impetuous
passage of wild horses, caused by some alarm which
strikes a general panic, is called a s^awzpec/o. "About
an hour," he says, "after the usual time to secure the
« horses for the night, an indistinct sound arose like the
muttering of distant thunder ; as it approached it became
mixed with the howling of all the dogs in the encamp-
ment, and with the shouts and yells of the Indians ; in
coming nearer, it rose high above all these accompani-
ments, and resembled the lashing of a heavy surf upon a
beach. On and on it rolled towards us, and, partly
from my own hearing, partly from the hurried words and
actions of the tenants of our lodge, I gathered it must be
the fierce and uncontrollable gallop of thousands of panic-
stricken horses. As this living torrent drew nigh, I
sprang to the front of the tent, seized my favourite
riding-mare, and, in addition to the hobbles which con-
fined her, twisted the long lariett round her fore-legs ;
then led her immediately in front of the fire, hoping that
the excited and maddened flood of horses would divide
and pass on each side of it. As the galloping mass drew
nigh our horses began to snort, prick up their ears, and
then to tremble ; and when it burst upon us they became
completely ungovernable from terror; all broke loose,
THE SEM^-WIfc5>fiqRS^.qpJV AMERICA. 51
and joined their affrighted companions, except my mare,
which struggled with the fury of a wild beast ; and I
only retained her by using all my strength, and at last
throwing her on her side» On went the maddened
troop, trampling, in their headlong speed, over skins,
dried meat, &c., and throwing down some of the smaller
tents. They were soon lost in the darkness of the night
and in the wilds of the prairie, and nothing more was
heard of them save the distant yelping of the curs who
continued their ineffectual pursuit."
From Kennedy's 'Texas' we take the following
animated picture of the wild horse, drawn from a fine
individual which he met with on one of his excursions ; —
" We rode through beds of sun-flowers, miles in extent,
their dark seedy centres and radiating yellow leaves fol-
lowing the sun through the day from east to west, and
drooping when the shadows fell over them. These were
sometimes beautifully varied with a delicate flower, of
an azure tint, yielding no perfume, but forming a pleasant
contrast to the bright yellow of the sun-flower. About
half-past ten we discerned a creature in motion at an
immense distance, and instantly started in pursuit.
Fifteen minutes' riding brought us near enough to dis-
cover, by its fleetness, that it could not be a buffalo, yet
it was too large for an antelope or a deer. On we went,
and soon distinguished the erect head, the flowing mane,
and the beautiful proportions of the wild horse of the
prairie. He saw us, and sped away with an arrowy
fleetness till he gained a distant eminence, when he
turned to gaze at us, and suffered us to approach within
four hundred yards, when he bounded away again in
another direction, with a graceful velocity delightful to
behold. We paused — for to pursue him with a view to
capture was clearly out of the question. When he dis-
covered we were not following him, he also paused, and
now seemed to be inspired with curiosity equal to our
own ; for, after making a slight turn, he came nearer,
antil we could distinguish the inquiring expression of
his clear, bright eye, and the quick curl of his inflated
nostrils. We had no hopes of catching, and did not
52
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
wish to kill him, but our curiosity led us to approach him
slowly. We had not advanced far before he moved
away, and, circling round, approached on the other side.
It was a beautiful animal — a sorrel, with jet black mane
and tail. As he moved we could see the muscles quiver
in his glossy limbs ; and when, half playfully, and half
in fright, he tossed his flowing mane in the air, and
flourished his long silky tail, our admiration knew no
bounds, and we longed— hopelessly, vexatiously longed
— to possess him. We might have shot him where we
stood ; but, had we been starving, we could scarcely
have done it. He was free, and we loved him for the
very possession of that liberty we longed to take from
him ; but we would not kill him. We fired a rifle over
his head ; he heard the shot, and the whiz of the ball,
and away he went, disappearing in the next hollow,
showing himself again as he crossed the distant ridges,
still seeming smaller, until he faded away to a speck on
the far horizon's verge,"
With respect to the wild or feral horses in South
America, it must not be supposed that they are destitute
of owners. On the contrary, like the furred or feathered
game in our country, which, though ferae naturae, is
accounted the property of those on whose estates it is
found, so the wild horses in South America belong to
those proprietors on whose estancias they feed. The
estancias are wide districts, or feeding grounds,* the
* General San Rosas " is said to be the owner of 71 squai'e
leagues of land, and to have about 300,000 head of cattle. His
estates are admirably managed, and are far more productive
of corn than many others." — Darwiti. Rode out with my
host to his estancia, at the Arrayo de San Juan. In the even-
ing we took a ride round the estate : it contained two square
leagues and a half, and was situated in what is called a rincon;
that is, one side was fronted by the Plata, and the two others
guarded by impassable brooks. There was an excellent port
for little vessels, and an abundance of small wood, which is
valuable as supplying fuel to Buenos Ayres. I was curious to
know the value of so complete an estancia. Of cattle there
were 3000, and it could well support three or four times that
number ; of mares 800, together with 150 broken horses' and
THE SEMI-WItD HOUSE OF^AMEEICA.
53
estates of different landholders, and appropriated to the
feeding of thousands of wild cattle and horses. In these
animals their property consists, and stock-keepers are
appointed to take charge of the animals ; they are sta-
tioned at certain points to prevent the herds from stray-
ing beyond certain bounds, and to recover them if they
wander. Horses are a valuable property ; for although
their individual price is trifling, yet from the numbers
possessed, and the little outlay they require, the amount
of profit derivable from them is considerable. Baron
Humboldt states that near the Orinoco a thousand horses
sell for two thousand two hundred piastres. What the
exact value of the piastre in South America may be, we
are not able to learn very satisfactorily ; however, the
sum per horse is at most but a few shillings. It appears
that in South America the mares are never backed ; they
are, however, very commonly killed for food ; for the
Indians, or half-bred natives, like the Tartar tribes of
Asia and Eastern Europe, make use of the flesh of this
animal ; and this appears to be universally the case
where the horse roams in a state of freedom.* The
600 sheep: there was plenty of water and limestone, and a
rough house ; excellent corrals (slaughtering enclosures), and
a peach orchard. For all this he had been offered 2000/., and
only wanted 500/. additional, and probably would sell it for
less. The chief trouble with an estancia is driving the cattle
twice a week to a central spot, in order to make them tame and
count them. This latter operation would be thought difficult,
where there are ten or fifteen thousand head together; it is
managed on the principle that the cattle invariably divide
themselves into little troops of from forty to one hundred.
Each troop is recognised by a few peculiarly marked animals,
and its number is known, so that one being lost out often thou-
sand, it is perceived by its absence from one of the tropillas
(little troops). During a stormy night the cattle all mingle
together, but the next morning the tropillas separate as before."
^Darwin. This extract will give a clear idea of the nature
of an estancia.
* Mare s flesh in South America is the only food which the
soldiers have on their expeditions. Mr. Darwin mentions that
he was delayed crossing the Rio Colorado by some immense
54
HISTOHY OF THE HORSE.
hides of these animals, equally with those of the feral
oxen, are articles of commerce, and are largely imported
into this country, and afterwards tanned for the manu-
facture of shoes. Formerly the best leather for this
purpose, called cordovan, was wholly derived from
Spain ; but time has made a great difference in this as
well as in most other imports connected with trade
and South American leather is nearly as good as th
Spanish, and can be obtained cheaper, and in large
quantities. That made from the skin of the Englis
blood-horse is of very superior quality, but is obtained
very sparingly ; for we need not say that blood-horses
are not purposely killed for the sake of the hides ; bu
in South America, on the contrary, thousands ar
slaughtered annually, having been bred and reared for
no other object; and it is thus that they constitute
ortion of the profitable stock of an estancia. The
ides of horses which die from disease or age are of
little value. We understand that curriers divide the
leather of the horse into three qualities : that from the
shoulders and part of the neck is by far the best, being
firm, compact, and smooth ; it is the substitute for the
real Spanish cordovan, and is used for the shoes of ladies
and children. The portion of skin, technically: called
the butts, taken from the sides and back, is next in
quality, but much thicker, and is used for the backs of
boots ; whilst that of the belly being very inferior,
troops of mares, which were swimming the river, in order to
follow a division of the troops of General Rosas into the in-
tenor. The spectacle was very singular: as the military thus
drive their sustenance along with them, they have little to re-
tard the rapidity of their movements, — and the distance to
which the animals can be urged over the Pampas is extraor-
dinary ; they have, it is asserted, been known to travel a
hmuh-ed miles a day for many days successively. In Nortli
America some of the Indian tribes on the plains of the Sas-
katchewan and Missouri are fond of horseflesh, and Dr.
Richardson says that tlie residents at some of the Hudson's Bay
Company's jwsts, on the river Columbia, are under the ne-
cessity of making it their principal article of diet.
1
THE SEMI-WILD HOESE OF AMEKICA. 55
weak, and liable to stretch, is put aside for the cheapest
articles. In South America the persons employed in
killing and skinning the mares are many of them singu-
larly expert, and of their dexterity surprising instances
are on record. Mr. Darwin (' Journal, &c.') says,
" At an estancia near Las Vacas large numbers of mares
are weekly slaughtered for the sake of their hides,
although worth only five paper dollars, or about half-a-
crown a-piece. It seems at first strange that it can
answer to kill mares for such a trifle ; but as it is thought
ridiculous in this country ever to break in or ride a mare,
they are of no value except for breeding. The only
thing for which I ever saw mares used was to tread out
wheat from the ear, for which purpose they were driven
round a circular enclosure where the wheat-sheaves were
strewed. The man employed for slaughtering the mares
happened to be celebrated for his dexterity with the
lazo. Standing at a distance of twelve yards from the
mouth of the corral, he has laid a wager that he would
catch by the legs every animal without missing one as
it rushed past him. There was another man who said
he would enter the corral on foot, catch a mare, fasten
her front legs together, drive her out, throw her down,
kill, skin, and stake the hide for drying (which latter is
a tedious job) ; and he engaged that he would perform
this whole operation on twenty-two animals in one day ;
or he would kill and take the skin off fifty in one day.
This would have been a prodigious task ; for it is con-
sidered a good day's work to skin and stake the hides of
fifteen or sixteen animals."
The wild horses of the Pampas, when required for the
saddle, are caught by means of the noose or lazo, in the
use of which the Gauchos are wonderfully expert, be-
ginning the practice of it in early childhood. They
mostly select from a number of horses driven into a cor-
ral, those they deem the most suitable ; but sometimes
they single one from a herd at liberty, and pursue it
over the plains until they are near enough to use the lazo,
which they throw with unerring precision. The lazo is
a plaited thong of equal thickness, half an inch in dia-
56
HISTORY OF THE HOKSE.
meter, and forty feet long, composed of several strips of
hide intertwisted and rendered supple by grease, and
properly cured. At one end is an iron ring about an
inch and a half in diameter, through which the thong is
passed so as to make a running noose. The Gaucho is
generally mounted on horseback when he uses the lazo ,•
one end of the thong is affixed to the saddle, the re-
mainder he coils carefully in his left hand, leaving about
twelve feet belonging to the noose end in a coil ; half of
this he holds in his right hand, swinging the noose hori-
zontally round his head, the weight of the iron ring
assisting in giving it sufficient impetus, when launched, to
carry out the whole length of the line.* This simple
instrument in the hands of the Gaucho is very formid-
able, and as his horse is trained to resist the strain, he is
capable of checking instantaneously a wild bull in the
midst of his career.
H The process of subduing a wild horse by the Gauchos
has been described by Head, Hall, and other travellers,
but by none with such force and clearness as by Mr.
Darwin.
" One evening," says the latter writer, " a domidor
or subduer of wild horses came for the purpose of break-
ing in some colts. I will describe the preparatory steps,
for I believe they have not been mentioned by other tra-
vellers. A troop of young wild horses is driven into the
corral or large enclosure of stakes, and the door is shut.
We will suppose that one man alone has to catch and
mount a horse, which as yet had never bridle or saddle,
I conceive, except by a Gaucho, such a feat would be
utterly impracticable. The Gaucho picks out a full-
grown colt, and as the beast rushes round the circus, he
throws his lazo so as to catch both the front legs. In-
stantly the horse rolls over with a heavy shock, and
* The lazo or lasso is not a modern instrument ; as figures
abundantly attest it was known to and used by the ancient
Egyptians : they are always represented as using it on foot, and
most likely the huntsman lay in ambush and threw it as the
game, viz., antelope or wild ox, passed by.
THE SEMI-WILD HOESE OF AMEEICA.
57
whilst struggling on the ground, the Gaucho, holding
the lazo tight, makes a circle so as to catch one of the
hind legs just beneath the fetlock, and draws it close to
the two front. He then hitches the lazo so that the
three legs are bound together ; then sitting on the horse's
neck, he fixes a strong bridle without a bit to the lower
jaw ; this he does by passing a narrow thong through
the eye-holes at the end of the reins, and several times
round both jaw and tongue ; the two front legs are now
tied closely together with a strong leathern thong, fas-
tened by a slip-knot. The lazo which bound the three
together being then loosened, the horse rises with diffi-
culty ; the Gaucho now holding fast the bridle fixed to
the lower jaw, leads the horse outside the corral. If a
second man is present (otherwise the trouble is much
greater) he holds the animal's head while the first puts
on the horse-cloths and saddle, and girths the whole to-
gether. During this operation the horse, from dread
and astonishment at being thus bound round the waist,
throws himself over and over again on the ground, and
till beaten is unwilling to rise. At last, when the sad-
dling is finished, the poor animal can hardly breathe from
fear, and is white with foam and sweat. The man now
prepares to mount by pressing heavily on the stirrup,
so that the horse may not lose its balance ; and at the
moment he throws his leg over the animal's back he
pulls the slip-knot and the beast is free. Some domidors
pull the knot while the animal is lying on the ground,
and standing over the saddle allow it to rise beneath
them ; the horse, wild with dread, gives a few most vio-
lent bounds, and then starts off at full gallop: when
quite exhausted, the man, by patience, brings him back
to the corral, where, reeking hot and scarcely alive, the
poor beast is set free. Those animals which will not
gallop away, but obstinately throw themselves on the
ground, are by far the most troublesome : this process is
tremendously severe, but in two or three trials the horse
is tamed. It is not, however, for some weeks before the
animal is ridden with the iron bit and solid ring, for it
must learn to associate the will of its rider with the feel
58
HISTOKY OF THE HORSE.
of the rein before the most powerful bridle can be of
any service.
" The Gauchos are well known to be perfect riders;
the idea of being thrown, let the horse do what it likes,
never enters their head : their criterion of a good rider
is a man who can manage an untamed colt, or who, if his
horse falls, alights on his own feet, or can perform other
such exploits. I have heard of a man betting that he
would throw his horse down twenty times, and that
nineteen out of these he would not fall himself. I re-
collect seeing a Gaucho riding a very stubborn horse
which three times reared so excessively high as to fall
backwards with great violence. The man judged with
uncommon coolness the proper moment for slipping off,
not an instant before or after the right time. Directly
the horse rose the man jumped on his back, and at last
they started at a gallop. The Gaucho never appears
to exert any muscular force. I was one day watching
a good rider, as we were galloping along at a rapid
pace, and thought to myself surely if the horse starts,
you appear so careless on your seat, you must fall. At
this moment a male ostrich sprang from its nest right
beneath the horse's nose. The young colt bounded on
one side like a stag ; but as for the man, all that could
be said was, that he started and took fright as part of
his horse.
In Chile and Peru more pains are taken with the
mouth of .the horse than in La Plata, and this is evi-
dently in consequence of the more intricate nature of
the country. In Chile a horse is not considered per-
fectly broken till he can be brought up standing in the
midst of his full speed on any particular spot ; for in-
stance, on a cloak thrown on the ground ; or again, will
charge a wall, and rearing, scrape the surface with his
hoofs. I have seen an animal bounding with spirit, yet
merely reined by a fore-finger and thumb, taken at full
gallop across a court-yard, and then made to wheel
round the post of a verandah with great speed, but at
so equal a distance that the rider with outstretched arm
all the while kept one finger rubbing the post ; then
THE SExMI-WILD HOESE OF AMEEICA.
59
making a demivolte in the air, with the other arm out-
stretched in a like manner, he wheeled round with
astonishing force in an opposite direction.
*' Such a horse is well broken, and though this at first
may appear useless, it is far otherwise : it is only car-
rying that which is daily necessary into perfection.
When a bullock is checked and caught by the lazo,
it will sometimes gallop round and round in a circle, and
the horse being alarmed at the great strain, if not well
broken, will not readily turn like the pivot of a wheel.
In consequence, many men have been killed ; for if the
lazo once makes a twist round a man's body, it will in-
stantly, from the power of the two opposed animals,
almost cut him in twain. On the same principle the
races are managed : the course is only two or three
hundred yards long, the desideratum being to have
horses that can make a rapid dash. The race-horses are
trained not only to stand with their hoofs touching a
line, but to draw all four feet together, so as at the first
spring to bring into play the full action of the hind
quarters. In Chile I was told an anecdote which I
believe was true, and it offers a good illustration of the
use of a well-broken animal. A respectable man riding
one day met two others, one of whom was mounted on
a horse wiiich he knew to have been stolen from himself.
He challenged them ; they answered by drawing their
sabres and giving chase. The man on his good and
fleet beast kept just ahead ; as he passed a thick bush he
wheeled round it and brought up his horse to a dead
check. The pursuers were obliged to shoot on one side
and ahead. Then instantly dashing on right behind
them, he buried his knife in the back of one, wounded
the other, recovered his horse from the dying robber,
and rode home. For these feats in horsemanship two
things are necessary ; a most severe bit, like the Mame-
luke, the power of which, though seldom used, the horse
knows full well ; and large blunt spurs, that can be
applied either as a mere touch or as an instrument of
extreme pain. I conceive that with English spurs, the
slightest touch of which pricks the skin, it would be im-
60
HISTOKY OF THE HORSE.
possible to break a horse after the South American
fashion."
Captain Basil Hall gives a very similar account of the
mode in which horses are captured while rushing with
a herd over the Pampas. The mounted Gaucho gives
chase, and marking his animal, throws the lazo round
its two hind legs, and riding to one side, with a jerk
throws the entangled horse prostrate on its side, without
endangering the knees or face. Before the horse can
recover the shock the Gaucho dismounts, and snatching
his poncho or cloak from his shoulders, wraps it round
the prostrate animal's head. lie then forces into the
mouth one of the powerful bridles of the country, straps
a saddle on his back, and bestriding him removes the
poncho, upon which the astonished horse springs on his
legs and endeavours by a thousand vain efforts to dis-
encumber himself of his new master, who sits quite
composedly on his back, and by a discipline which
never fails, reduces the horse to such complete obedience
that he is soon trained to lend his whole strength and
speed to the capture of his companions.
Occasionally the bolas (or balls attached to thongs)
are used in catching wild horses.* Robertson in his
* Azara thus describes the bolas or balls used in Wis time by
the Pampas Indians on the banks of the Plata : — " These balls
are of two kinds. The first is composed of three round stones
about the size of the fist, covered with strong leather, and
attached to a common centre by strong leathern cords three
feet long. They take the smallest of the three in their handsj
and after whirling the others violently round their head, throw
the whole to the distance of about 100 feet, when they so maim
and entwine themselves around the limbs of any living creature,
that it is impossible to escape from them. The other kind is a
single ball of the same size, except when it is made of iron or
copper, it being then smaller. It too is covered with leather,
and has a leathern thong attached by which they twirl it
round, and at the hard gallop can project it witli frightful force
to the distance of 500 feet. 'When first attacked, it was with
this weapon they killed the brother of the founder of Buenos
Ayres, nine of the first captains which were on horseback, and
a great number of Spanish soldiers. By attaching combustibles,
THE SEMI-WILD HOESE OF AMEEICA.
61
* History of Paraguay' gives us the following animated
picture: — " We now came (while chasing the rhea or
American ostrich) upon an immense herd of wild horses,
and Candioti, jun., said, 'Now, Senor Don Juan, I
must show you how we tame a colt.' So saying, the
word was given for the pursuit of the herd, and off,
once more, like lightning, started the Gaucho horsemen,
Candioti and myself keeping up with them. The herd
consisted of about two thousand horses, neighing and
snorting, with ears erect and flowing tails, their manes
outspread to the wind, affrighted the moment they were
conscious of pursuit. The Gauchos set up their usual
cry ; the dogs were left in the distance, and it was
not till we had followed the flock at full speed, and
without a check, for five miles, that the two headmost
peons launched their bolas at the horse which each had
respectively singled out of the herd. Down to the
ground, with frightful somersets, came two gallant colts.
The herd continued its headlong flight, leaving behind
their two prostrate companions. Upon these the whole
band of Gauchos now ran in ; lazos were applied to tie
their legs ; one man held down the head of each horse,
and another the hind quarters, while with singular ra-
pidity and dexterity two other Gauchos put the saddles
and bridles on their fallen, trembling, and nearly frantic
victims. This done, the two men who had brought
down the colts bestrode them as they still lay on the
ground. In a moment the lazos which bound their legs
were loosed, and at the same time a shout from the
field so frightened the potros, that up they started on
all-fours, but, to their astonishment, each with a rider
on his back, riveted, as it were, to the saddle, and con-
trolling them by means of a never-before-dreamed-of
bit in his mouth. The animals made a simultaneous
and most surprising vault ; they reared, plunged, and
kicked ; now they started off at full gallop, and anon
stopped short in their career, with their heads between
their legs, endeavouring to throw their riders. ' Que
they often set fire to the settlements of their invaders, and even
to their ships."
62
HISTOKY OF THE HOUSE.
esperanza!' 'vain hope, indeed !' Immoveable sat the
two Tape Indians : they smiled at the unavailing efforts
of the turbulent and outrageous animals to unseat them ;
and in less than an hour from the time of their mount-
ing, it was very evident who were to be the masters.
The horses did their very worst, the Indians never lost
either the security or the grace of their seats ; till, after
two hours of the most violent efforts to rid themselves
of their burden, the horses were so exhausted, that,
drenched in sweat, with gored and palpitating sides,
and hanging down their heads, they stood for five
minutes together, panting and confounded, but they
made not a single effort to move. Then came the
Gaucho's turn to exercise his more positive authority.
Hitherto he had been entirely upon the defensive.
His object was simply to keep his seat and tire out his
horse. He now wanted to move it in a given direction ;
wayward, zigzag, often interrupted was his course at
first, still the Gaucho made for a given point ; and they
advanced towards it, till at the end of about three hours
the now mastered animals moved in nearly a direct line,
and, in company with the other horses, to the questo,
or small subordinate establishment on the estate to
which we were repairing. When we got there, the two
horses, which so shortly before had been free as the
wind, they tied to a stake of the corral, the slaves of
lordly man, and all hone of emancipation was at an
end."
From these accounts of the wild horse of the American
continent, it is evident that however spirited and vio-
lent it may be when just captured, and under the disci-
pline of the Gaucho, it is not thoroughly/er<^ naturce —
those impressions which a long course of domestication
has implanted in the feelings and disposition of the do-
mestic horse, and which render the as yet unbacked colt
easily broken in, are evidently not eradicated, though,
perhaps, weakened in the free horse of the Pampas.
These impressions have been transmitted from its an-
cestors, and hence, with discipline, it becomes as tract-
able and as obedient as if it had never roamed in a state
THE SEMI-WILD HORSE OF AMERICA.
63
of liberty. Such, however, as we have shown, is not the
case with the true wild horse of the Mongolian deserts ;
the rude decisive way pursued by the Gaucho would
drive the tarpan of the desert to frenzy, but would suc-
ceed with the muzin, as with the feral horse of America.
Moreover, it does not appear that these horses of the
Pampas and prairies are divided into troops, each under
the conduct of a mighty sultan-stallion ; nor are they
migratory in the true sense of the word. Yet the Ame-
rican feral horses are noble animals, and Mr. Darwin
describes several scenes in which they figure to great
advantage. One or two extracts from his valuable work
may prove not unacceptable. Speaking of the great
corral at Buenos Ayres, where numbers of cattle are
kept for slaughter to supply food for the people, whom
he justly terms a beef-eating population, he observes
that " the strength of the horse as compared to that of
the bullock is quite astonishing — a man on horseback
having thrown his lazo round the horns of a beast can
drag it anywhere he chooses. The animal having
ploughed up the ground with outstretched legs in vain
efforts to resist the force, generally dashes at full speed
to one side ; but the horse immediately turning to receive
the shock, stands so firmly that the bullock is almost
thrown down, and one would think would certainly have
its neck dislocated. The struggle, however, is not one
of fair strength, the horse's girth being matched against
the bullock's extended neck. In a similar manner a
man can hold the wildest horse, if caught with the lazo
just behind the ears. When the bullock has been
dragged to the spot where it is to be slaughtered, the
matador with great caution cuts the hamstrings. Then
is given the death-blow — a noise more expressive of
fierce agony than any I know. I have often distin-
guished it from a long distance, and have always known
that the struggle was then drawing to a close. The
whole sight is horrible and revolting — the ground is
almost made of bones, and the horses and riders are
drenched with gore." We have never witnessed such
contests, but we have been frequently struck with the
64
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
disparity between the strength of the horse and bullock
in our own country. We have seen oxen employed both
in the plough and in drawing carts, but never without
feeling that the force of these animals, thus exerted,
was inferior to that displayed by a horse of the same
bulk or weight. A cart-horse of moderate powers will
draw a load of bricks or granite, in a heavy cart, which
no ox could even move. Look again at the omnibuses
drawn by two horses, say from Brentford to St. Paul's.
The weight of the vehicle is from twelve to fourteen
hundred weight ; within, are twelve or thirteen persons;
outside, four or five more ; yet this carriage thus loaded,
two horses will draw at a good pace, making two jour-
neys during the day, that is about twenty miles. What
pair of bullocks, heavy and huge as they may be, could
effect such a task ? It would appear, however, that at a
dead pull the buffalo of Italy is superior even to the
horse, and, moving in its usual slow manner, will drag
heavy carriages through sloughs and marshy grounds
which the horse would fail in his most strenuous efforts
to accomplish. To return to Mr. Darwin's pictures of
the reclaimed feral horse of America.
The Indians of the Pampas, whose forefathers knew
not the horse, the introduction of which has greatly
altered their habits, are expert and daring riders ; in
the capture of game, as rheas, or American ostriches,
and even in the taking of cattle, they use the bolas,
as do also the Gauchos, particularly in some districts
towards the north of Patagonia. It is not only for their
skill in the use of these missiles, but for their love of the
horse, that the Indians of the Rio Colorado are remark-
able. " The bolas," says Mr. Darwin, is a very im-
portant w^eapon to the Indian, for with it he catches his
game, and also his horse, which roams free over the
plain. In fighting, his first attempt is to throw the
horse of his adversary with the bolas, and when en-
tangled with the fall, to kill him with thechuzo (lance).
If the balls only catch the neck or body of the animal,
they are often carried away and lost. " Their chief
pride consists in having everything made of silver. I
THE SEMI-WILD HOESE OF AMEKICA.
65
"have seen a cacique with his spurs, stirrups, handle of
his knife, and bridle made of this metal. The head-
stall and reins being of wire, were not thicker than whip-
cord ; and to see a fiery steed wheeling about under the
command of so light a chain, gave to the horsemanship
a remarkable character of elegance."
The next picture gives us a vivid idea "of the horse-
manship of the Indians. A bloody and brutal warfare
I is, or was lately, carried on by General Rosas against
the Indians— a war of extermination, with all its atten-
dant barbarities. At Cholechel, Bahia-Blanca, General
I Rosas' banditti-like troops encountered a tribe of Indians,
of whom they killed twenty or thirty. ''The cacique
escaped in a manner which surprised every one : the
chief Indians have always one or two picked horses,
which they keep ready for any urgent occasion. On one
of these, an old white horse, the cacique sprung, taking
with him his little son : the horse had neither saddle nor
bridle. To avoid the shots the Indian rode in the pe-
culiar method of his nation, namely, with an arm round
the horse's neck and one leg only on its back. Thus
hanging on one side he was seen patting the horse's
head, and talking to him. The pursuers urged every
effort in the chase ; the commandant three times changed
his horse, but all in vain : the old Indian father and his
son escaped and were free. What a fine picture one can
form in one's mind ; the naked bronze-like figure of the
old man with his little boy, riding like a Mazeppa on the
white horse, thus leaving far behind him the host of his
pursuers !" Exclusive of the interest attached to these
narratives, independently considered, they demonstrate
'to us the effects of the agency of the lower animals on
man. Man indeed plays the part of dictator and dis-
turber, with respect to the lower race around him, and
yet these in their turn influence his habits, his views,
and his social condition. Time out of mind the no-
madic hordes of the Asiatic deserts have been horse-
men ; but in America, where the horse was unknown
till introduced by the Spanish tyrants, a few years only,
comparatively speaking, have sufficed to convert the
66
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
Indian of the Pampas and prairies into an equestrian of
the most accomplished skill. The man whose fore-
fathers trembled and fled at the sight of the Spanish
war-horse dashing along in irresistible strength, throws
himself on his own favourite steed, and clinging with
inimitable address, laughs his pursuers to scorn. Thus
it is that the animal and vegetable kingdoms act on the
human race, while man in his turn, the great agitator
in the polity of organic life, transfers animals essential
to his welfare from climate to climate, till at last their
very birthplace and aboriginal cradle become matters of
speculation.
We have already alluded to the alternations of drought
and flood to which the horses of South America are
exposed, causing the destruction of vast numbers.
Baron Humboldt, in his personal narrative, describes
the periodical swellings of the A pure, M eta, and Oio-
noco, and states that in the rainy season the horses that
wander in the savannah, and have not time to reach the
rising grounds of the Llanos or Pampas, perish by hun-
dreds. The mares are seen followed by their colts,
swimming during a part of the day to feed upon the
grass, the tops of which alone wave above the waters.
In this state they are pursued by alligators, and the
teeth-marks of these aquatic monsters are frequently
found on their thighs. Everywhere the colts are drowned
in great numbers, for they are sooner tired with swim-
niing than the mares, which nevertheless they persevere
in following till utterly exhausted. On the contrary,
there occur periods of excessive drought ; the streams
and marshes are dry, the mud is baked into a hardened
mass, vegetation perishes, and the wide-stretched plain
reflects the insufferable heat of the glowing sun : the
herds then become frantic with thirst, and rush across
the plain, maddened to fury, in search of water ; some
die exhausted ; others attain the brink of a wide river,
conducted either by chance, or their sense of smell.
Into the waters they rush with infuriate violence, man-
gling and trampling upon one another, some sinking
into the mud, to be crushed by their companions ; others
THE SEMI-WILD HOESE OF AMEEICA.
67
are forced powerless into the current,-- which hurries
their carcasses onwards, and either carries them out to
! sea, or to some large tranquil sheet of water, or pool,
where they decompose, the bones collecting in thou-
sands on the muddy bed. It is thus that the increase
of the herse on the vast plains of South America is
i checked,, for there are. no large feline animals, excepting
i the jaguar and puma, to thin their numbers, and from
i these they seem to experience little if any molestation.
In the Falkland Islands, off the coast of Patagonia,
! there are herds of wild cattle, feral horses, and wild
rabbits, all introduced from Europe. The cattle are very
fine ; but Mr. Darwin observes that, from the greater
nuinber of cows which have been killed, there is a large
i proportion of bulls. " These wander about by twos and
threes, or by themselves, and are very savage. I never
saw such magnificent beasts ; they truly resembled the
j ancient sculptures, in which the size of the neck and head
is but seldom equalled among tame animals. The young
bulls ran away for a short distance, but the old ones did
: not stir a step, except to rush at man and horse, and
many of the latter have thus been killed."
The wild horses go in troops. " These animals," says
I the same traveller, as well as the cattle, were intro-
I duced by the French in 1764, since which time they
i have greatly increased. It is a curious fact that the
horses have never left the eastern side of the island, al-
though there is no natural boundary to prevent them
roaming, and that part of the island is not more tempting
than the rest. The Gauchos, though asserting this to
be the case, are unable to account for the circumstance.
I The horses appear to thrive well, yet they are small-
j sized, and have lost so much strength that they are unfit
to be used in taking wild cattle with the lazo ; in con-
sequence it is necessary to go to the expense of import-
ing fresh horses from the Plata. At some future period
the southern hemisphere probably will have its breed of
Falkland ponies as the northern has that of Shetland."
The Falkland Islands have a desolate wretched aspect ;
the soil is peaty, the grass wiry ; there is little sunshine,
68
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
and much storm and rain ; the climate is consequently
very humid, and it is only occasionally that wheat will
ripen. We wonder that in such a country the horse
thrives at all, and still more so that the cattle should be
fine.
We may here observe that there is one purpose to
which the horse is applied in South America which
shows how circumstances determine the use made of the
animals which we have subjugated. We allude to the
capture of the great electrical eel, which swarms in
many of the stagnant pools and slowly moving waters in
the Savannahs or Llanos of South America. This eel
{gywnotus electricus) inflicts the most violent shocks, at-
tended with great agony, upon all living creatures which
come near it, and instantly kills those of smaller size.
The plan is to drive a number of horses into the water,
on which the eels discharge repeated electric shocks, till
they are themselves exhausted — a cruel process, and not
unattended by the death of sometimes one or two, and
sometimes even several of the horses, which sink para-
lyzed and are drowned. This strange mode of fishing
is called embarbascar con caballos, that is, to make drunk
by means of horses. We are told that the word barbasco
signifies the root of poisonous plants, as the jaquinia and
piscidia, which, when thrown into the water, stupifies
the fishes within its influence, causing them to float in a
senseless condition. This eff'ect the horses produce on
the exhausted eels, and hence arises the application of
the term embarbascar to this operation.
" While our host," says Baron Humboldt, " was ex-
plaining this extraordinary mode of fishing in this part
of the country, the troop of horses and mules arrived.
The Indians had made a sort of battue in collecting
them, and, surrounding them on all sides, forced them
to enter the pool. Imperfectly can I describe the in-
teresting spectacle which the battle of the eels and the
horses presented. The Indians, furnished with long
canes and harpoons, placed themselves round the pool ;
some mounted the trees, the branches of which stretched
over the surface of the water; and all by their long
THE SEMI-WILD HOUSE OF AMERICA.
69
canes and by uttering loud cries, prevented the horses
from gaining the banlc. The eels, terrified by the noise
of the horses, defended themselves by the reiterated
discharge of their electric batteries, and for a long time
had every appearance of gaining a complete victory.
In every direction were seen horses or mules which,
stunned by the force and repetition of the electric
shocks, disappeared beneath the water; some of the
horses floundered up, and in spite of the vigilance and
activity of the Indians, gained the bank, and then, ex-
hausted with fatigue and with their limbs benumbed
through the violence of the shocks, they stretched them-
selves at full length on the ground.
" I could have wished that a skilful painter had been
present to depict this scene when at the highest point of
the exciting commotion ; — there, groups of Indians sur-
rounding the pool ; — there, the horses, with bristling
manes, and eyes gleaming with terror and pain, strug-
gling to escape the storm which had overtaken them ; —
there, yellow and livid eels swimming like great aquatic
serpents on the surface of the water, and pursuing their
enemies — all these combined objects would no doubt
compose a most picturesque assemblage. I remember a
fine painting representing a horse entering a cave, and
starting back in aflPright at the sight of a lion ; such was
the expression of terror which we saw in these horses
during this unequal combat. In less than five minutes
two horses were drowned. The eel, which is more
than five feet long, glides under the belly of the horse
or mule, and there makes a discharge of electricity from
the whole of the apparatus, benumbing at the same
time the heart, the viscera, and the great plexus of
gastric nerves. It is not then surprising that the effect
which the fish produces on a large quadruped surpasses
that which a man touching it only with his limbs expe-
riences ; but it is not clear the horse is killed imme-
diately ; it is most probably only stunned by the shocks
and falls powerless and lethargic. Thus in a state of
insensibility the animal disappears beneath the water ;
other horses and mules pass over its body, and in a few
minutes it perishes.
70
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
After this debut I feared the chase would have a
tragic close, and doubted not to see the greater number
of mules one by one sink and die ; but the Indians
assured us the fishing would soon terminate, and that it
was only the first assault of the eels that was formidable.
In fact, whether the electro-galvanic principle accumu-
lates by repose, or whether the electric organ ceases to
perform its functions when exhausted by too long an
action, it is certain that after some time the eels may be
compared to discharged electric batteries ; their mus-
cular movements are, indeed, still vigorous ; but they
are incapable of inflicting strong electric shocks.
" When the combat had lasted a quarter of an hour,
the mules and the horses appeared to be less terrified ;
they no longer bristled up their manes, and the eye
expressed less pain and affright. They were no longer
seen to fall, and the eels, swimming half out of the
water, and avoiding the horses instead of attacking
them, made for the bank. The Indians assured us that
when, for two successive days, horses are forced into a
pool full of these eels, no horse is killed on the second
day. These fishes require repose and plenty of food
in order to the production or accumulation of a great
quantity of the electro-galvanic fluid. When the eels
came towards the bank they were very easily taken :
little harpoons attached to long cords were thrown at
them, and two were sometimes caught at once, and
that without a shock being felt, the cord being very
dry and of considerable length.
" Having seen that these eels are capable of over-
throwing a horse, and of depriving it of all sensibility,
it may well alarm a person to touch the creature when
it is first drawn out of the water. So great, indeed, is
this fear among the natives that none of them would
venture to disengage those which we captured from the
cord of the harpoon, or carry them into little pits filled
with fresh water which we had made on the bank to
receive them. We were, therefore, ourselves obliged
to receive the first shocks, which were by no means
slight ; the strongest far exceeded in intensity the most
severe electric strokes which I have accidentally re-
THE SEMI-WILD HOESE OF AMEEICA.
11
ceived from a large Leyden jar, completely charged ;
and we easily believed, from that circumstance, that the
statement of the Indians is not exaggerated when they
assert that if persons are struck while swimming either
on the arms or legs by one of these eels they are sure
to be drowned, for so violent a shock may well deprive
a man for many minutes of the use of his limbs. But if
the gymnotus were to glide over the chest and bowels
death would instantaneously result from the electric
shock itself; for the heart, the visceral system, and the
great caeliac plexus of nerves and its ramifications
would be at once paralyzed." We trust this digression
will be pardoned : we are desirous that the powers of
this fish should be fairly appreciated, as the terror,
agony, and death of the poor horses forced to endure
its electric assaults will then be the less surprising.
That this electric eel, indigenous in South America,
should be taken by means of the horse, an animal of
recent introduction, and in the mode described by
Baron Humboldt, is not a little remarkable. Even in
this case we see the influence of man, the controller of
the destinies of the lower creatures around him.
With respect to feral or emancipated horses, it ap-
pears that a race is found in the island of Celebes,
whence numbers are annually imported into Java for
sale. They are larger and stronger than the horses
bred in Java, which are mere dwarfs in stature, as, in
fact, are the horses throughout Hindo-China, Malay,
Borneo, Sumatra, the Philippines, and the Moluccas.
( 72 )
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE HORSE OF ANTIQUITY.
In turning to the days " which now of old we call," the
times of antiquity, in order to trace back the history of
the horse under man's dominion, we find ourselves en-
vironed with difficulties ; for though mention is made of
the horse in the sacred writings as early as the time of
Joseph, the ruler under Pharaoh of the Egyptian terri-
tories, yet the question as to the people or nation by
whom it was reclaimed remains still unsettled. Mr.
Bell, in his ' British Quadrupeds,' concludes that the
probability is in favour of the opinion that the Egyptians
were the fortunate people who first reduced it to the
obedience of servitude. That they possessed the horse
at a remote epoch is very certain. The Scriptures, and
the remains of sculpture and painting, sufficiently attest
the fact ; but, nevertheless, they do not prove that the
Egyptians were the first to subjugate this animal, and
render its powers, its swiftness, and its courage subser-
vient to man's interest. On the contrary, we have
some grounds for supposing it to have been introduced
but a short time previously to the time of Joseph ; and
this introduction is still more probable when we con-
sider that the horse is not a native of Egypt. It was
never described as wild in that country by the earliest
writers, sacred or profane, but always as a trained and
domestic animal ; and it does not appear how the
Egyptians could have reclaimed the horse when no
horse dwelt wild in their country. Mr. Bell, indeed,
thinks that w^e may reasonably look either to Egypt, or
to those parts of Africa that were in close relation to it,
as the native locality of the horse before that event.
If so, surely we may expect to find the true wild horse
HOESE OF ANTIQUITY.
IS
(not the koomrah) still existing in Abyssinia or Nigri-
tia, but of such an animal we read nothing ; nor in the
antique paintings representing the Egyptians discomfit-
ing Nubian armies, do we find horsemen or chariots
among the latter, though the Egyptians have war-cha-
riots, in which the chiefs are depicted as dashing along.
In the vast army which Xerxes led against Greece,
indeed, we read of Libyan charioteers, and of Asiatic
Ethiopians, who instead of a helmet wore the skin of a
horse's head, so contrived that the mane served for a
crest ; as well as of Ethiopians of the country above
Egypt, which, though enumerated by Herodotus among
the nations accustomed to mount on horseback, were
not, he says, furnished with horses. But it was only
about 481 years b.c. that Xerxes commenced his Gre-
cian expedition, and at that period the horse had be-
come widely diffused as a domestic animal, for even
Solomon, who began his reign b. c. 1015, had introduced
the animal from Egypt among the Israelites, by whom
it had hitherto been neglected, and had charioteers and
cavalry ; and David previously reserved, after the over-
throw of the Philistines, sufficient horses for a hundred
chariots, after houghing the rest. If, however, we turn
to the earliest notice respecting Egypt on record, even
then a powerful state, we find no mention of the horse.
In the year 1920 b.c, Abraham, driven by a famine
from Canaan, passes into Egypt ; and we read of the
Pharaoh then reigning that he had sheep and oxen, and
asses and camels, but nothing is said respecting horses
or chariots, though men-servants and maid-servants are
expressly enumerated.
About 205 years later (b.c. 1715) we find Joseph in
power in Egypt, and we read of his riding " in the
second chariot." We also find that during the continu-
ance of the predicted famine, when money failed in the
land of Egypt and the land of Canaan, Joseph sold
corn from the royal granary for horses, for flocks, for
cattle, and for asses.
About the year 1491 the Israelites departed from
Egypt, and were pursued by the Pharaoh " with six huii-
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
dred chosen chariots and all the chariots of Egypt,"
and " his horsemen" and his army.*
It would appear, then, that in the interval of the
two hundred years between Abraham's visit to Egypt
and the elevation of Joseph, the horse had gained ex-
tensive footing as a domestic animal in that country, and
that there were horsemen and charioteers.
Most authorities, we believe, agree, that it was
during this period that a nomadic people, Hyksos, Cush-
ites,t or Scythians, made an irruption into Lower Egypt,
where they continued for upwards of a hundred years,
under the government of their own kings. The reign
of the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, lies, according to
some authorities, between the years 1800 and 1600 b.c.
Manetho's 17th dynasty consists of shepherd kings who
reigned at Memphis, while in Upper Egypt, which,
though disturbed, does not seem to have been subdued,
Thebes was the seat of the Egyptian monarchs : the ex-
pulsion was effected by Thutmosis, or Thothmes I. of
the 18th dynasty, according to Dr. Hales, after a war
of about thirty years, and about twenty-seven before the
commencement of Joseph's administration. He makes
the invasion of these nomads to occur about the year
2159 B.C. (see ' New Analysis of Chronology'), and con-
siders that their tyranny lasted for a period of 260 years ;
consequently the accession of Joseph to power according
* Horsemen are also alluded to in Genesis xlix. 17 : " Dan
shall be a serpent by the wa.y, an adder in the path, that biteth
the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward."
t " The name of Cush in tlie Hebrew Scriptures is rendered
by the Septnagint KieioTcqs, or Ethiopians. The people generally
so termed in Egypt were tlie Ethiopians of Meroe, the subjects
of Queen Candace ; but the same name, as we learn from ils use
by Diodorus, was extended to some of the neighbouring nations,
but always restricted to black people. Cush, in the older his-
torical parts of the Old Testament, is however applied evidently
to natiotis living to the eastwar d of the Red Sea." — Prichard.
It is to these latter that the title Cushite here applies ; but
from the ambiguity of the term, it would be as well to omit it.
The subject has been discussed by Bochart and Michaelis.
HORSE OF ANTIQUITY.
75
to this reckoning, would be about the year 1872 e.c.
Be this as it may, we have here an irruption of warlike
people, who had migrated from Western Asia, passing
through Syria and Arabia, and forcing their way into
Egypt, everywhere ravaging the country. After their
expulsion from Egypt, the family of Joseph settled in
the pasture-lands of Goshen, which the Scythic nomades
had recently vacated ; but many years after Joseph's
death a king arose who knew nothing of him or his
services ; and Mr. Faber supposes that the Israelites,
having greatly increased in the land of Goshen, began
to meditate revolutionary projects, and invited the ex-
pelled shepherd-kings to return out of Palestine into
Egypt, which fatal invitation led to the complete re-
establishment of the pastoral tyranny. The native king,
and a great part of his subjects, withdrew to Thebais
and Ethiopia, but the people who remained, and the
Israelites, were both alike subjected to oppression.
This then was the new dynasty, "the king that knew
not Joseph," Under these warlike strangers, he re-
gards the pyramids to have been built, and this view of
the subject is (with the exception of any revolutionary
projects among the Israelites) adopted by the writer of
the notes to the ' Pictorial Bible.' " We have stated,"
he says, "the probability that the oppression of the
Israelites was under the dynasty of the shepherd kings.
If therefore we conclude that the Hebrews were em-
ployed on the pyramids, we must conclude that they
were not of native Egyptian structure, but were formed
on the soil of Egypt by a foreign people. Of this it is
a remarkable corroboration, that the pyramids are con-
fined to that part of Egypt which the shepherd con-
querors occupied, whereas we should rather expect to
have found them, if native structures, in Upper Egypt,
and the vicinity of the hundred-gated Thebes, the an-
cient and chief seat of the Egyptian religion, and of the
temples and monuments connected with it. Whatever
were the objects of these remarkable structures, we can
discover no reason but this, which adequately accounts
for our finding them exclusively within a limited dis-
^6
HJSTOEy Pf THE HOIISE.
trict. It is true Herodotus does not assign much high
antiquity to the pyramids, but he was not even aware
of the existence of a dynasty of shepherd-kings ; and
from his statement it would seem that the priests of
Heliopolis, from whom he derived most of his informa-
tion, exhibited a degree of reserve about the period of
their origin, and of conceahnent concerning the thral-
dom of their nation, which equally accounts for his igno-
rance of some remarkable facts, and corroborates the
impressions we have stated. Their reserve was noticed
even by Herodotus, though he had no notion of its
cause. He does, however, state incidentally, that some
of the pyramids were called after the shepherd Philitis,
who at that time fed his cattle in the neighbourhood ;
and he gives as a reason for this, that the monarchs by
whom they were built were held in such abomination
by the Egyptians, that the priests were unwilling to
mention their names. The reason was, that during
their reign the Egyptians were subject to great oppres-
sion and calamity, and were not even permitted to
worship in their temples. It is not difficult to discover,
through the gloss which the priests gave to this state-
ment, that the pyramids were erected under the rule of
a foreign people, whose religion differed from that of
the Egyptians, and who acted with great oppression.
This inference is the stronger when we consider that
the native Egyptian sovereigns could not, according to
the organic laws of the government, have acted as the
founders of the pyramids did, and above all, could not
have interfered with the public worship of the people ;
for the Egyptian kings were in general merely the
adorned pageants of authority. The priests were the
real sovereigns ; they managed all the affairs of state,
and all, even the smaller movements of the monarch,
were subject to their direction and control. To this
we may add that the various Arabian writers concur in
the statement that the pyramids were built by a people
from Arabia, who, after a period of dominion in Egypt,
were ultimately expelled. There is every probability
that though these shepherd-kings came immediately from
HOESE OF ANTIQUITY.
11
Arabia, their original migration was from lands further
east, and it might not be impossible to track their pro-
gress by the pyramidal structm^es they have left in the
lands they subjected to their rule. The Indian annals-
record a migration from the east of a race of Pali, or
shepherds (see the Philitis above quoted from Hero-
dotus). They were a powerful tribe, who in ancient
times governed all the country from the Indus to the
Ganges. Being an active, enterprising, and roving
people, they by conquest and colonization spread them-
selves westward even into Africa and Europe. They
took possession of Arabia, and the western shores of the
Red Sea. We may connect this with another record of
an ancient king, whose empire Vishnu enlarged, by
enabling him to conquer Misra-stan, or the land of
Egypt, where his immense wealth enabled him to raise
three mountains, called Ruem-adri, the mountain of
gold ; Rujat-adri, the mountain of silver ; and Retu-adri,
the mountain of gems. These mountains were no doubt
pyramids, and probably derived their names, as Dr. Hales
conjectures, from the colour of the stone with which
they were coated."
The vile character given by the priests to Herodotus
of Cheops and Cephrenes, the reputed founders of two
great pyramids, would scarcely have been breathed in
the ear of a foreigner had those monarchs been of the
Egyptian dynasty (see Herodotus, ' Euterpe,' ii.).
Now, if we apply the information thus collated respect-
ing the Egyptians and their shepherd or nomade op-
pressors to the origin of the domestic horse, the proba-
bility will appear that it was brought with the hordes
migrating westward from Asia, and thus introduced into
Arabia and Egypt, and that we must look to the deserts
north of Hindostan as its cradle. It is from those re-
gions that the Egyptians acquired this noble and valu-
able animal ; it is not one of the animals of their country,
but was conveyed to them by their conquerors — nomades
to whom the horse was most important, warriors rapidly
extending their conquests, to whom it was indispensable.
On their expulsion from Egypt previously to the time
18
HI&TOHY OF THE HORSE.
of Joseph (having occupied the country for upwards of
two hundred years), their horses and cattle became the
spoil of the Egyptians, who, doubtless, had already
learned from them to be charioteers and horsemen, and
were thus the better enabled to carry on the war. Sub-
sequently in Egypt — then the granary of that portion of
the globe, with a productive soil, and the centre of com-
merce, to which caravans brought incense from Arabia ;
spices from India ; wine from Phoenicia ; gold, ivory,
and slaves from Nigritia, in exchange for corn and fine
linen — the horse greatly multiplied, and became cele-.
brated for beauty, force, and spirit. It is to the Egyp--
tian war-horse, or, more probably, to the progenitors of
that stock, in the possession of nomade warriors, that
the unknown author of the Book of Job refers, in a de-
scription of unequalled grandeur : " Hast thou given the
horse strength, or clothed his neck with thunder ; cans
thou make him afraid as a grasshopper ? The glory o
his nostrils is terrible (the grandeur of his neighing isi
terror). He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in hi
strength ; he goeth on to meet the armed men ; he
mocketh at fear and is not affrighted, neither turneth he
back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against hira,
the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the
ground with fierceness, neither believeth he that it is
the sound of the trumpet. He sayeth among the tmm-
pets. Ha, ha ! and he smelleth the battle afar off, the
thunder of the captains, and the shouting."
From the nomades, or Hyksos, many of the Canaan-
itish tribes received the horse, as well as the Egyptians ;
but it M as from the latter that Solomon obtained his
stud— horses for one thousand four hundred chariots, and
twelve thousand head of cavalry ; though in this point,
no less than in his alliance with Egypt, he acted in de-
fiance of the Mosaic injunction: "But he (the king)
shall not multiply horses to himself, nor caus^p the people
to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply
horses ; forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you. Ye
shall henceforth return no more that way " (Deut. xvii.
1 6) . In the days of David there were neither charioteers
WKSE OF ANTiattt1*^/H ^
Egyptian Horseman.
nor horsemen in the army, nor had there been such from
the time of Moses. Absalom, indeed, was mounted
on a mule in battle, but the mule appears to have been
then used by the Israelites by way of distinction ; for
we subsequently find David giving directions that Solo-
mon, whom he appointed to reign in his stead, should
make a procession, mounted on his " own mule." The
ass before, and long after, was the animal ordinarily
ridden.
From an abundance of casual notices in the Scriptures,
we learn that both charioteers and horsemen, or cavalry,
formed part of the army of the Egyptians, and also of
the Philistines and other nations. We need not refer
to the numerous passages in point, which a reference to
Cruden^s ' Concordance,' under Horse and Horsemen,
will bring before the reader, yet one is especially worthy
of consideration, in the second book of Chronicles, xii.
2, 3 (B.C. 957) : " And it came to pass that in the fifth
year of KingRehoboam, Shishak (Sesonchis, Manetho ;
— Sheshonk, Phonetic signs), king of Egypt, came up
against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against
86
the Lord, with twelve hundred chariots and threescore
thousand horsemen ; and the people were without num-
ber that came with him out of Egypt — the Lubims
{Libyans), the Sukims (inhabitants of the mountains on
the western coast of the Red Sea, troglody tae) , and the
Ethiopians." From this narrative we distinctly learn
that vast bodies of cavalry swelled the Egyptian armies ;
(JiiJiriot Horse.
HOItSE OF ANTiOUimn
yet, though the horse is found carved and depicted
abundantly in historical groups on the remains of Egyp-
tian antiquity, we believe that except where enemies
are portrayed, and then only in two or three instances,
no mounted Egyptian, with the exception of one, is re-
presented in the whole range of the sculptured and
painted antiquities of that nation. A copy of this will
be regarded with interest; it is of a late, probably
Roman, period.
On the contrary, warriors in chariots drawn by horses
are abundantly represented, and often admirably exe-
cuted. The horses are adorned with elegant trappings,
and often have the head crowned with a plume of fea-
thers, or, perhaps, with thin glittering metallic plates,
forming a sort of helmet-like crest, as seen in the
annexed figure.
The war-car is generally drawn by two horses, and is
mounted on two low wheels ; it is of small size, the
warrior having scarcely more than standing-room. He
is generally armed with a bow and arrows, or a javelin ;
sometimes with a bent sword of singular form, adapted
for cutting, and the reins are lashed round his body.
The symmetry of these horses proves them to have
been of a high-bred race ; the eye is full of fire, the
head small, the neck arched, the body compact, the
limbs clean, and the tail well set on, long, and flowing.
Their action is often depicted as spirited, conveying an
idea of fleetness and courage. It was not only in battle
that the horse and chariot were employed by the ancient
Egyptians ; for frequently in his chariot the chasseur
followed his game, intercepting it as it fled before the
dogs, and discharging a well-aimed arrow. But ex-
cepting for these purposes and on state occasions no
use, at least as a general rule, appears to have been
made of the horse by the Egyptians — it was not one
of their beasts of common labour. The ox, as nume-
rous delineations prove, was used for the plough, and for
treading out the grain and the ordinary works of agri-
culture, &c. ; yet, on the other hand, the horse was not
one of their sacred animals — no instance of the em-
HOESE OF ANTiaUITY. 83
balmed head of the camel, horse, or ass has hitherto
been discovered in the catacombs or repositories for the
bodies of their animal-divinities, and in a few instances
only has the horse been detected among their hiero-
glyphics : it occurs at Medinet-Abou and at Edfou.
We here give the copy of a very interesting paint-
ing, one of a series of Egyptian delineations in the
British Museum. In the upper compartment is a chariot,
to which is yoked a pnir of horses, the foremost black,
the other (of which the head, limbs, and tail are par-
tially shown) red. In the lower compartment a reaper
is cutting corn, and before him is a chariot, in which a
man is seated, holding the loose reins of two animals,
one of which is about to eat or drink from a vessel before
it. These animals are of a milk-white colour, and are
usually regarded as horses, but horses they certainly are
not. Independently of the general figure, which is not
that of the horse, a streak appears to run down the
shoulder of the foremost, and the tail is tufted only at
the extremity. They may be mules, yoked to a car in
which the sheaves of corn cut by the reaper are to be
carried away ; but we incline to the opinion that they
are onagri, or wild asses, domesticated ; which by the
Scythians were made to draw chariots both of peace and
war. Herodotus enumerates, amongst the army of
Xerxes, Indians who had led liorses and chariots drawn
by horses and wild asses* (Polymnia). It may be said,
perhaps, that the ears are too short for those of the wild
ass : they are, however, larger than those of the horses in
the compartment above ; and on such minutiae, well
knowing that artists, however generally faithful in their
delineations, sometimes exaggerate or modify lesser de-
tails, no great stress can be laid.
To return to the point whence we started, we think
that our sketch of the horse in ancient Egypt (where
nothing is to be heard of it in the Scriptures till the
time of Joseph, subsequent to the shepherd dynasty)
abundantly proves that neither on the plain of the Nile,
* See also Isaiah, xxi. 7.
nor in Ethiopia, nor yet in Arabia or Syria, was if first
domesticated ; but that we must seek for its original
training-ground in the great deserts of Asia, whence
nomadic tribes radiated eastward, westward, southward,
and even northward — Scythic and Tartar hordes, the
rapidity of whose movements and conquests could not
have been effected without such an animal. In these
deserts the wild horse and various species of wild ass still
exist, and to them therefore we naturally look when re-
flecting upon the region in which the wild horse first
submitted to bit and bridle ; and here it may not be out
of place to call attention to a people of antiquity so dis-
tant that even those whom we term the ancients placed
them among the beings of the heroic age, and gave thera
a strange and wondrous origin. We allude to the Cen-
taurs, whose combats with the Lapithae the ancient poets
Centaur.
85
and sculptors have so vividly depicted. Fables often
originate in facts. The centaurs are sculptured as men
united to the shoulders of horses— the two beings thus
constituting one compound whole. Such, be it remem-
bered, did the American Indians deem the Spanish horse-
men on first encountering them ; and had the story been
transmitted to a nation of sculptors and poets, the friezes
of temples in the western world might have represented
such combats as those of the Parthenon of Athens. The
centaurs were evidently a tribe of horsemen who during
what is commonly termed the fabulous times of history,
when demigods performed prodigies on the earth, made
their appearance inThessaly — wanderers, most probably,
from Scythia ; there they established themselves, and
long afterwards the Thessalian cavalry were the most
renowned of Grecian horsemen. Thus even the obscure
fables of remote antiquity, which afforded scope to the
genius of Phidias, seem to corroborate our ideas respect-
j ing the regions in which the subjugation of the horse
I was effected. Time immemorial have the Kirguise,
I the Kalkas, and Kalmucs been celebrated as horsemen ;
and who has not heard of the Scythians, Medes, and
I Parthians famed as equestrian archers ?
1 We learn from Herodotus that the Babylonians pos-
i sessed vast numbers of horses. Tritantsechmes, a satrap
of Babylonia, had, in addition to his war-horses, 800
stallions and 16,000 mares. Herodotus notices the ca-
valry of the Bactrians and Caspians. Speaking of the
horses of India, the same author says, that though the
! quadrupeds and birds of that country exceed in size those
of any other, the horse is an exception, for it is far sur-
passed by the Nisfean horse of the Medes ; of which he
I elsewhere states that ten of extraordinary stature, richly
caparisoned, and consecrated to Jupiter, swelled the
pageant of the march of Xerxes. The chariot of Jupiter
was drawn by eight white horses, accounted sacred
among the Persians, and was followed by that of the
monarch drawn by Nisaean steeds. According to Strabo,
, it was a matter of doubt whether the Nisaean horse was
L E 3
86
Hfstbirt^ (>F THE HOU^E.
originally from Media or Armenia, as specimens of the
breed were to be found in both countries. This casual
notice of the inferiority of the Indian horse to that of
Media or Armenia is very interesting, as the old Indian
races at the present day are of bad figure and propor-
tions, and many are merely ponies. Wherever fine,
vrell-made horses are seen, they are the result of repeated
crossings with the best breeds of Arabia or Persia ; such
are those noticed by Colonel Sykes on the banks of the
Beema and Mahr rivers, in Dukhun. The importation
of English blood-horses has also contributed to the im-
provement of some of the stocks ; yet, in many districts,
but a slight amelioration has taken place after several
years of attention.
In a letter to Colonel H. Smith, Major Gwatkin,
superintendent of the Hon. East India Company's stud
in Northern India, describes the original mare of that
country as follov^'S : — " The original mare of India is very
inferior in shape, and generally a jade, with narrow
chest, drooping mean quarters, and, if beyond fourteen,
hands three inches, runs to leg. Even to this day, after
the importation of many English horses, this defect con-
tinues, and you never meet that great length, with
depth of brisket, which is so distinguishing a mark of the
English horse, without the fault of a long back." Again
he says, " The real native horses of the Dooab (between
the Ganges and Jumna) were formerly a coarse, weedy
breed, but for a century have been undergoing improve-
ment ; and within the last twenty years it has been
great." We have previously alluded to the inferiority
of the horse east of the Ganges and Burrampooter,
through the Birman empire, Malaya, and the adjacent
groups of islands. It would seem in fact as if India,
and especially the intertropical regions eastward, were
froin some cause or causes unfavourable to the horse. In
India, even by crosses with the best breeds of Arabia,
Persia, and England, any amelioration has been a work
of time. Formerly, the chiefs of Rajpootanah were
supplied by Persian merchants, who brought horses of
a superior quality— a mixture of Turkoman, Bokhara,
and Arab — which they sold for three or four thousand
rupees, or even more.
That Hindostan and the regions eastward received the
horse at a very remote date cannot be doubted ; but most
probably it was neglected, for it appears that in the time
of Darius, and perhaps long before, the camel was in use
among the Indian nations; and these animals "were
quite as swift as horses, and much more able to carry bur-
dens." It is not to India more than to Egypt that we
must look for the first subjugation of the horse.
Let us now pass into Europe. Supposing that the
nomade tribes of Central Asia were among the first to
domesticate the horse, was it not (so may the question
be put) subjugated also at an early period, from a wild
stock, then revelling in the vast plains of Central and
Southern Europe, including the British Islands ? This
question involves a point first to be settled, viz., whether
the geographical distribution of the wild horse did, or
did not, extend through Europe, at an early period, say
from twelve to eighteen hundred years before the Chris-
tian era. Who can tell ? what are our records ? No-
thing. Varro may talk of wild horses in Spain, and
other writers may notice their existence in Sardinia and
Corsica, but we have no real authority for saying that
these horses were not feral — emancipated — like those oi
America and the Falkland Islands. Colonel H. Smith
talks about a race of indigenous horses or rather ponies
in Britain, found by Cagsar partly subdued, and "still
imperfectly represented by the Scottish, Welsh, New
Forest, and Dartmoor breeds." Julius Csesar did indeed
encounter war-chariots drawn by horses, but he does not
notice the existence of wild horses in our island, nor
know we of any ancient writer who does. Be it remem-
bered that when Caesar visited our shores, the domestic
fowl, confessedly of Indian origin, was domesticated in
the country, brought thither, perhaps by the Phoenicians,
perhaps by some of the tribes of early settlers, Celtae or
Cymri, who had gradually worked their way westward
from the East. It is to a similar introduction that we
attribute the existence of the horse in our island when
8§
the latter was visited by Julius Caesar. A feral race
indeed may have roamed over the hills and plains of the
island ; but we question whether an indigenous breed of
horses, to which the term wild is strictly applicable, ex-
isted within the range of historic periods in the British
islands. The British horse was small, but strong and
spirited ; and the skill with which the charioteers managed
their war-cars excited the invader's admiration. Probably
the ancient British horses much resembled those used by
the Cossacks of the Don and Volga at the present day.
They were imported into Italy ; and a breed of ponies, or
manni, was in request, as St, Augustin informs us, among
strolling performers, who trained them to various feats.
Various breeds of horses are noticed by the classic
writers ; and some of them are celebrated for beauty and
power. To the Nisaean we have already alluded. Am-
mianus Marcellinus places the pasture-grounds of this
breed in the plains of Assyria, west of Mount Corone.
It was of first-rate qualities, and highly valued. At the'
battle of Platea, the general of the Persian cavalry, Ma-
sistius, rode a Nisaean horse, having a bridle of gold, and
magnificent trappings ; and white horses of the same
breed drew the royal chariot. Another breed was the
Lydian, of great strength and stature. The Parthian,
Thracian, and Thessalian breed (that of the centaurs)
appears to have been piebald. By the Parthians this
race was held in high request. Virgil describes Turnus
as mounted on a Thracian horse, with white markings —
" — maculis quem Thracius albis
Portat equus." — JEneid, lib. ix. liues 49 and 50 ;
and elsewhere he describes the two-coloured spotted
Thracian horse on which Polites rode —
" quem Thracius albis
Portat equus bicolor maculis." — jE?ieid, lib. v. lines 565
and 566.
Hesiod calls Thrace the nursery of martial steeds ; and
theirfleetnessand piebald markings were noticed by Homer.
Speckled horses are alluded to by Zechariah, ch. i. v. 8 ;
80
and it would appear that the Tartar conquerors of Persia
rode upon piebald steeds ; and also that the Huns pos-
sessed a similar breed. Attiia is painted by Raphael
with one of these horses ; and pied chargers were highly
esteemed during the middle ages. The antiquity of this
race (now neglected, or used principally by equestrian
performers, and doubtless deteriorated) is very great, but
we hesitate to regard the stock as having descended from
a distinct species of Equus, though such is the opinion of
Colonel H. Smith, who terms it Equus varius, the
Tangum, piebald, or skewbald horse," and derives it from
the kiang of Moorcroft, which is evidently the same, he
considers, as Dr. Gerrard's wild-horse mentioned in his
observations on the Skite valley. Colonel H. Smith de-
scribes the piebald horse, known as the Tangum horse in
India, as being white about the limbs and part of the
back, and marked by large clouds of bay on the body,
head, and neck. " In general the head is included in
the bay colour, and where it comes down over the shoulder
and the thigh that colour deepens into black ; there is also
a proportion of black and white in the mane and tail ; not
unfrequently a black edging on the ears ; and the eyes are
liable to be pale-bluish or different. The horn of the
hoofs is pale-yellowish, with two or three slender vertical
black streaks, and the frogs wider. On the inner arm the
callosities are large, but scarcely perceptible on the hind
legs. The hide itself is dull white or greyish, often
spotted with a darker colour, or ladre, particularly on the
inside of the eyes and nose. In form the Tangum stock
is compact, rounded, somewhat fleshy, with rather large
bone ; the head thick, though small ; the neck long,
rigid, but little arched, somewhat full ; the mane rather
erect, and tail not superabundant ; short hair running
down the ridge of the dock, and long hair at the sides ;
it is set on low ; the shoulders are well placed, but thick,
the withers rather full ; the barrel round, with flank well
ribbed up ; the quarter full. Few rise to fifteen hands in
height, and most are little above twelve or thirteen ; but
they stand on rigid pasterns, have hard hoofs, vigorous
sinews, and move with unflinching security through the
90
HISIOKY OF THE HQi^E.
most dangerous mountain passes ; they bear fatigue and
privation with unconquerable spirit, have good speed and
wind, and are very tractable and docile.
" Although the Tangum blood mixes freely with the
other stocks, its characteristic distinctions are sufficiently
indelible, as is proved by the foregoing description taken
in India, being almost entirely correct, when compared
with the breeds of Europe, though the last-mentioned
have been separated from the parent stock for many ages,
and have been liable to unceasing crossings." JSuch is
the delineation of a stock which has maintained its ground
from remote antiquity, and of which, in sj)ite of crossings,
the characteristics perpetually manifest themselves, even
in the western world, where the admixture of races is
carried to the greatest degree; while in China, and
many parts of the East, the piebald breed extensively
prevails.
Among other breeds of antiquity were the Sidonian and
Trinacrian or Sicilian, mentioned by Virgil, which appear
to have been light and fleet ; and the Erythraean, from the
Red Sea, of a white colour speckled with black. We
may also notice the Phrygian breed, of a light ash
colour, known in Homer's time in Asia Minor ; and a
white race, spotted with black, obtained by the Per-
sians from the Red Sea. There was a white Cappa-
docian race ; and it was chiefly of horses, mules, and
sheep that the Cappadocians paid a tribute to the Per-
sian ^ monarch, the high table-lands of Cappadocia being
adniirable pasture-grounds. An extensive trade in sup-
plying with horses and mules the neighbouring nations
was carried on ; and to this Ezekiel alludes in his de-
nunciation of Tyre—" They of the house of Togarmah
traded in thy fairs with horses, and horsemen, and mules,"
ch. xxiii. V. 14. Herodotus (Melpomene) observes that
great numbers of wild horses of a white colour graze about
the borders of a lake from which the Hypanis flows to
join the Borysthenes, before entering the Euxine ; it is
probable that these were of the same race as those of
Cappadocia. Armenia was also celebrated for its breed
of horses, of which Strabo speaks in praise. When the
Romans had extended their conquests in the East, they
drew vast numbers of their cavalry horses from Arme-
nia; and to this country, including Cappadocia, Eze-
kiel's expression, "the House of Togarmah," most pro-
bably applies. Cilicia also was the nursery of a fine
breed of horses, similar to those of Cappadocia.
Virgil's description of the white Thracian steeds of
Turnus is no doubt applicable to the white horses of
ancient Cappadocia : —
" Poscit equos, gaudetque tuens ante era frementes :
Pilumno quos ipsa decus dedit Orithyia ;
Qui candore nives anteirent, cursibus auras.
Circumstant properi aurigse, manibusque lacessunt
Pectora plausa cavis, et col la comantia pectunt." —
JEneid, lib. xii. line 82 et seq.
He calls for his steeds, and exults to see them neighing
in his presence —
Steeds which Orithyia herself gave as a royal present to
Pilumnus, —
In whiteness surpassing the snow — the winds in speed.
The officious grooms stand around, and with their hol-
low hands
Clap their stroked chests, and comb their waving
manes.
It was from various sources that the Greeks derived
their breeds, of which the Thessalian was in great re-
pute, as were also the ^tolian and Acarnanian. Be-
sides these, we read of Cretan, Argolic, Arcadian, Chao-
nian, and Maegarian races, and some others.
In the sculptures of ancient Greece, the horses are de-
lineated as full of fire and spirit ; the head is animated,
and the action energetic ; but we think that the neck is
in general too thick for the volume of the barrel. The
annexed figure represents the sculptured head of a horse
(supposed to be executed by the hand of Phidias) in the
British Museum. The mane is thick and hogged, or
cropped, so as to stand erect ; a fashion which seems to
have prevailed very extensively in ancient times.
Several breeds of horses derived from various sources
existed in ancient Italy ; some of which were used as
92 HISTORY OF the-«^»6!e.
Antique Horse's Head, • |
chargers, others for chariot races, in which both the
Greeks and the Romans delighted —
" Sunt quos curriculo, pulverem Olympicum
Collegisse juvat ; metaque fervidis
Evitata rotis, palmaque nobilis
Terrarum dominos evehit ad decs." — Horace.
" In clouds th' Olympic dust to roll,
To turn with kindling wheels the goal,
And gain the palm, victorious prize !
Exalt a mortal to the skies." — Francis s Translation.
Such races are described both by Homer and Virgil
with great spirit.
Virgil's description of the war-horse in the Georgics
(lib. iii.) is exceedingly noble. The following is Sothe-
by's translation of the finest part of the passage : —
" But at the clash of arms his ear afar
Drinks the deep sound, and vibrates to the war ;
Flames from each nostril roll in gather'd stream,
His quivering limbs with restless motion gleam ;
O'er his right shoulder, floating full and fair.
Sweeps his thick mane, and spreads his pomp of hair ;
Swift works his double spine ; and earth around
Rings to the solid hoof that wears the ground."
m
Compare this description with the following by Shak-
spere in his Venus and Adonis : —
" Round-hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long,
Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide,
High crest, short ears, straight legs, and passing strong —
Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide,
Look what a horse should have he did not lack
Save a proud rider on so proud a back.
Sometime he scuds far off, and there he stares,
Anon he starts at stirring of a feather ;
To bid the wind a base he now prepares.
And wheth'r he run or tly they know not whether ;
For through his mane and tail the high wind sings.
Fanning the hairs, which wave like feather'd wings."
In the figures of the war-horse on sculpture, we look
in vain for the floating pomp of mane. See the subjoined
delineation of the attack of a Roman horseman on a bar-
barian soldier, from an antique gem.
Warrior on Horseback.
HFSTORY OF THE HOESE.
Among the breeds of horses in Italy were the Lu-
canian of large stature, the Etruscan, the Hirpinic, the
Apulian or Tarentine, and others. The Romans in
their choice of horses seem to have been much influ-
enced by colour ; and it is remarkable that while Virgil
in his account of the white horses of Turnus (iEneid)
pictures them as of exquisite symmetry, he says in his
Georgics, " Honesti spadices glaucique ; color deterrimus
albis et gilvo ;" that is, bays and bluish greys are excel-
lent ; the worst colours are the white and dun. It is
evident that they did not understand the maxim that a
good horse can never be of a bad colour, otherwise they
would not have believed that bay horses were best for
lion-hunting, slate-grey for the pursuit of the bear, and
black for the chase of the fox, &c.
Doubtless the wealthier Romans possessed admirable
horses, for the Parthian realms — Spain — North Africa,
and the East — were open to them ; and though dealers,
according to Vegetius, often palmed (more solito) upon
rich purchasers inferior horses for steeds of high and cele-
brated breeds, still horses of the finest race, as Hadrian's
Borysthenes, must have been introduced ; nor indeed could
it be otherwise, when we consider that to Rome were
brought the spoils of conquered nations, and that the
countries in which the horse exhibited its highest and
most noble qualities became portions of the Roman em-
pire. Still the Romans were not an equestrian people,
nor did the government institute any proceedings relative
to the improvement or maintenance of valuable breeds.
The force of the Roman army consisted in its legions ;
the cavalry were contemptible. It was always to the
firm array of the foot soldiers that the event of the battle
was to be trusted ; for the cavalry were never able to cope
with the mounted troops of other nations, unless, indeed,
by the aid of foreign equestrian auxiliaries. The same
remarks apply in a great measure to the Greeks : the
Thessalian cavalry indeed was celebrated ; but Lacedse-
mon and Athens gloried in the serried phalanx.
The force of an army undoubtedly lies in its infantry ;
unless, indeed, as it was in the middle ages of Europe,
^6
the infantry be composed of an undisciplined, ill-armed,
ill-provided rabble, drawn hastily from the plough (the
bodies of trained archers excepted), and opposed to
cavaliers sheathed in complete mail, and mounted on
heavy war-horses. Under such circumstances even, the
archers have decided the day, which from the over-
whelming force of numbers must otherwise have been
lost. Witness Poictiers and Agincourt. An able writer,
however, states that there are instances in which a well-
disciplined cavalry has turned the scale of fortune in
war. " Cavalry contributed greatly to the conquests of
Philip and Alexander ; and the superiority of Scipio
over Hannibal in cavalry was the cause of the victory at
Zama. In modern times Seidlitz gained by his cavalry
the battle of Rosbach in 1757, and the victory at Wurz-
burg, in 1796, was decided by the same arm."
Though not an equestrian people like the Thracians,
Palmyrenes, or Numidians, still the Romans were fond
of equestrian spectacles ; — among other games was one
termed Ludus Trojanus, or Troja, in which boys or
young men, armed with blunt darts, spears, &c., mounted
on horses and under leaders, divided into distinct compa-
nies, and wheeled around in attack and retreat, and in
mazy movements galloped about the circus, pursuing and
pursued, in representation of an equestrian conflict. This
mimic combat is described by Virgil as performed by
the Trojan and Tinacrian youth, in the presence of
-ffineas, on the shores of Sicily, in honour of Anchises
there buried ; and the poet afterwards adds,
" Hunc morem cursus, atque htec certamina primus
Ascanius, longam muris cum cingeret Albam
Retulit ; — et priscos docuit celebrare Latinos ;
Quo puer ipse mode, secum quo Troia pubes ;
Albani docuere sues, — hinc maxima porro
Accepit Roma, et patrium servavit honorem ;
Trojaque nunc, Pueri, Trojanum, dicitur, agmen.''
*' This mode of tilting, and these mock-combats, first
Ascanius, when he was enclosing Longa Alba with walls,
Renewed, — and taught the ancient Latins to celebrate ;
^' ^As the boy himself, — as the Trojan youth -with him had
practised them.
So the Albans taught their posterity. — Hence in aftertimes
Imperial Eome received them, and preserved them in
honour of her ancestors —
And at this day, Troja is the game called, — the boys, the
Trojan band."
Julius Caesar revived this equestrian game, and Au-
gustus, as Suetonius informs us, very frequently ordered
it to be played, being partial to the exhibition, — a cir-
cumstance which may account for Virgil's felicitous in-
troduction of it into his poem.
In their appreciation of the qualities of breeds or races
of horses, the Romans appear to have been very super-
ficial ; and we agree with Col. H. Smith, that " where
in the government statistics, the laws, and colloquial lan-
guage, horses were distinguished in the following classi-
fication," no very clear notions on the subject could be
ascertained. Colonel H. Smith gives the following re-
sume : —
" 1. Equus Avertarius or Sagmarius. — The sumpter-horse.
2. E. publicus. — Horses maintained by Government for
the Equites,
3. E. sellarius, or Celes.— Saddle horses.
4. E. agminalis. — Horses maintained for public purposes
on cross roads where there were no posts.
5. E. cursales, or Veredi.— Post horses.
6. E. desultarii, or Pares. — Horses of mountebanks.
7. E. funales. — For the quadriga, or for the two-horsed
carriage.
8. E. lignei ! — Wooden horses, for boys to learn riding
upon ! !
9. E. singulares.— Horses of volunteers.
10. E. triumphales. — The four or six horses that drew the
triumphal cars."
To these may be added horses destined for the circus,
which could not be legally applied to any other purpose.
We cannot but smile at the grave enumeration of the
equus ligneus,— yet the horse foaled of an acorn," —
the wooden horse, was once a military punishment of
HOUSE OF AJfTIQjEflJ^S^j.
^7
severity in the British army, and is alluded to by Sir
Walter Scott in his novel of ' Old Mortality.' Per-
chance the equus ligneus may not have afforded a very
easy seat to the Roman youths.
Spain had fine breeds of horses ; Martial celebrates
that of Bilbilis (now Callahorra on the Ebro). Another
was the Lusitanian, famous for swiftness, and valued for
the course in the circus by the Romans.
In Germany, several good and serviceable breeds, as
the Helvetian and the Alan, &c., are recorded ; the Me-
napian of Batavla was noted 5 and there were several
races in repute along the banks of the Danube.
,. . We have already commented upon the horse of an-
cient Egypt ; in other parts of Africa noted races also
existed, as in Libya, and along the Upper Nile. Nu-
midia, Mauritania, Gaetulia, and Cyrenaica possessed
fleet and spirited horses, and all the horses of Barbary,
Nubia, Bornou, &c., are renowned for spirit and endur-
ance.
At the present day we occasionally meet with dun-
coloured horses, having a black stripe along the spine,
and sometimes even with a faint cross-bar over the
withers, and a tendency to dark streaks on the hocks.
This breed is of high antiquity. Colonel H. Smith says
that it is typical of the generality of the real wild horses
still extant in Asia, and the semi-domesticated both there
and in Eastern Europe. Though this dorsal stripe ap-
pears to indicate an approximation to the asinine group,
it is almost the only point of resemblance, for the head
is small and square, the mane peculiarly long and flow-
ing, the limbs are clean and vigorous, and the general
contour compact. These horses are remarkable for
spirit and intelligence, as well as power of endurance,
but they are never of large size. It is remarkable that,
interbred as the domestic horse is, these markings and
peculiarities should continually break forth, as if there
was a tendency to re-assume a primitive condition. Was
not the ancient British horse of this breed, which is still
common in Prussia and along the Ukraine ?
Reverting to our opinion that it is to Central Asia
HISTOHY or THE HORSE.
and the adjacent parts of Europe we must look as the
region of the wild horse, and where its subjugation was
first effected, we cannot omit to notice the views of
Buffon, who asserts Arabia to be the primitive seat of this
noble animal, stating at the same time that it is still to be
found there wild. This is a manifest error. Time im-
memorial, Arabia, including Syria, has been the abode
of the camel, that patient slave of wandering hordes, who
with their flocks and herds and asses migrated in search
of pasturage, and pitched their tents as choice or accident
might determine ; but in the histories of the early patri-
archs we hear no mention of the horse. Herodotus says
that the Arabian troops, in the army of Xerxes, were
mounted upon camels no less swift than horses ; but they
followed in the rear, lest the horses should be affrighted
at the sight of the camels, which they cannot bear,*
Even now, horses are by no means so common among the
Arabs as is generally supposed, but camels are indispens-
able. " No family," says Burckhardt, can exist without
one camel at least ; — a man who has but two is reckoned
poor, — thirty or forty place a man in easy circum-
stances,— and he who possesses sixty is rich." Some
sheikhs, he says, have as many as three hundred camels ;
and one who was his guide to Tadmor (Palmyra) pos-
sessed a hundred camels, between three hundred sheep
and goats, yet only two mares and one horse. Among
* We may here observe, en passant, that the same au-
thority, in his history of the invasion of Scythia by Darius,
states that the Scythian horses were terrified by the braying
of the asses in the Persian army. " Prejudicial to the Scy-
thians in the assaults they made, and advantageous to the
Persians, were two causes, viz., the cry of the asses and the
form of the mules. Scythia produces neither of those ani-
mals, the climate being too cold to be congenial to them.
The braying of the asses threw the Scythian horse into con-
fusion, and frequently as they were advancing to fall upon
the Persians, their horses no sooner heard the noise, than
in great fright and with erected ears they turned short about,
having never before heard such a voice, or seen such a
shape."
HOESE OF ANTIQmXYr^H
99^
the Aeneze tribes Burckhardt could not find more than
one mare to six or seven tents ; but in some other tribes
they were more numerous.
That an animal so noble and valuable as the horse"
should be mixed up with the mythology and supersti-
tious rites of many nations of antiquity, is only what
might be expected. Neptunus (Grsece noo-eiSwf , Dorice
UoTiiScHv) is said to have produced the horse in his con-
test with Minerva for the right of naming the city of
Athens. According to some writers, this fable is in-
tended to signify that the horse was imported into
Greece by sea — an explanation far from satisfactory. It
is indeed not very easy to give a reason for the connexion
of Neptune with the horse ; but from several passages in
the Greek writers, we glean that he was regarded as a
kind of equestrian deity, as well as the god of the sea.
Hence his titles Hippius and Hippodromus, as president
of the horse-races. In the month of August the solemn
games called Consualia were held in honour of Neptune ;
and at the same time horses and mules were adorned with
garlands.
Colonel H. Smith states that in the most ancient legis-
lation of India, dating back to a period nearly coeval
with Moses, the sacrifice of the horse to one of their
deities was enjoined with awful solemnities, and that it
was only next in importance to the immolation of a hu-
man being. In most nations of antiquity we may trace
indications of a sort of veneration for the horse. It
figures among the constellations ; it was the emblem of
victory ; it was depicted on the banners of armies ; the
horse-tail floated as a standard. Horses drew the chariot
of the sun, were led in procession before the shrine of
the sun-god, and annually sacrificed ; nor were the
If?raelites exempt from these superstitious observances. In
the 2nd Book of Kings (ch. xxiii. 11) we read of Josiah,
that " he took away the horses that the kings of Judah
had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house ol
the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the cham-
beriain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots
of the sun with fire." The following interesting note on
rm
HISTORY OF THE HOUSE.
this passagewe take from the ' Pictorial Bible :' — ^' Horses
were anciently sacrificed to the sun in different nations,
their swiftness being supposed to render them an appro-
priate offering to that luminary. Some think that the
horses here mentioned were intended for this purpose.
We doubt this ; for if so, they would probably have been
sacrificed before this time. The Jews generally suppose
the horses were intended for the use of worshippers
when they rode forth in the morning to meet the sun
and render him their homage; but the mention of cha-
riots immediately after, seems to point out another and
more obvious explanation ; viz., that they were employed
to draw the sacred chariots dedicated to the sun. In the
chariots themselves, the rabbins inform us, the king and
nobles rode when they went forth to meet the morning
sun. This is possible, but more probably the horses and
chariots were used in the sacred processions, and em-
ployed perhaps on such occasions to carry the images of
the sun. The ancient Persians, who were sun-worship*
pers, dedicated to that luminary white horses and cha-
riots, which were paraded in their sacred processions ;
and it is thought that other nations borrowed the practice
from them. Whether so or not, we find the same idea
of associating a chariot and horses with the sun, to denote
the rapidity of his apparent progress common in the
poetry and sculpture of classical antiquity. The sun
was supposed to be drawn daily in a chariot by four
wondrous coursers through the firmament; and we all
recollect the fate of the ambitious Phaeton who aspired
to guide the swift chariot, and control the strong coursers
of the sun. The names of these coursers have been pre-
served, Ecus, Pyrois, ^thon, and Phlegon, which are
supposed to represent the four divisions of the day. In
his chariot the personified sun was represented generally
as a young man with a radiant head, and driving whip
in hand. He is sometimes seen thus issuing from a cave,
to denote the commencement of his daily career. In a
medal of the Emperor Heliogabalus, who had been a
priest of the sun in Syria, and who established the Syrian
form of his worship at Rome, the human figure is want-
HORSE OF ANTIQUII-Y,
ing, and we only see in the chariot a stone, round below,
and rising pyramidically to a point above. The Syrian
origin of this representation renders it very interesting.
That the sun is intended, is indisputable from the in-
scription, which as usual is Soli mvicfo, — To the invincible
Sun. It is remarkable, that on ancient medals and gems
the horses are not always represented as abreast, but
sometimes as turned towards the four quarters of the
globe. The ideas which led to the representation of the
sun as a charioteer, and assigned to him a chariot and
horses, are too obvious to require explanation."
Herodotus informs us that the Scythians (who had no
cities or enclosed towns, but tents only, and who fought
on horseback, armed with bows and arrows) sacrificed
horses to the god of war as well as human victims, — pri-
soners taken in battle. An altar to Mars is found in
every district, constructed in the following manner : —
"A great quantity of small wood tied up in bundles is
brought together and placed upon three stadia of land ,
covering the whole ground both in length and breadth,
but not of a proportionable height. The top is quadran-
gular, three of the sides perpendicular, the fourth a gra-
dual declivity of easy access. One hundred and fifty
loads of faggots are annually brought to this place, be-
cause much of the wood rots every winter ; on each of
these heaps an old scimitar of iron is erected, which they
call the image of Mars, and honour with yearly sacrifices
of horses and other cattle in greater abundance than they
offer to the rest of their gods." The animals are first
strangled, then flayed,— tfie flesh is boiled on a fire made
of the bones. Part is offered to the god. On the death of
a Scythian king the body was embalmed, and laid upon
a bed, surrounded by spears, in a deep excavation; one
of his wives or concubines, a cupbearer, a groom, a
waiter, a messenger, and several horses M'ere strangled
and deposited in the same receptacle, together with va-
rious utensils and cups of gold. The mouth of the pit
was then covered over, and a high tumulus raised above.
At the ex_piration of a year, the rites were thus con-
cluded :— " They select such servants as they judge most
102
HISTORY OP THE HOE,SE.
useful out of the rest of the king's household, which con-
sists only of native Scythians, for the king is never
served by men bought with money. These officers,
fifty in number, they strangle, and with them fifty beau-
tiful horses. After they have eviscerated the bodies,
they fill them with straw and sew them up. They then
lay two planks of a semicircular form, upon four pieces
of timber (posts) placed at a convenient distance, and
when they have erected a sufficient number of these
frames, they set the horses upon them, first spitting them
witli a strong pole through the body to the neck ; one
semicircle supports the shoulders (or chest) of the horse,
the other his flank, and the legs are suspended in the
air. After this they bridle the horses, and hanging the
reins at full length, upon posts erected for the purpose,
mount one of the fifty young men they have strangled
upon each horse, fixing him in his seat by spitting the
body up the spine with a straight stick, which is received
into a socket in the beam that spits the horse. They
then place these horsemen round the tumulus and de-
part."*
It would appear that the Scythians not only used the
milk of the mare as food, but even obtained a cream
from it, which was in great estimation.
Herodotus, speaking of a tribe of people beyond the
Tanais, describes their horses as most admirably trained.
The men subsist by hunting ; climbing into the trees,
they wait for the approach of the game attended by a
dog and horse taught to lie down, in order that they
may not be discovered. The hunter on the approach of
his game lets fly an arrow, and then instantly mounts,
and gives chace with his dog to the wounded animal.
To conclude our observations on this part of our sub-
ject, we may remark, first, that the earliest domesti-
cation of the horse appears to have occurred in remote
* We learn from Azara, that " when an Indian dies he is
buried with his arms, his clothes, and furniture; and fre-
quently the best horse is slaughtered upon his tomb." He is
speaking more particularly of the Charruas tribe or nation.
HORSE OF ANTIQUITY.
antiquity, and in high Asia, whence probably it was car-
ried westward by the various waves of colonization that
rolled on even to our ultima Thule from those regions ;
and also southwards into the African continent on the
one hand, and Hindostan on the other. Secondly, that
in the most remote times there existed many different
breeds or races, some probably the mingled, others the
pure descendants of originally distinct species. Thirdly,
that in antiquity the horse was used only as an arm of
war, in the chase, or in pompous processions. Fourthly,
that it was connected with the religious rites of many
nations, dedicated and even sacrificed to divinities, and
adopted as the standard of warriors. Who has not heard
of the Saxon standard of the White Horse !
( 104 )
CHAPTER V.
ON THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHAEACTERISTICS
OF THE HORSE.
The form, proportions, muscular powers, and swiftness
of the horse, combined with its spirit, docility, and in-
telligence, expressly fit it for the use of man. It is alike
serviceable for draught and the saddle. One of those
animals wisely and .kindly designed by Providence for
the benefit of the human race, its constitution is such as
to permit its almost universal diffusion over the globe ;
and it is only in the high northern regions, where cold
and the absence of proper food forbid its existence, and
where the lichen-fed rein-deer takes the place at once of
horse and ox, that some breed or race of this noble gift
of the all- wise Creator is not naturalized. From its pri-
maeval nursery it has radiated in all directions ; it has
accompanied man in his wanderings, and like him has
multiplied in regions to which by his agency it has even
recently been introduced. To the industrious inhabitants
of the thronged city — from the humblest to the crowned
monarch — to the agriculturist, to whom belongs his
" modus agri non ita magnus " (his moderate plot of land),
and to the lord of manors — to the sportsman who follows
the chase for pleasure, and to him who scours the plain in
quest of prey and " lives upon his bow," a " mighty hunter
before the Lord "—this noble, beautiful, but too often ill-
treated creature, is either important or essential. It per-
forms the drudgery of toilsome servitude, and swells the
pomp of kings ; it draws the peaceful plough, and dashes
on in the shock of battle amidst withering volleys of
musketry and the clash of gleaming swords. Man owes
PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 105
a deep debt of gratitude to the horse, and is bound to
acknowledge his sense of its value by humanity and
kindness. Nor would we here forget that humble ani-
mal, pre-eminently the drudge of the poor man, the
patient ass. Less powerful, less swift, less beautiful, less
brilliant than the horse, yet its services claim for it far
different treatment from that which too often it meets
with ; but which we fear will, until the lower orders of
society become humanized by judicious education, be still
continued. Differ as do the horse and ass in external
characteristics, voice, and disposition, yet they closely
resemble each other in anatomical structure ; and the
fact of their interbreeding proves their natural affinity.
But the ass is far less adapted constitutionally for exten-
sive geographical diffusion than the horse, and has made
its way by far slower degrees into Western Europe. Even
as late as the time of Queen Elizabeth it was rare in our
country.
A glance at the skeleton of the horse will at once
serve to convince us that the animal is formed at the
same time for strength, and for celerity and ease of mo-
tion ; and it is therefore a complete contrast to that of
the unwieldy elephant. In the latter the neck is short,
and the bones of the limbs bear all perpendicularly on
each other ; while in the horse the neck is elongated,
and the bones of the limbs describe a series of angles.
If we look at the fore limbs we shall see that the scapula
or blade-bone recedes from the prominent shoulder-joint,
falling back obliquely ; its upper apex uniting with the
spinous processes of the anterior dorsal vertebrae to form
the withers : the shoulder-bone (humerus) retreats, form-
ing an angle at the elbow-joint ; the fore arm consists of
a single bone, viz., the ulna and radius consolidated into
one; this is followed by two rows of carpal or wrist
bones (the knees of the horse), amounting to seven in
number. This is succeeded by the long canon-bone,
which is in reality the metatarsus, with two slender
splint-bones attached posteriorly to its upper part. To
this succeed the three phalangal bones— first, the upper
pastern or pastern-bone ; secondly, the lower pastern-
106
HISTOEY OF THE HOBSE.
bone or coronet ; and, thirdly, the coffin-bone. There
are besides a pair of small sesamoid bones behind the
fetlock-joint, and a little bone, called the shuttle-bone,
behind and partially between the coronet and coffin-
bone. With the pastern bones at the fetlock-joint the
canon-bone again makes an angle.
The coffin-bone is enclosed in the hoof, which consists
of thick, firm, rounded horn, having a certain degree of
expansibility ; and underneath, forming a sort of sole, is
PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHARACTElilSTICS. 107
a part called the frog : it is composed of a cushion of
elastic semi-cartilaginous substance, covered with a trian-
gular or arrow-headed elevation of horn. At each step
the frog yields beneath the superincumbent pressure, and
swelling out laterally expands the heels of the hoof.
This frog ought always to touch the ground ,• it does so
naturally ; and where bad shoeing prevents it, the crust
of the hoof bearing all the weight of the body and the
shock of every step as the animal trots along a hard road,
inflammation and disease soon supervene ; and this the
sooner as the cofhn-bone is almost cellular, being multi-
tudinously pierced by canals for the passage of blood-
vessels.
The posterior limbs are modelled on a similar plan.
Now from the angles which the bones of the limbs
make with each other at the joints, the force of every
shock as the animal trots or gallops is greatly broken ;
its very step is light and elastic ; and this not only results
from the obliquity of the bones in question, but particu-
larly from the yielding spring of the pastern, its elasti-
city being provided for by a ligament which passes down
the back of the canon-bone, and along the pastern to the
coffin-bone. Nor is the spring of the elastic frog to be
here overlooked — it also contributes an important share
to the easy progression of the horse, the action of whose
limbs as he moves is or ought to be free, vigorous, and
springy. But, alas, how often do we see the knees
(carpal bones) distorted with over-toil, and the pasterns
rigid and swollen from disease ! We may here observe
that obliquity of shoulder in the horse is connected with
its rapidity. " An upright, shoulder," says Sir C. Bell,
" is the mark of a stumbling horse ; it does not revolve
easily to throw forward the foot. When the scapula is
oblique, the serratus muscle, which passes from the ribs
to its uppermost part, has more power in rolling it."
The vertebral column of the horse consists of seven
cervical (neck) vertebrae — eighteen dorsal, six lumbar,
two sacral, and seventeen caudal vertebrae : the ribs con-
sist of eight true and ten false pairs. The barrel or body
of a horse ought to be capacious, in order that the lungs
108
may be voluminous and have full play. In the male the
withers are higher than in the female, and the neck
thicker and more arched ; the lumbar vertebrae also are
shorter, consequently the flanks are not so extensive,
and the barrel is better ribbed up. The height of a
horse at the shoulders is equal to his length from the
chest to the buttock ; so that, taking away the neck and
tail, the body and limbs may be drawn within the four
lines of a square, touching each line. With respect to
the digestive organs, the stomach is simple, the alimen-
tary canal voluminous, the liver large, but destitute of a
gall-bladder. In the male there are canine teeth in both
jaws ; these are either wanting or small in the mare.
The formula of "the perfect dentition is as follows : —
mcisors — , canmes , molars == 40. ±5e-
6' 11' 6 6
tween the canines and molars there is a vacant space.
The incisors in youth have broad edges channelled out
into a cavity, which by degrees becomes obliterated.
The molars have square crowns, sharply edged with
enamel in a crescent form. Many tricks are played by
horse-dealers to give apparent age to a colt, and thereby
enhance its value ; and, after maturity, to give to the
teeth that appearance which they would have when
the prime of strength and vigour was just attained to.
The following observations from the ' Penny Cyclo-
pBedia' are very excellent. The honest mouth of a
three-year old horse should be thus formed : the central
incisors or nippers are palpably larger than the others,
and have the mark on their upper surface evident and
well defined. They will, however, be lower than the
other teeth. The mark (or depression) in the next pair
of nippers will be nearly worn away, and that in the
corner nippers will begin to wear. At three years and
a half the second nippers will be pushed from their
sockets, and their place gradually supplied by a new
pair ; and at four and a half the corner nippers will be
undergoing the same process. Thus, at four years old,
the central nippers will be fully grown ; the next pair
PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHAEACTEEISTICS. 109
will be up, but will not have attained their full height ;
j and the corner nippers will be small, with their mark
nearly effaced. At five years old the mark will begin
I to be effaced from the central teeth, the next pair will
be fully grown, and the blackness of the mark a little
taken off, and the corner pair will be protruding or
partly grown.
" At this period, or between the fourth and fifth year,
another change will have taken place in the mouth ; the
tushes (canines) will have begun to appear. There will
be two of them in each jaw between the nippers and
grinders, considerably nearer to the former than the
latter, and particularly so in the lower jaw. The use of
these tushes in the domesticated state of the horse is not
evident ; but they were probably designed as weapons of
offence in the wild state of the animal.* Attempts are
too frequently made to hasten the appearance of the
second and the corner tush, and the gum is often deeply
lanced in order to hasten the appearance of the tush.
" At six years old the mark on the central nippers will
be diminished if not obliterated. A depression and a
mark of rather brown hue may remain, but the deep
blackened hole in the centre will no longer be found.
The other incisors will also be somewhat worn, and the
tush fully developed.
" At seven the mark on the next pair of incisors will
have nearly disappeared, and the tush will be rounded at
the point and the edges.
" At eight the mark will have disappeared from all the
incisor teeth, and the tush will be evidently rounder and
blunter.
" At this period another piece of trickery is occasionally
practised. The breeder had, till the animal was five
years old, been endeavouring to give him an older ap-
pearance than his years entitled him to, because in pro-
portion as he approached the period when his powers
were most perfectly developed his value increased ; but
* We regard these merely as sexual distinctions— the
curved tusks of the male babiroussa afford a parallel ex-
ample.
no
HISTOET OF THE HORSE.
now he endeavours to conceal the ravages of age. The
horse is cast, and with a sharp -pointed steel instrument a
little hole is dug on the surface of the corner incisor, to
which a red-hot iron is afterwards applied. An indelible
black mark is thus left on the tooth. Sometimes the
roguery is carried further; the next tooth is slightly-
touched with the engraver and the cautery ; but here the
dishonest dealer generally overreaches himself, for the
form and general appearance of a six-year-old horse can
rarely be given to one who has passed his eighth year.
The eighth year having passed, it is difficult to decide on
the exact age of the horse. The incisors of the upper jaw
are then the best guides. At nine years the mark is said
to be worn away from the central teeth ; at eleven, from
the next pair ; and at twelve, from the corner ones. The
tush likewise becomes shorter and blunter."
As the dentition of the horse is a subject of great im-
portance, the following tabular view of the progressive
changes as they take place will not be unacceptable : —
{There is a false molar, which is soon
shed and never replaced; and the
first and second milk or temporary
grinders are already above the gum.
The two central milk incisors appear.
The third milk grinder rises.
(The second pair of milk incisors are
t cut.
(The third pair of milk incisors are
\ cut.
The fourth grinder appears. This
and the two next are never shed;
and therefore belong to the perma-
nent set. By this time the two cen-
tral pairs of milk incisors are worn
even, and their marks are becoming
faint.
AH the milk incisors are flat, and their
marks are shorter and fainter.
The fifth permanent molar or grinder
rises, and the changing of the teeth
commences by the first milk grinder
being shed, and succeeded by the
permanent one.
When the horse is
foaled
In 7 or 8 days
1st month
In 6 weeks
Between 6 and 9
months
1st year
18 months
Second
year
PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHAEACTERISTICS. Ill
Between 2^ and 3
years
Between 3| and 4
years
4th year
Between 4h and 5
years
5th year
6th year
The central pair of milk incisors drop
out, and the permanent ones appear ;
the sixth permanent grinder begins
to cut the gum.
I The second pair of milk incisors give
j place to their successors, and the
j second milk grinder is shed and
v succeeded.
{The central permanent incisors are
fully developed; the sixth grinder
has risen to a level with the rest;
and the canine teeth begin to appear.
I The third pair of milk incisors are
I shed and succeeded ; the central pair
I are considerably worn, and the se-
/ cond pair begin to exhibit the effects
\ of attrition. The canine teeth are
1 half an inch in length, rounded pro-
I minently without; concave within,
\ and grooved on either side.
The third pair of permanent incisors
are level with the rest ; the canines
are much grown; their outer sur-
face is regularly convex, and the
lateral grooves have disappeared ;
their edges are still sharp, and their
inner surface concave. The third
permanent grinder has displaced its
predecessor of the milk set ; and the
sixth is quite developed.
/The marks in the central permanent
incisors are worn out; yet still a
difference of colour remains in their
centres. In the second pair the marks
have become shorter, broader, and
fainter. The tushes are fully grown,
and have become completely convex
externally, concave internally, and
acute at the extremity ; the second
grinder has risen to its full height,
and the whole range of teeth is
y level.
The mark has disappeared in the two
central pairs of incisors, and is fast
' wearing away in the third. The
tushes begin to be blunt, and to be-
come less concave inside.
{The marks are all obliterated in the
lower incisors, and the tushes have
become rounded every way.
I The central incisors in the upper jaw
I have lost the marks.
! The second pair in the upper jaw
I have also lost the marks.
The third pair are in a similar state ;
the tushes become gradually shorter,
. blunter, and rounder; the incisors
project much more obliquely than
formerly, and their section presents
rather a short than a long oval.
In some horses these changes take place rather more
rapidly than here stated ; in others much more slowly.
In some individuals the tushes have been found blunted
and rounded at eight years old ; in others still sharp and
curved at eighteen. The nature of the food which the
animals receive very considerably influences them in that
respect, the usual dry provender of the stable wearing
away the substance of the teeth much quicker than the
succulent food of the meadow.
With respect to the senses of the horse, they are most
of them considerably acute ; and the more so the more
the animal exists in a state of nature, i
1st, Feeling. — The lips in the horse constitute the
organs of touch ; they are very flexible and muscular,
and serve as instruments of prehension, as in the rhino-
ceros and various other pachydermata. The adroit move-
ments of the lips when employed in search for, or in
gra.sping food, as when collecting into a tuft the grass of
the meadow, or the hay of the stable, or when taking
hold of any object, by way of examination, are very
marked, and add materially to the intelligence and spirit
of the animal's physiognomy.
Vision. — Although the horse is diurnal in its habits,
7th year
8th year
9th year
loth year
1 1th year
PH YSICAI. 7A^5gQ:j TVIQJtoVt Clf^A:CmRISTICS. 1 1 3
the large pupils of the eyes, whic^ are somewhat elon-
gated, are enabled to receive, and the tapetum to reflect,
the scattered rays of light in sufficient quantity to render
vision tolerably perfect during the darkness of night.
From the lateral direction of the eyes, and their distance
apart, the range of vision is very extensive ; and when the
animal with its head down is quietly grazing, it can see
objects with facility in every direction around it. Horses
are known to take alarm at the sudden view of strange or
unusual objects ; shying, as it is termed, is said to be the
result of a defective sight ; perhaps in some cases it is,
but we think it mostly depends upon a startlish tempera-
ment, which requires to be gently dealt with ; the angry
use of the whip every time a horse shies, instead of per-
suasive measures to lead the animal to a quiet examina-
tion of the object of sudden fright, will only confirm the
habit.
Hearing. — The sense of hearing in the horse is ex-
tremely perfect. The external ears are admirably formed
for receiving the vibratory currents of the atmosphere,
and are moveable in all directions independent of each
other. The horse is decidedly susceptible of emotion
from sounds ; we do not mean to say that the sweetest
strain of music would make any impression ; but the cry
of the hounds, the halloo of the hunter, the bugle's blast,
and the sound of the trumpet, inspire the horse with
ardour.
Smell— The horse possesses a highly delicate sense of
smell ; all must have observed the horse to test his food
by the smell ; and it is greatly on the exercise of this
sense that the wild horse depends for ascertaining the
approach of enemies. In South Africa the horses picketed
round the traveller's encampment during the darkness of
night discover by the sense of smell the presence of the
lion lurking near in ambush, or advancing from his lair,
and exhibit signs of great agitation and terror. In the
horse the nostrils are large and moveable, and can be ex-
panded and contracted ; the nasal cavities are very eapa-
cious, and lined with a delicate mucous membrane ; and
it is through them that the horse breathes. In the
114
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
blood-horse, adapted for speed, the nostrils are peculiarly
ample.
Taste. — The sense of taste is perhaps not in as high a
degree of perfection as in some quadrupeds, nevertheless
it is sufficiently acute, and harmonizes with the simple
vegetable fare on which the animal is destined by nature
to subsist. The tongue is smoother than in the ox, and
differs also in various anatomical characters. We do not
know that wild animals ever take food unfitted for them ;
but in a domestic condition, which tends to weaken the in-
stinctive powers, this is sometimes the case. The leaves
of the yew-tree are highly deleterious to the constitution
of the horse ; the latter, however, will, it is said, eat
them with avidity. On the other hand, there are some
vegetables poisonous to other herbivorous quadrupeds
which are to the horse innocuous, and among these is the
water-hemlock.
The voice of the horse varies from a loud neigh to a
gentle whinnying tone ; that of the ass is a startling dis-
cordant bray. The equidse or equine race have a peculiar
conformation of the larynx, modified in the various species,
by means of which the intonations of the voice are pro-
duced ; but as the structure of the larynx cannot be un-
derstood by the general reader without actual inspection,
we shall not attempt a description — which may be found
in works of comparative anatomy.
The progression of the horse in a state of nature is
chiefly confined to two sorts of paces, walking and gallop-
ing—probably the trot, but without doubt the canter, is
the result of education ; gifted with an ample chest and
voluminous lungs, the horse swims well and vigorously,
striking out with its fore limbs very boldly ; but we doubt
whether it ever, except under some strong impulse, takes
voluntarily to the water,* so as to go out of its depth.
We once saw a horse, which was attached between the
shafts of an empty cart, and had suddenly got out of its
* In the flooded prairies and pampas, as we have said,
the horses are obliged to swim ; and when maddened with
long thirst they will rush into the water ; but these cases
are not proofs of the partiality of the horse for the bath.
PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHAEACTEETSTICS. 115
depth in an overflooded river, swim, even thus encum-
bered, with ^reat address, till extricated from its perilous
situation. We are not sure, however, that many horses
could cross a foaming river, carrying a knight in heavy
mail, themselves, moreover, being barded, or accoutred
with defensive armour, as Sir Walter Scott describes the
charger of Sir William of Deloraine to have done : —
" At the first plunge the horse sunk low,
And the water broke over the saddle bow ;
Above the foaming tide I ween,
But half the charger's neck was seen,
For he was barded from counter to tail ;
And the rider was armed complete in mail.
Never heavier man and horse
Stemm'd a midnight torrent's force :
The warrior's very plume, I say,
Was daggled by the dashing spray ;
Yet, through good heart and our Lady's grace,
At length he gained the landing-place."
The horse is delicate in his choice of food, and he pre-
I fers the soft water of the running stream or pond to hard
I water from the well, especially if the latter be very cold.
Instances have occurred in which hard water, cold from
the well, taken by a heated horse, has produced spasm
and death. Most horses will drink ale or porter with
relish, and are evidently refreshed and exhilarated by
their draught.
In its natural state, the horse, as already observed, is
gregarious, and in domestication it exhibits the same
propensity to associate with its fellows, and is evidently
more comfortable when associated with others than
when kept singly. In the field they herd together,
form friendships, gambol with each other, rush to the
hedge to gaze on a strange horse in the road or an ad-
I joining field, and salute him with repeated neighings.
They perform for each other little acts of service, and
! may be often observed quietly nibbling each other's hide
I either for amusement or in order to relieve irritation of
i the skin.
i So decided is the disposition of the horse to contract
116
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
friendships, that when others of its species are not acces-
sible, it will attach itself to animals of a dift'erent species.
Instances of mutual attachment between dogs and horses
are far from being uncommon, and one of the most
celebrated racers of our island, Eclipse, contracted a
close friendship with a sheep. With man himself,
whenever he condescends to permit it, the horse will
become familiar and friendly, and demonstrate towards
him every mark of submissive attachment. There are,
it is true, horses of a sullen obstinate temper, which the
kindest treatment will not conciliate, but these are ex-
ceptions to the general rule ; many horses, we may add,
have their temper spoiled by injudicious or wanton
severity, in which case it is difficult to reclaim them ;
but almost universally where kindness is shown to the
horse, his attachment will be secured. In the tents of
the nomadic Bedoueens the mares with their foals, and
the masters with their families and children, dwell all
together ; intermingled they sleep together ; the master
caresses his favourite mare, the children and the foal play
together, and grow up together, and the utmost confi-
dence and familiarity subsist between them. The Be-
doueen treats his steed as one of his family, and the
feeling is reciprocal. Col. Hamilton Smith, whom we
honour for his noble feeling of humanity, informs us that
the mutual attachment known to subsist between the
northern Germans and their horses may be ascribed in a
great measure to the structure of the farm-houses, where
the heads of cattle and horses are turned towards the
threshing-floor, at the top of which the family usually
resides, and where the kitchen hearth is placed. From
being able to see all that passes, the animals become
familiarised and conversant with the actions of the in-
mates ; and these, in turn, having their domestic animals
constantly under their eyes, learn to consider and treat
them as companions, and not as brutes to be coerced only
by blows. Would that such feelings were characteristic
of the peasantry of our own island.
The quiet and peaceful companionship of horses with
each other does not obtain among the stallions. In a
PHYSICAL^ mm UmAZ CHJEXerEERISTICS . 11 7
'v^ild state they have furious contests for the sultanship
of the troop ; and in a domestic condition stallions, if at
liberty, will fight desperately with each other, realizing
Shakspere's description of Duncan's horses, so finely
embodied by one of our modern sculptors. On the con-
tinent contests of this kind more frequently occur than in
our island, for well-known reasons — but racers on the
i course have been known to seize and lacerate each other.
The war-horses of the ancients, animated by the spirit of
I hostility which incited their respective riders to the
! combat, attacked each other, their natural enmity being
jl encouraged and stimulated. Knowledge of time and
i memory are certainly possessed by the horse, as a thou-
i sand instances will convince. A horse accustomed to
commence or leave off work at a certain time of day well
! knows the respective periods. Who that has travelled by
j a stage-coach (a rare vehicle in the present day) has not
li seen the relay of horses, at the changing place, ready to
take their turn, and waiting evidently aware that the time
i| for them to commence their routine of duty had arrived '?
Well does the farmer's team know the hour of release from
' labour. A horse that has once travelled a road knows it
; again ; he knows the houses by the way side at which
I he has been accustomed to stop, and will, undirected,
1 make up to the door. Taken to a distance from home,
! the horse will return, and even find its way during the
darkest night, with various obstacles to overcome. Often
has the appearance of the horse at the gate, without its
i rider, been the signal of the mischance or death from
I violence or accident of its master while travelling home-
1 ward.
I The following original anecdote was sent to the
* Penny Magazine,' illustrating the love of the horse for
i its " own old home," and the resolution and perseverance
it displays in effecting its return:—" A short distance
below Fort Erie, and about a mile from where the river
Niagara escapes over a barrier of rock from the depths of
Lake Erie, a ferrv has long been established across the
broad and there 'exceedingly rapid river, the distance
I from shore to shore being a little over one-third ot a
118 HISTORY OF THE ROn^Ei^^-^^^'^^^' ^
mile. On the Canada side of the river is the small vil-
lage of Waterloo, and opposite thereto on the United
States side is the large village of Blackrock, distant from
the young and flourishing city of Buffalo two miles. In
completing the Erie Canal a pier or dam was erected up
and down the river, and opposite to Blackrock, at no
great distance from the shore, for the purpose of raising
the' waters of the Niagara to such a height that they
might be made to supply an adjoining section of the Erie
Canal. This pier was, and is, a great obstruction 1o the
ferry-boats ; for previous to its erection passengers em-
barked from terra Jirma, on one side of the river, and
were landed without any difficulty on the other; but
after this dam was constructed it became necessary to
employ two sets of boats, one to navigate the river, the
other the basin, so that all the passengers as well as
goods and luggage had to be landed upon this narrow
wall and reshipped. Shortly after the erection of the
pier-dam a boat propelled by horses was established be-
tween this pier and the Canada shore. The horses
moved upon a circular platform which consequently was
put in motion, to which other machinery was connected'
that acted upon paddle-wheels attached to the sides of
the boat. The boat belonged to persons connected with
the ferry on the American side of the river ; but, owing
to the barrier formed by the pier, the horses employed
on the boat were stabled at night in the village of
Waterloo. I well recollect the first day this boat began
to ply ; for the introduction of a boat of that description
in those days and in such a situation was considered as
an event of some magnitude. The two horses (for the
boat had but two) worked admirably, considering the very
few lessons they had had previous to their introduction
upon the main river. One of the horses employed on
the new ferry-boat had once been a dapple grey, but at
the period 1 am speaking of he had become white. He
was still hale and hearty, for he had a kind and indul-
gent master. The first evening after the horses had been a
short time in the stable to which they were strangers, they
were brought for the purpose of being watered at the river,
PHYSICAL AND MOEAL CHAEACTEEISTICS. 119
the common custom at the place. The attendant was
mounted upon the bay horse — the white one was known
to be so gentle and docile that he was allowed to drink
where he pleased. I happened to be standing close by
in company with my friend W n, the ferry con-
tractor on the Canada side, and had thus an opportunity
of witnessing the whole proceeding of old Grizzle, the
name that the white horse still went by. The moment
he got round the corner of the building, so as to have a
view of his home on the opposite side, he stopped and
^azed intently. He then advanced to the brink of the
river, when he again stopped and looked earnestly across
for a short time, then waded into the water until it had
reached his chest, drank a little, lifted his head, and,
with his lips closed and his eyes fixed upon some object
on the farther shore, remained for a short time perfectly
motionless. Apparently having made up his mind to
the task, he waded farther into the river until the water
reached his ribs, when off he shot into the deep water
without hesitation. The current being so strong and
rapid, the river boiling and turmoiling over a rocky bed,
at the rate of six miles the hour, it was impossible for
the courageous and attached animal to keep a direct
course across, although he breasted the waves heroically
and swam with remarkable vigour. Had he been able
to steer his way directly across, the pier-wall would have
proved an insurmountable barrier. As it was, the cur-
rent forced him down to below where the lower ex-
tremity of this long pier abuts upon an island, the shore
of which being Jow and shelving, he was enabled to
effect a landing with comparative ease. Having gained
terra Jirma, he shook the water from his dripping flanks,
but he did not halt above a few minutes, when he
plunged into the basin and soon regained his native
shore. The distance from where Grizzle took the water
to where he effected a landing on the island was about
seven hundred yards ; but the efforts made to swim di-
rectly across, against the powerful current, must have
rendered the undertaking a much more laborious one.
At the commencement of his voyage his arched neck
120
HISTORY OF THE HOKSE.
and withers were above the surface, but before he reached
the island his head only was visible. He reached his
own stable door — that home for which he had risked so
much — to the no small astonishment of his owner. This
unexpected visit made a favourable impression on his
master, for he was heard to make a vow that if old
Grizzle performed the feat a second time, for the future
he should remain on his own side of the river, and never
be sent to the mill again. Grizzle was sent back to work
the boat the following day, but he embraced the first
opportunity that occurred of escaping, and swam back
the way he had done before. His owner, not being a
person to break the promise he had once made, never
afterwards dispossessed him of the stall he had long been
accustomed to, but treated him with marked kindness
and attention."
A curious circumstance came under the personal no-
tice of Colonel Hamilton Smith, at once proving both
the memory and attachment of the horse. The colonel
had a charger in his possession for two years, which he
left with the army, but which was brought back and sold
in London. About three years afterwards the colonel
chanced to travel up to town, and at a relay, on getting
out of the mail, the off-wheel horse attracted his atten-
tion ; on going near to examine it with more care he
found the animal recognizing him, and testifying its satis-
faction by rubbing its head against him, and making
every moment a little stamp with its fore feet, to the sur-
prise of the coachman, who asked if the horse was not
an old acquaintance. It was, — it was his own old
charger.
A lady, remarkable for benevolence to the brute crea-
tion, observed from her garden-gate one day a miserable
horse, with the shoulder raw and bleeding, attempting
to graze on an open spot adjacent : having, by means of
some bread, coaxed the poor animal to the gate, she then
managed, with some assistance, to cover the wound with
adhesive plaster spread on a piece of soft leather. The
man to whom the animal belonged (one of those ignorant
and careless beings who are indifferent to the sufferings
PHYSICAL AND MOEAL CHAEACTEEISTICS. 121
Df any but themselves) shortly afterwards led the horse
iway. The next day, however, the horse made his ap-
pearance again at the gate, over which he put his head
md gently neighed. On looking at him it was found
that the plaster was removed, either by the animal's
master or by the rubbing of the ill-made collar in which
be worked. The plaster was renewed. The third day
[le appeared again, requiring the same attention, which
he solicited in a similar manner. After this the plaster
was allowed to remain, and the horse recovered ; but
ever after, whenever it saw its benefactress, it would im-
mediately approach her, and by voice and action testify
its sense of her kindness and notice. This anecdote, for
the truth of which we can personally testify, proves how
sensible the horse is of humane treatment, and how grate-
ful for benefits bestowed. Considerate treatment and
every care are due to an animal from whose services
man derives such important benefits ; but too often does
man forget that he has a duty to perform, not only
towards his fellow-man, but towards those domestic ani-
mals which Providence has intrusted to him for his
welfare.
We know nothing that shows the docility of the horse
more than the feats it is taught to perform in the " spec-
tacles " of the modern circus. To lie down and rise at
command, to perform various tricks at given signals, to
feign death, to take its part as an actor in mimic com-
bats, to endure with patience the bizarre actions of the
laugh-exciting buffoon, are among the lessons which it is
taught, and which it admirably executes. In docility
there is no comparison between the horse and the ass ;
for though with kind treatment the latter is more tract-
able than is generally supposed, still its disposition is not
so pliable, nor its tractability so complete, as that of the
horse ; and we doubt whether it could be brought to
supply the place of that animal in the exhibitions alluded
to. It has not the mercurial fire and mettle of the horse,
but is more staid and sober— at least in our climate : m-
deed from old times its stubbornness of disposition has
been noted, in contrast with the generous temper of the
122
H4ST0RY OF THE HORSE.
horse ; though it must be confessed that among horses
there are many exceptions to the rule, and occasionally
we meet with animals exceedingly vicious and obstinate ;
but in most cases they have been spoiled when young by
improper severity.
A curious instance of the cunning and memory dis-
played by the horse is exemplified in the following anec-
dote from the ' Plain Englishman.' The late General
Pater, of the East India service, was a remarkably fat
man : while stationed at Madras he purchased a charger,
which after a short trial all at once betook itself to a
trick of lying down whenever the general prepared to
get upon his back. Every expedient was tried without
success to cure him of the trick ; and the laugh was so
much indulged against the general's corpulency that he
found it convenient to dispose of his horse to a young
officer quitting the settlement for a distant station up the
country. Upwards of two years had subsequently
elapsed when, in the execution of his official duties,
General Pater left Madras to inspect one of the frontier
cantonments. He travelled, as is the usual custom in
India, in his palankeen (a covered couch, carried on
men's shoulders). The morning after his arrival at the
station the troops were drawn out ; and as he had brought
no horses, it was proper to provide for his being suitably
mounted, though it was not easy to find a charger equal
to his weight. At length an officer resigned to him a
powerful horse for the occasion, which was brought out
duly caparisoned in front of the line. The general came
forth from his tent and proceeded to mount, but the in-
stant the horse saw him advance he flung himself flat
upon the sand, and neither blows nor entreaties could
induce him to rise. It was the general's old charger,
who from the moment of quitting his service had never
once practised the artifice until this second meeting.
The general, who was an exceedingly good-humoured
man, joined heartily in the universal shout that ran
through the whole line on witnessing this ludicrous
aftair.
The following instance of the memory and caution of
PHYSICAL AND MOKAL CHARACTEEISTICS. 123
a horse which narrowly escaped being killed by the fall
of a tree is not uninteresting. " During my residence,'^
says the writer, " on the head-waters of the Susquehanna,
I owned a small American horse of the name of Charlie,
that was remarkable for his attachment to my own per-
son, as well as for his general good qualities. He was a
great favourite with all the family ; and being a favourite
he was frequently indulged with less work and more to
eat than any of the other horses on the farm. At a short
distance from the dwelling-house was a small but luxu-
riant pasture, where during the summer Charlie was
often permitted to graze. When this pasture had been
originally reclaimed from its wild-forest state, about ten
years previous to the period of which I am speaking,
four or five large trees, of the sugar-maple species, had
been left standing when the rest were cut down, and
means had afterwards been found to prevent their being
scorched by the fire at the time the rest of the timber
had been consumed. Though remarkably fine trees of
their kind, they were however no great ornament, their
stems being long and bare, their heads small, and by no
|means full of leaves — the case generally with trees that
iiiave grown in close contact with each other in the Ame-
rican forests : but if they were no ornament, they might
5erve as shade-trees. Beneath one of these trees Charlie
jised to seek shelter, as well from the heat of the meri-
|iian sun as from the severe thunder-gusts that occa-
sionally ravage that part of the country. On an occasion
of this sort Charlie had taken his stand close to his
favourite tree, his tail actually pressing against it, his
lead and body in an exact line with the wind, appa-
rently understanding the most advantageous position to
escape the violence of the storm, and quite at home, as
t were, for he had stood in the same place some scores
)f times. The storm came on, and raged with such vio-
ence that the tree under which the horse had sought
helter was literally torn up by the roots. I happened
0 be standing at a window, from which 1 witnessed the
vhole scene. The moment Cliarlic iieard the roots
idving way behind him, that is on the contrary side of
124
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
the tree from where he stood, and probably feeling the
uprooted tree pressing against his tail, he sprang for-
ward and barely cleared the ground upon which at the
next moment the top of the tree fell with such a force
that the crash was tremendous, for every limb and branch
were actually riven asunder. I have many a time seen
horses alarmed, nay, exceedingly frightened, but never ,
in my life did I witness anything of the sort that bore the
slightest comparison to Charlie's extreme terror ; and yet
Charlie on ordinary occasions was by no means a coward.
He galloped, he reared his mane and tossed his head, he
stopped short and snorted wildly, then darted oif at the
top of his speed in a contrary direction, and then as sud-
denly stopped and set oif in another, until long after the
storm had considerably abated ; and it was not until the
lapse of some hours that he ventured to reconnoitre — but
that at a considerable distance — the scene of his narrow
escape. For that day at least his appetite was com-
pletely spoiled ; for he never offered to stoop his head to
the ground while daylight continued. The next day his
apprehension seemed somewhat abated ; but his curiosity
had been excited to such a pitch that he kept pacing
from place to place, never failing to halt as he passed
within a moderate distance of the prostrate tree, gazing
thereat in utter bewilderment, as if wholly unable to
comprehend the scene he had witnessed the preceding
day. After this occurrence took place I kept this
favourite horse several years, and during the summer
months he usually enjoyed the benefit of his old pas-
ture ; but it was quite clear he never forgot on any occa-
sion the narrow escape he had had ; for neither the burn-
ing rays of the noontide summer sun, nor the furious
raging of the thunder-storm, could compel Charlie to
seek shelter under one of the trees that still remained
standing in his small pasture."
Some horses are naturally far more timid than others,
and take alarm at objects which in others produce no
fear. We have seen horses dreadfully agitated during a
severe thunder-storm ; while, on the contrary, we have
observed some apparently indifferent to the flashes and
PHYSICAL AND MOHAL CHARACTERISTICS. 125
roar. Some horses will remain unmoved during the
raging battle, in the midst of the clash of glittering arms
and the din of the cannon, while others tremble with
apprehension, and even groan with terror. In cases
where horses are in stables on fire, fear appears to pa-
ralyze their powers, so that it is very difficult to rescue
them, unless they be first completely blindfolded, which
should always be promptly done.
Occasionally horses exhibit a decided and unaccount-
able dislike towards different objects, several curious in-
stances of which are related by Professor Rodet, in the
' Veterinarian :' — " In 1806, during the campaign of Aus-
terlitz, a Piedmontese officer possessed a beautiful and
in other respects a most serviceable mare, but which one
peculiarity rendered at times exceedingly dangerous for
the saddle : she had a decided aversion to paper, which
she immediately recognized the moment she saw it, and
even in the dark, if one or two leaves were rubbed toge-
ther. The eftect produced by the sight or sound of it
was so prompt and so violent, that in many cases she
unhorsed her rider ; and in one case, his foot being en-
tangled in the stirrup, she dragged him a considerable
way over a stony road. In other respects this mare
had not the slightest fear of objects that would terrify
most horses. She regarded not the music of the band,
the whistling of the balls, the roaring of the cannon, the
fire of the bivouacs, or the glittering of arms. The con-
fusion and noise of an engagement made no impression
upon her ; the sight of no other white object aiTected
her ; no other sound was regarded ; the view or the rust-
ling of paper alone roused her to madness. All possible
means were employed to cure her of this extraordinary
; aberration, but without success ; and her master was at
I length compelled to sell her, as his life was in continual
danger."
A mare belonged to the Guard-Royal from 1816 to
1821. She was perfectly manageable, and betrayed no
s antipathy to the human being nor to other animals, nor
I to horses, except they were of a light grey colour ; but
the moment she saw a grey horse she rushed upon it
G
126
HISTOEY OF THE HORSE.
and attacked it with the greatest fury. It was the same
at all times and everywhere. She was all that could be
wished on the parade, on the route, in action, and in the
stable ; but such was her hatred towards grey or white
horses, that it was dangerous to place them in the same
stable with her, at whatever distance. If she once
caught a glimpse of one, whether horse or mare, she
rested not until she had thrown her rider, or broken her
halter, and then she rushed on it with the greatest fury
and bit it in a thousand places. She generally, however,
seized the animal by the head or throat, and held it so
fast, that she would suffocate it if it were not promptly
released from her bite. As she grew old (for she was
eighteen years old in 1821) this mania was not quite
removed, but it was somewhat weakened. No other
body of a white colour appeared to make the least im-
pression on her,"
A mare belonging to the fii'th squadron of hussars
feared, on the contrary, all white inanimate objects, such
as white mantles or coats, even the sleeves of shirts and
chemises too much displayed, and particularly white
plumes. When any of these white bodies, and espe-
cially in motion, were suddenly perceived, if they were
of any magnitude and their motion was rapid, she was in
a dreadful fright, and strove to escape ; but if they were
of no great size, and moved more gently, she rushed fu-
riously upon them, struck at them with her fore feet, and
endeavoured to tear them with her teeth. No other
colours produced the slightest effect upon her, nor did
the appearance, however sudden, of white horses, or
dogs of the same colour ; but if a white plume waved, or
a white sheet of paper floated by her, her fear or rage
was ungovernable."
Professor Rodet regards these as cases of true mono-
mania. It is remarkable that in each instance the sub-
ject of this singular frenzy was a mare.
We have often observed the care and caution of horses
accustomed to rugged and hilly roads, in traversing the
difficult and steep descents, with a heavy pressure on the
shoulders. In Derbyshire, for example, we have repeat-
PHYSICAL AND MOUAL CHAKACTERISTICS. 127
edly seen a single stout horse bring a heavy cart-load of
coal down the long and dreadfully steep hill which de-
scends into Buxton, on the old Macclesfield road, and
that without any aid or directions from the carter — a feat
which a cart-horse accustomed only to the smooth level
roads around the metropolis would not perhaps be able
to accomplish.
Lord Brougham, in his ' Dissertations' on subjects of
I science, speaking of the intelligence of animals, says that
i he knew a pony that used both to open the latch of the
stable-door, and also raise the lid of the corn-chest ; and
he notices the instance of a horse opening the wicket-
gate of a field by pressing down the upright bar, as a
man would do, — actions, he observes, which the animals
must have learnt from observation, as it is very unlikely
that they were taught. We have known horses act pre-
cisely in the same manner ; and one in particular, a
Welsh pony, which would disengage itself from the
i head-stall and raise the latch of the stable-door, in order
to escape into the fields, and rejoin its companions. Other
p domestic animals will perform the same feat. A cat in
i our possession was accustomed to leap up and open the
i latch of a door, when she wished to leave the house. It
1 has been observed that in Alpine countries horses accus-
tomed to the difficult passes of the mountains seldom
make a false step, or trust themselves on a spot where
the footing is insecure. In the same way horses accus-
tomed to a marshy country may be safely trusted cross-
jing bogs and roads, as they rarely venture upon any spot
where they may be in danger of being mired. Sir Wal-
ter Scott says of Watt Tinlinn, in the ' Lay of the Last
jMinstrel —
" He led a small and shaggy nag,
That through a bog from hag to hag *
Could bound like any Bilhope stag."
The fact is, that the horse, like the dog, accommodates
tself to the circumstances in which it is placed, and ac-
i * Hag, the broken tufted ground in a bog where firm
boting may be expected.
G 2
128
HISTORY OF THE HOIISB. '^^'i'ti ^
quires therefrom habits and feelings in accordance with
the mode of life and all the multitudinous influences to
which it is subjected. Of all our domestic quadrupeds,
its physical and moral nature is only less pliable than
that of the dog. In stature there is almost as great a
variety among domestic horses as among dogs. They
vary from three feet to seventeen or even eighteen hands
in height, and instances of even greater stature have
occurred. Mr. Bell, in his excellent work on ' British
Quadrupeds,' gives us a short account of a very small
pony which came under his notice. He says : — " I was
some time since passing rather late in the evening through
one of the streets in the immediate neighbourhood of
London, and observed two men walking with a beautiful
little pony trotting by their side, without either bridle or
halter. Presently one of the men, who seemed on the
best possible terms with his little steed, passed his arm
round its body, and, lifting it with ease from the ground,
carried it for some distance ; then, setting it down, he
threw one leg over its back, and half rode half walked,
with his feet touching the ground on either side. After
a time he again carried the horse for a short distance,
and at length, coming to a large gin-shop, carried it up the
steps, and disappeared with it at the door. Whether he
made it partake of his cheer we know not." In our me-
morandum-book we have the measurements of a very small
pony which we examined at the museum of the Zoologi-
cal Society, then in Bruton-street, June 1, 1832. Height
at the shoulder, thirty-four inches ; length from between
the ears to the insertion of the tail, following the curves
of the neck and back, four feet two inches. It is very
probable that it was the same pony seen by Mr. Bell.
It was docile and gentle, but lively and in good health.
In the museum of the Zoological Society is the speci-
men of a most minute pony, presented by his Majesty
George IV. It was, however, evidently unhealthy, and
died before attaining its full stature.
Of the natural age to which the wild horse attains we
have no information. In a domestic condition the horse
lives to about thirty, sometimes even to forty years ; but
PHYSICAE ANI> MOEAL CHAEACTEHISTICS.
129
from over-work and ill-usage few survive the age of six-
teen or eighteen ; and numbers are destroyed even before
they have numbered ten or twelve years.
The mare is capable of breeding between two and
three years old, but is not really mature till four. The
period of gestation averages eleven months ; or. accord-
ing to Sir E. Home, 31 1 days ; but in one instance out
of a hundred and two he found the time extended to
394 days ; giving a latitude of 83 days. The young of
both sexes, after birth, take the name of foal ; but as
distinguishing names the male is termed a colt, the
female a filly, — and these terms they bear to the age of
about four years and af half, when the appearance of the
corner pair of incisors proclaims, in the language of the
turf, that the horse shall no longer be termed a colt, nor
the mare a filly. The mare has two teats.
In our history of the Dog we stated that the male
parent of the first litter produced an influence upon the
external form and characters of succeeding litters by
other fathers. We believe this mysterious law to obtain
throughout the mammalia more extensively than has been
suspected. That it does so in the instance of the horse
has been proved to demonstration, Mr. Bell well ob-
serves, that "the importance of the influence of the
sire in breeding horses is in no point more clearly proved
than by the fact that the progeny of the most celebrated
(race) horses have generally sustained the reputation of
their sires : thus the descendants of Eclipse numbered no
less than three hundred and sixty-four winners, and those
of Matcher, Highflier, and other celebrated horses have
partaken of the same inherited excellence." But the
remarkable and demonstrative proof to which we would
here advert, is based upon the following circumstances,
detailed in letters of the late Earl of Morton, and pub-
lished in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for the year
1821. It would appear that the Earl of Morton was
anxious to procure a mule breed between the horse and
the quagga, and to this end made selection of a splendid
mare, of seven-eighths of pure Arab blood, and a fine
male quagga. The produce was a female hybrid, or
130
HISTOEY OF THE HORSE.
mule, bearing in form and striped markings decided
tracts of her quagga size : the head was longer and larger,
and the neck shorter and less arched, than in the blood-
horse ; the form of the croup was more asinine, and the
tail scantily furnished ; the forehead, neck, and withers,
and also the arm and hock, had striped markings ; a black
line ran along the back, and the mane was thin and wiry :
the hybrid characters were in fact evident. The next
oiFspring of this mare was a filly, by a black Arabian
horse. The filly was bay, with a short, stiff, upright
mane, like that of the quagga; the forehead, neck,
shoulders, and limbs had the decided stripes of the
quagga, and a black line ran down the spine. The tail
was full, and in other respects the form equine : the
blood was nineteen-twentieths thorough Arab, yet with
quagga markings and mane. Again, by the same black
Arab, this mare had a colt of a bay colour with the same
markings, but the mane, instead of being short, was long,
but yet so stiff and wiry as to arch on one side without
touching the sides of the neck. Both the colt and the
filly were elegant spirited animals, fieet and vigorous.
The portraits of the hybrid and the filly and colt are
deposited in the Royal, College of Surgeons.
Colonel Hamilton Smith, in his remarks on the facts
above detailed, hazards an opinion which has sometimes
crossed our minds, viz., that the quagga is itself of hybrid
origin ; and his argument is, that both the mule and the
true horses afterwards produced exhibited indications of
a more decided system of variegated painting than w^e see
on the quagga, with superadded cross-bars on the joints,
which are wanting in that animal ; from which he infers
that from the *' disturbing action of the regular filiation"
of the quaggy progeny, the indications of a remote descent
from a more thoroughly hippotigrine stock, previously
latent, broke out with renewed distinctness. This, how-
ever, is a theory on which we would not lay too much
stress ; and which many naturalists would reject as un-
tenable. It is, nevertheless, worth consideration.
We have said that the horse is herbivorous ; but like
some other herbivorous animals, the horse, under certain
PHYSICAL AND MOEAL CHAEACTTSEISTICS. 131
circumstances, will take animal food. In some parts of
Arabia flesh raw as well as boiled is given to the horses,
with fragments of their owner's meals ; and an inhabitant
of Hamah assured Burckhardt that " he had often given
his horses roasted meat, before the commencement of a
fatiguing journey, that they might be the better able to
endure it; and the same person, fearing lest the governor
should take from him his favourite horse, fed him for a
fortnight exclusively upon roasted pork, which so excited
its spirit and mettle that it became absolutely unmanage-
able, and no longer an object of desire to the governor."
We have heard of the efficacy of a beef-steak tied
round the bit, and placed in the mouth of a horse about
to undergo a trial of speed and endurance ; a plan which
the celebrated Turpin is said to have adopted with his
black mare, on which he rode from London to York in an
almost incredible short' space of time.
In the ' Edinburgh Journal of Natural History,' we
find the following passage : — " We are assured by Mr.
Youatt that in Auvergne fat soups are given to cattle,
especially when sick or enfeebled, for the purpose of in-
vigorating them. The same practice is observed in some
parts of North America, where the country people mix,
in winter, fat broth with the vegetables given to their
cattle, in order to render them more capable of resisting
the severity of the weather. These broths have been
long considered efficacious by the veterinary practitioners
of our own country in restoring horses which have been
enfeebled through long illness. It is said by Peall to be
a common practice in some parts of India to mix animal
substances with the grain given to feeble horses, and to
boil the mixture into a sort of paste, which soon brings
them into good condition, and restores their vigour.
Pallas tells us that the Russian boors make use of the
dried flesh of the Hamster reduced to powder, and mixed
with oats ; and that this occasions their horses to acquire
a sudden and extraordinary degree of embonpoint. An-
derson relates, in his ' History of Iceland,' that the in-
habitants feed their horses with dried fishes when the
cold is very intense, and that these animals are extremely
.132 Hi«TOIlY OF THE HOBSE.
visforous, though small. We also know that in the Feroe
Islands, the Orkneys, the Western Islands, and in Nor-
way, where the climate is still very cold, this practice is
also adopted ; and it is not uncommon in some very warm
countries, as in the kingdom of Maskat in Arabia Felix,
near the Straits of Ormuz, one of the most fertile parts of
Arabia, fish and other animal substances are there given
to the horses in the cold season, as well as in times of
scarcity."
It is a remarkable fact that the reindeer in Lapland
devours the lemming, a small migratory rodent, which
often swarms in myriads in the north ; and, according to
Franklin, the North American reindeer are accustomed
to gnaw their fallen antlers, and to devour mice. May
not a portion of animal diet in the ice-bound regions ap-
proximating to the Polar circle be essential as a stimulus
to the system of the moss-feeding reindeer ? We know
how essential oily animal food is to the natives, and how
bountifully Providence has su[)plied it.*
We have already described the hoofs of the solidungu-
lous horse, which, in the present day, we are accustomed
to see defended by iron shoes — a practice now almost
universal, but which does not appear to have been followed
in remote antiquity. In the vast plains and sandy deserts
of Central Asia the undefended hoof would be found suf-
ficiently firm and hard for the nature of the ground. To
this fact Isaiah seems to allude in the following passage —
" Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint," ch. v.,
V, 28 ; and Jeremiah also follows the same idea, when he
refers to the "noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his
strong horses," ch. xlvii., v. 3.
A note by the learned editor of the ' Pictorial Bible '
in reference to the passage in Isaiah, contains the follow-
ing commentary — "The allusion to the hardness of the
horses' hoofs probably arises from the iact that the ancients
did not shoe their horses by nailing iron-plates to the
bottom of the hoof. There were, indeed, shoes of leather,
gold, and silver ; but these encased the whole hoof, and
were bound or tied on, being oi)ly used on particular occa-
sions, and very rarely. Hence the hardness of the hoofs
PHYSICAL AND MOEAL CHARACTEPJSTICS. 133
was a very important consideration ; and Xenophon lays
much stress on this point, observing that the good hoof is
hard, hollow, and, when struck on the ground, sounds
like a cymbal. He also suggests means by which the
hoofs may be hardened. The necessity of such hard hoofs
in war-horses did not escape Homer, who continually ap-
plies to them the epithet ' brazen-hoofed.' "
Among the Romans the practice of shoeing horses does
not seem to have been in vogue till the time of Julius
Csesar. Nero is said to have had his horses shod with
plates of silver — and his second wife, the profligate Pop-
paea, her mules shod with gold. These perhaps encased
the hoof. — Yet Suetonius in his life of Caligula, notices
iron horse-shoes fastened with nails.
The bit and bridle are of great antiquity (see Psalm
xxxii., V. 9) ; nevertheless, some nations of antiquity ap-
pear neither to have used them, nor yet the saddle or
stirrups. The Numidians, we learn, always rode without
a saddle, and sometimes without bridles, though we con-
fess we are at a loss to know how they could have guided
their horses in the melee of battle.
With regard to the stirrup, it was not known to the
ancient Greeks and Romans ; nor, if we are to judge
from bas-reliefs, to the Persians, Medes, Dacians, &c. ;
indeed it is asserted by some not to have been adopted
previously to the eleventh century : but Colonel H. Smith
considers it to have been in use in Saxon England as early
as the ninth, and attributes its invention to the Spanish
Saracens. Its adoption was undoubtedly very gradual ;
nor is its use now perhaps universal.
The difficulty of a man in armour mounting his steed
without stirrups may be easily conceived, and various
awkward plans were adopted to remedy the inconvenience.
It is related that Sapor, King of Persia, forced the Roman
Emperor Valerian, his captive, to kneel and serve as a
stepping-stone when he mounted his horse; and this
mode of getting on horseback prevailed among the
Oriental potentates.
CHAPTER VI.
OK THE PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS OF THE HORSE.
Spread in modern days over the globe, those regions ex-
cepted where want of food prohibits its introduction (the
dreary realms of the Arctic Circle, for example), the horse
presents us with great variations in stature, contour, and
colour. We have the ponderous, gigantic cart-horse, the
powerful hunter, the light sinewy racer, and the dwarf
pony — all being characterized by their own points of
beauty and excellence. With respect to colours we may
enumerate black, chesnut, brown, pure bay, sorrel, dun
with the black dorsal strip, gi'ey, white, and piebald. In
the black, bay, and grey breeds, circular dapples of a
darker tint are usually more or less conspicuous ; in black
horses, still blacker circles are often easily distinguishable ;
and in grey horses every one must have noticed the dis-
position of the mottled markings. In the dun with the
dorsal stripe, commonly called the eel-back dun, these
circular dapples are never to be observed ; and from this
circumstance, and a tendency towards stripes on the limbs,
we might refer it to a distinct origin ; or to a stock in-
fluenced by some ancient cross with one of the wild asses,
of which the characters every now and then manifest
themselves in the mixed descendants ; but against this
latter idea the peculiar length and fullness of the mane
and tail militates, while, on the other hand, few naturalists
will be disposed to allow of more than one origin for the
domestic races of the horse, notwithstanding their diffe-
rence. It is a subject on which we have no positive data,
and it is useless to theorize in the midst of uncertainty.
Varieties of colour may prove the existence of long esta-
blished breeds, but are no test of distinct specific origins.
PEINCIPAL MODEEN BREEDS.
135
The Arabian Horse. — As the noblest among the noble
— as that which has beyond any other breed contributed
to the perfection of the English racer— the horse of the
Bedoueen is that to which we first turn our attention.
We think we have sufficiently demonstrated that in
early antiquity the nomades of Arabia did not possess the
horse — their riches were camels, oxen, asses, sheep, and
goats. Esau was a hunter ; we may to this list therefore
add the dog, which would be necessary for guarding the
flocks and herds from the attacks of ferocious animals.
Whence did Arabia then obtain its horses ? Are they
descended from the stock of Egypt, with which Solomon,
disregarding the Mosaic injunction, replenished his sta-
bles— or were they introduced by the Scythic tribes from
High Asia, who at various times forced their way with
horses and chariots, giving origin to the modern coursers
of the desert V Perhaps from various sources — from Par-
thia. Media, Persia, and Egypt ; whence also Numidia,
Nubia, and Northern Africa generally received their
splendid steeds. It is true that in Arabia the horse has
never superseded the camel ; and some have even asserted
that at the date of the Hejira (the flight of Mohammed
to Medina, a.d, 622) but few horses existed in that
country : an assertion in some measure countenanced by
Burckhardt, who affirms that he is not by any means
under the true estimate when he calculates the number of
horses in Arabia, as bounded by Syria and the Euphrates,
at fifty thousand — a number much inferior to what the
same extent of ground would furnish in any other part of
Asia or Europe. We believe that camels are exclusively
used by the Arabs along the borders of the Red Sea ;
whereas the contrary obtains among the Bedoueen marau-
ders. In the Arabian romance of Antar (translated by
Mr. Terrick ELamilton in 1819), who was a real person-
age, and lived about the beginning of the sixth century,
we have full proof of the equestrian habits of the wild
Arabs in the vivid oriental pictures of horses and battles
of horsemen which that work contains.* Let it also be
* See ' Penny Magazine ' for 1837, p. 55, for a description
of this singular romance.
136
HISTORY ..OF THE HOUSE.
remembered that, after the destruction of Jerusalem, the '■
Jews retired " in great numbers to Arabia, where, owing
to the loose connexion and the jealousy of the aboriginai
tribes, they gained considerable power. Many of then*
adopted the fierce manners of the desert, chose a waur
dering life, connected with all its dangers and adventurous
strife ; and a poem composed by a Jewish Bedoueen hap
been preserved in the Hammasa, and breathes the tru^
spirit of Arabian chivalry." The Bedoueen adventurers
were horsemen ; they were horsemen before the time oi
Mohammed, and under his banner they swept like a tor-
rent over the adjacent nations, making converts by the
spear and sword. In proof of the early possession ol
horses by the Arabs, Colonel Hamilton Smith says-^
" We appeal to Hirtius (de Bello Alex.), where Caesar
is recorded to have sent to an Arabian, Regulus, then
styled Malchus, that is Melek, for a reinforcement ol
cavalry : later, but still before the Hejira, we hear of ai
war of forty years' duration, between the tribes of Abs
and Dobian, which arose out of a dispute on account of a ^
race between two horses named Dahes and Ghabra."
The Arabs of the present day have three breeds of
horses, viz., the Attechi, the Kadishi, and the Koheili or
Kohlani. The two former are of no value, but are used
for servile drudgery. The Kohlani is the noble race,
divided into five renowned stocks, which are again divided
into numerous ramifications, and are asserted by some
Arabs to be derived from five favourite and splendid
mares of the stud of Mohammed. There are, however,
Arabs who, on the contrary, contend for other deriva-
tions, and carry up the genealogy of some to the days of
Solomon. Dissentient voices, again, from this theory
refer the choicest breeds to the mares and stallions of an-
cient nomadic chiefs, whose names, with those of their
horses, are still in the mouths of the Arabs. Be this as
it may, the genealogy of many of the mares of noblest
blood is traced back by well-attested documents for several
hundred years.
It must be remembered that Arabs ride only marcs ;
and from this circumstance, connected with the aliection
PBTNeiPAL MODEHN BREEDS.
137
which subsists between the rider and his steed, which is
regarded as one of his family, together with the pride he
takes in her qualities and long line of noble ancestry, it is
very difficult to obtain one by purchase : indeed, to part
with a mare to a stranger is deemed a crime. Stallions
are far more easily procured, and sell at a lower rate,
though of the highest strain. Of these many are pur-
chased by the Turks, and many are sold at Basrah and
Baghdad for the Indian market.
The price of an Arab horse in the years J810 — 1816,
according to Burckhardt, varied from 10/. to 120Z. ; but
since then the prices have risen.* The Arabs them-
selves for a celebrated mare, not to be sold to strangers,
t)ften give as much as 200/. The sum of 500/. has even
been given, which, considering the value of money in
Arabia and Syria, is enormous. Burckhardt mentions a
sheikh who had a mare of great celebrity, for the half
share in the ownership of which he paid 400/. f
* This statement does not agree with that of Colonel H.
Smith, who informs us that in the beginning of the last
century, the stallions of the following studs were of far
higher value. Those of the Oel-Nagdi, reared in the
vicinity of Bussora, are valued at 8000 piastres— a mare
of this stud sold at Acre for 15,000 piastres. The piastre
is worth about two francs, or twenty-pence. The Giielfe,
from Yemen, about 4000 piastres ; the Saklawye, bred in
the Eastern Desert, the same. The Oel-Mefki, of the dis-
trict of Damascus, 3000 piastres. The Oel-Sabi about 2000
piastres. The Oel-Tredi, 900 or 1000 piastres. Besides
these celebrated studs, there are the Monaki and Shaduhi
of Yemen, the breeds of the Roswallas, of the tribe of
Benilam, and the Moualis, south of Palmyra, &c., of high
renown. Besides these there are the renowned Nedschdis,
bred in the province of that name, and subdivided into
about five great studs, all of high value.
t This double and sometimes treble ownership is very
curious. We learn that " a mare of high breed is seldom
sold without the seller reserving the half or two thirds of
her. If he sells half, the buyer takes the mare, and is
obliged to let the seller Uke the mare's next filly, or the
-buyer may keep the filly and retui'u the mare. If the Arab
138
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
On the birth of a foal of noble breed, it is customary
for the owner to call together credible witnesses, and to
draw up an account of the foal's markings, with the
name of the sire and dam, which is duly attested. This
certificate of noble parentage (the nobility of the parents
having been in their infancy similarly attested, and
generally well known) is often put into a little leathern
pouch and hung round the neck of the foal, ready to be
produced if needed.
The far-famed Arab horse is of rather small stature,
seldom exceeding fourteen hands and a half or three-
quarters ; of a slim and sinewy make, with the head
beautifully set on, and full of fire and animation. The
eyes are large, bright, and open ; the forehead short and
square, wide between the ears, which are small and
sharp ; the chaftVon is concave ; the muzzle short and
slender, with large open nostrils ; the neck is exquisitely
arched ; the chest of moderate breadth in front, with the
humeral joint prominent, and the shoulders high and
falling back ; the barrel is of moderate volume, ample
behind the set-on of the fore limbs, giving room for the
play of the lungs ; the tail springs high from the croup,
and, like the mane, is flowing; the limbs are slender,
well knit at the joints, with oblique elastic pasterns and
small hard hoofs ; the hinder limbs are well bent ; the
muscles are all decidedly marked, and the skin, which
is fine, is replete with a network of rising veins. Every
action is free, firm, and easy ; and though the speed of
the Arab steed may not equal that of a first-rate British
has sold but one-third of the mare, the purchaser takes her
home, but must give the seller the fillies of two years, or
else one of them and the mare. The fillies of all subse-
quent years belong to the buyer, as well as all the male
colts produced on the first or any following year. It thus
happens that most of the Arab mares are the joint property
of two or three persons, or even of half-a-dozen, if the price
of the mare be very high. A mare is sometimes sold on
the remarkable condition that all the booty obtained by the
man who rides her shall be shared between him and the
seller." — Phys. Hist. Palest.
PEINCirAL MODEEN BREEDS. 139
racer, at least of times gone by, the power of endurance
is very great, and the strength sustained on a scanty fare.
Such is the Arab steed, so justly celebrated.
In the treatment of his steed the Arab differs widely
from the English groom. The foals are fed on camel's-
milk, and may be seen trotting by the side of their tall
foster-mothers, to whom they become strongly attached,
and the feeling is returned: They form part and par-
cel of the Bedoueen's family, — associate familiarly with
the inmates of the tent, learn to come when called by their
name, and acquire the intelligence and docility of a dog.
When the age of two years is attained, the colt is mounted
for real service, and seldom is the saddle off its back. The
food consists of five or six pounds of beans or barley,
with a small portion of chopped straw, given morning
and evening, with a little water, and occasionally a short
feed of dates and camel's milk, or green herbage. All
the year, summer and winter, is the animal exposed to
the air, tied to the tent during the day, or perhaps let
loose to play around it, her master having only to call
for her if he wishes to mount. At night she sleeps in
the midst of her owner's family, neither fearing nor in-
juring any. On a sudden emergency she is ready to
scour the desert guided only by a halter, and will strain
every muscle at the encouraging voice of her daring
master. For fifty miles at a single stretch, without a halt,
wilfthe fiery mare of the Bedoueen sweep along with power
in every stride, with flashing eyes, and expanded nostrils,
glorying in her might — nay, we have heard that with
little respite and less food, a hundred and twenty miles
have been performed, and that, be it remembered, by an
animal gentle as the lamb in her master's tent, and af-
fectionate as the attached dog.
Colonel Hamilton Smith states that there was a few
years since an account given in the newspapers of a bet
. against time won by an Arab horse at Bungalore, in the
Presidency of Madras, running four hundred m-les in
four consecutive days. This exploit occurred in July,
1840. The same admirable and excellent officer gives,
on the authority of Frazer (' Tartar Journeys'), a still
Arab Horse.
PRIls'CIPAL MODEEN BEEEDS. 141
more striking instance of the vigour, speed, and power of
endurance of the Arab : Aga Bahram's Arab carried
Mr. Frazer from Shirauz to Teheraun, five hundred and
I twenty-two miles, in six days, remained three to rest,
iwent back in five days, remained nine at Shirauz, and
returned again to Teheraun in seven days. Another horse
oi' the Aga's carried him from Teheraun to Koom,
eighty-four miles, starting at dawn in the morning, in
spring, and arriving two hours before sunset — that is, in
about ten hours. These, however, were first-rate
[Arabians of high-blood.
j| That the Arabs should love their steeds, endowed as
they are with such physical and moral qualities, is not to
be wondered at : this feeling was, indeed, strenu-
ously inculcated by Mohammed, who, speaking of the
j horse, says — " Thou shalt be for a man a source of
happiness and wealth, — thy back shall be a seat of
honour, and thy belly of riches ; every grain of barley
; given thee shall purchase indulgence for the sinner."
To this may be added the laws of humanity and kind
treatment to animals enjoined by the Kuran, and which
all true Muslims feel it incumbent upon them to exercise.
; Yet with respect to the horse their affection seems ex-
jtravagant, only that we must make allowance for the
(fervour of Oriental feelings and phraseology, little in
consonance with our coldness.
D'Arvieux thus describes the feelings of an Arab to-
wards his mare, which he had sold on terms of partner-
ship to a Marseilles merchant. The mare of the first
noble race was named Touysse ; she was young, and
exquisitely beautiful, and the partnership was purchased
for twelve hundred crowns. The merchant had her
whole genealogy, with her descent both on the sire's and
mother's side for five hundred years back, all from public
records. " Ibrahim (for such was the Arab's name)
made frequent journeys to Rama to inquire news of that
mare, which he loved extremely. I have many a time
had the pleasure to see him cry with tenderness while
he was kissing and caressing her. He would embrace
her, wipe her eyes with his handkerchief, rub them with
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
his shirt sleeves, and give her a thousand blessings dur-
ing whole hours that he would continue his discourse to
her. My eyes! my soul ! my heart! (he would say),
must I be so unfortunate as to have thee sold to so many
masters, and not be able to keep thee myself! I am
poor, my gazelle ! You well know, my sweet, that I
have brought thee up like my child ; I never beat thee,
never chid thee, but did cherish thee as the apple of
mine eye ! (irod preserve thee, my dearest ! — Thou art
beautiful, thou art sweet, thou art lovely ! God defend
thee from the evil eye ! — In this strain he would go on,
saying a thousand similar things, and finish by embracing
her, kissing her eyes, and bidding her as he went back-
wards the most tender adieus." Often, however, not
even poverty, with the most tempting offers, will over-
come the Bedoueen's reluctance to part with his mare.
In the time of Louis XIV. the French consul at Said
entered into a negotiation with a poor Bedoueen for the
purchase of a most beautiful mare, all his property, on
behalf of the French King, for whom she was destined.
The Arab hesitated a long time, but at length, on the
condition of receiving a very large sum of money which
he named, consented. The consul, not daring without
farther instructions to give so high a price, wrote to
Versailles for permission to close the bargain on the
terms stipulated. Louis gave orders for the money to
be paid. The consul sent immediate notice to the Arab,
who soon afterwards made his appearance mounted on
his magnificent courser, and the gold which he had de-
manded was paid down. The Arab, covered with a
miserable rug, dismounted — gazed on the gold — sighed
— turned his eyes to the mare, and thus accosted her : —
" To whom am I going to yield thee up ? To Euro-
peans, who will tie thee close, who will beat thee, who
will render thee miserable ! Return with me, my beauty,
my darling, my jewel, and rejoice the hearts of my
children ! " As he pronounced these words, he sprung
on her back, and instantly galloped off towards the
desert.
A narrative of very similar character is given by
PRINCIPAL MODEPvN BEEEDS.
143
D'Arvieux — we are not quite sure that it does not refer
to the same incident as the above, which is told by St.
Pierre. The Rev. V. Monro, in his ' Summer's
Ramble in Syria,' also gives an instance of the great re-
luctance with which the Arabs consent to part with their
mares. He states that on his visit to the river Jordan,
one of the escort, an Arab and " a great ruffian, was
mounted on a white mare of great beauty. Her large
fiery eye gleamed from the edge of an open forehead,
and her exquisite little head was finished with a pouting
lip and expanded nostril. Her ribs, thighs, and
shoulders were models of make^ with more bone than
commonly belongs to the Syrian Arab, and her stately
step received additional dignity from that aristocratic
set-on and carriage of the tail, which is the infallible in-
dication of a good family. Having inquired her price,
I offered the sum, whereupon the dragoon asked one-
third more. After much bating and debating I acceded,
and he immediately stepped back in the same proportion
as before. This is invariably the practice with the
Arabs. It has happened to me repeatedly in hiring horses,
that if the terms have been agreed upon, without two
days being occupied in the treaty, they imagine more
might have been obtained, fly from the bargain, and
increase their demand. I therefore discontinued my
attempts to deal. The Arab said he loved his mare
better than his own life ; that money was of no use to
him, but that when mounted upon her he felt as rich as
a pasha. Shoes and stockings he had none, and the net
value of his dress and accoutrements might be calculated
at something under seventeen pence sterling.
The Bedoueen, or Bedawee, makes of his mare what
we do of the dog — namely, a familiar friend ; and the
animal understands its master's words and actions. As
he sweeps on his steed over the desert, a word is suffi-
cient to stop it in its swiftest speed — a touch with his
hand will serve to urge it to its utmost. If he drop his
spear or any other object, his steed will pick it up with
its lips. It will fight in his defence ; and, it is said, will
even wake him from sleep on the approach of danger.
PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
145
Habituated to almost incredible efforts, fed upon scanty
fare, exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather, the
Arab courser seems as if expressly made for the nomade
marauders who glory in its possession. It unites in
itself speed, energy, courage, docility, and power of
endurance ; and there is no celebrated stock of blood-
horses in Europe, in Asia, and Northern Africa, which
is not in a great measure derived from the Arabian. It
is to this intermixture that the English race-horse owes
its perfection.
Besides the true Arab breed, there are in Syria the
Turkoman or Toorkee horse, and the Kourdy. The
Turkoman horse derives its beauty and good qualities
from the Arab ; which, however, it exceeds in size, and
almost equals in powers of endurance. It is of noble and
martial appearance, and the gaudy trappings of the
Osmanlis set its fine figure off' to great advantage. The
Osmanlis in general prefer this breed to the pure and
more slender Arabian ; and break it in not only to walk
gracefully, but to start off instantaneously, to wheel, to
turn, to stop, at full career. They play the violent
games of the djerid and of the ball and golf-stick,
mounted on their well-trained horses, which obey the
least touch of the bridle or the spur. True, the bit is
terribly severe, and when drawn tight painfully com-
presses the lower jaw ; this the horse knows full well,
and seldom needs more than the slightest touch to obey
the reins.
The Kourdy race is between the Turkoman and the
pure Arab ; it has much of the lightness and speed of
the latter, and is beautiful and enduring. This race ex-
tends through Persia, where it is highly valued.
There is some difference in the treatment of their
horses between the Bedoweens and the Turkomans. The
author of the ' History of Palestine ' says that, " In
Syria, as elsewhere in Western Asia, the horses univer-
sally live on barley and chopped straw. They are regu-
larly fed morning and evening ; and for the most part
eat nothing in the interim. In the stable the provender
is laid beibre them in troughs ; in the fields it is put into
146
HISTOET OF THE HOUSE.
hair-bags, which are fastened in such a manner to the
horse s head that he can feed as he stands. In the
spring season the horses are fed, for forty or fifty days,
with green barley cut as soon as the corn begins to ear.
This is termed "tying down to grass during which
time the animals remain constantly exposed to the air ;
and for the first eight or ten days are neither curried,
mounted, nor even led about. After this season they are
mounted as usual, and rode out gently, but are never
much worked in the grass season. Some feed their
horses with the cut-down corn in their stable-yards ; but
it is considered better to tie them down in the barley-
fields, where they are confined to a certain circuit by a
long leather. This grazing is considered of great service
to the health of the horses, and gives a beautiful gloss to
their skin. They are at all times littered with the
refuse of their provender mixed with their own dung
dried in the sun." The Bedoween mare has no such
luxuries ; she has no stable, no sumptuous feed upon
green barley, no grooming ; nor is she drilled in the
school of the manege. For green fodder there are the
scanty shrubs of the desert : dates and camel's milk, a
little barley, and chopped straw, form her staple food.
The sky is her stable, excepting when her colt is at her
side, and then she has the luxury of her master's tent.
Little she knows of the curry-comb ; nor is she trained
to graceful paces : when of proper age her wild master
vaults upon her back, and scours the desert, till fatigued
she returns to her old familiar tent, where familiar hands
caress her, and familiar voices remove her fears. Her
master is proud of her ; but mere pride alone is not what
he feels— it is mixed with afi'ection, with interest, with
the warmest concern for her welfare. Nought cares he
for splendid trappings, or acquired paces ; enough for
him that she is fleet and faithful, and will bear him like
a whirlwind on his prey.
While the surrounding nations prefer stallions for the
saddle, the Bedawee chooses mares : the reason for this
preference is generally attributed to the superior patience
and endurance of the latter ; and particularly to the liact
PHINCIPAL MODERN BEEED8,
147
that mares do not by their neighing give notice, as stal-
lions would, of the approach of a hostile force, desirous
of assaulting by surprise. Such perhaps may be the
reason, or might have been originally, custom confirming
the practice.
The Persian Horse. — There are several breeds of
horses in Persia, all more or less crossed with the Arab,
but generally of greater bone and stature ; many are
admirable as cavalry horses, while othei's are first-rate
roadsters, having great sureness of foot, and extraordinary
power of endurance. Major Keppel mentions the in-
stance of a courier whom he met between Kermanshaw
and Hamadan, one hundred and twenty miles distant
from each other, and who performed the journey over a
rugged mountainous tract in little more than twenty-four
hours ; and the next morning set off on the same horse
for Teheran, two hundred miles further, expecting to
reach that place on the second day.
The roads, or rather beaten ways, in Persia are noto-
riously bad and ^ rough, and those over mountain-passes
might well alarm the boldest rider ; yet, confident in the
surefootedness of his horse, the Persian gallops fearlessly
along, as if over a level turf. The Persians are riders
from childhood, and their maxim is that a path which is
safe for the foot of a man is safe for that of a horse.
Hence they dash along, over steep rocks and along the
stony mountain paths, without fear ; and so accustomed
are the horses to these difficult roads— which others, accus-
tomed only to plains and level tracts, would hesitate to
attempt — that serious accidents seldom happen. To keep
a horse on the gallop for forty or fifty miles over such
paths is by no means uncommon ; and, indeed, horses of
inferior breed, with a load of upwards of three hundred
pounds on their backs, will perform over them most ex-
traordinary journeys, exhibiting a marvellous power of
supporting fatigue. The horses in Persia are fed with
straw chopped small and mixed with barley ; and this
provender is seldom given them except early in the
morning and at sunset : about an hour after each feed
they are allowed water. Much care is also taken m
PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
149
clothing them according to the climate and season of the
year. In warm weather they are kept under the shade
of tents or trees during the day, and at night placed in
court-yards or stables^ secured by halters, having the
heels also tethered with ropes, to prevent their inflict-
ing injury on each other, as they are very apt to quarrel
and fight, and that very furiously : indeed, the pugna-
city of stallions is almost uncontrollable. In spite of
every care they sometimes break loose, and a terrible
combat ensues : they bite and kick each other in the
most ferocious manner, and are not to be separated with-
out great difficulty and danger. Nor is their mutual
animosity confined to these occasions ; in the battles that
take place between horsemen, the horses of the com-
batants seem animated by the fury of their riders, and
tear each other with their teeth, whilst the scimitars are
flashing over their heads. The spirit of these horses
often renders it no easy task to break them in. Mr.
Morier mentions a singular method which he saw prac-
tised in some part of Persia, in order to subdue the tem-
per of a very vicious horse, on which ordinary proceed-
ings had no effect. The horse was muzzled and turned
loose in an enclosure ; there to await the attack of two
horses, whose mouths and limbs were at liberty, and
which were turned in to attack him. So effectually did
this discipline operate that he became completely altered,
and as remarkable for docility as he had previously been
for savage obstinacy.
In Persia the horses are littered in the stable on dried
horse-dung reduced to powder; and they are usually
rubbed down morning and evening. They are regularly
exercised, and when training for trials of speed and
endurance, are also sweated, till all superfluous flesh is
lost, and they become meagre in the extreme. Circas-
sian, Turkoman, and Kourdy horses are in great request ;
and there is a valuable breed on the coast of the Persian
Gulf, of a white colour, speckled M'ith dark brown
The Persian bit is very severe, as is also the stirrup,
which is formed of a flat piece of iron, about six inches
long, and four broad ; it is turned up at the sides, and
150 HISTORY OF THE HORSE. . i
has sharp corners, which are struck as spurs against the '
horse's flanks. The Persians also use a long and heavy
whip, and are fond of magnificent trappings. Their
baggage-horses and mules are ornamented with tassels
and bells, which keep up a perpetual jingling : formerly the
pack-horses in England were similarly accoutred, as well
as the waggon-horses ; nor is the practice quite obsolete.
The Turkish Horse. — The race of horses in Turkey is
principally of Tartar and Arabian origin — the Arab
blood in the better class greatly preponderating. Many
of the horses have exquisite symmetry, and are full of
fire and spirit, but at the same time are very tractable.
They have, however, less power of endurance than the
genuine Arabian.
The Barb of Morocco. — From a very early period of
antiquity the northern line of Africa was renowned for
horses and horsemen ; nor is the horse of the present
day degenerated. The barb is beautiful and fleet, with j
splendid action and high spirit ; but perhaps somewhat
lower than the Arabian, seldom much exceeding fourteen
hands in height. The mane and tail are full and flowing, j
In many of the breeds the Arab blood greatly prevails ; '
and of these some are noted for their wonderful endur-
ance of fatigue. Horses only are ridden by the Moors,
and are not mounted till four years of age : they then
undergo severe discipline, being seldom unsaddled, and
are fed upon chopped straw and barley, or dhurra, some-
times with camel's milk and crushed dates, and that at
most only once a day. Such however is their energy,
that they will continue a gallop over the burning sands
and rough broken ground of the desert for fifty or sixty
miles at a stretch, without being overwearied with the ,
exertion. There is a noted breed, called by the Moghri- j i
bins " Drinkers of the wind," renowned for their powers. ] ;
They are low, very meagre, but with prodigious strength |
and energy ; yet it is asserted that they are fed once only ]
in three days on camel's milk and a few dates, and not ; ,
ridden till seven years old. When young they are ' j
nursed by she-camels, and follow their foster-mother for | ,
a long time before being weaned. ! |
PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
151
In Libya and Nubia there are splendid breeds of
horses, some of large stature and great power ; others
more approaching the Arab or Barb in size and contour,
and evidently of Arab origin. A black race, with white
limbs, and having vast strength, is in high request : indi-
viduals of this stock often exceed sixteen hands in height,
with flowing mane and tail. The Arab tribes of Sennaar
and Darfoor possess noble steeds, on which they give
chase to the giraffe ; and a splendid race extends into
Nigritia. The Shouaas, on the banks of the Tchad,
export annually from two to three thousand horses to
Soudan, where they fetch a good price, the horses of
that country being inferior. Horses of a small breed
I are reared in the Ashantee country. Among the Beg-
I harmis, good horses exist, and also among the Moors
and Arabs even nearer the equator. Very fine horses
are reared at the Cape of Good Hope, mostly of a
black colour, and between European races and Barbs or
Arabs.
The Indian Horse. — The best horses in India are of
Arabic or Persian descent; the old native breeds are
very inferior. In Moore's ' Notices of the Indian Ar-
chipelago,' we are informed that in every country lying
east of the Burrampooter and south of the tropic, the
horse, however diversified, is little better than a pony.
This fact, after quitting Bengal, is first noticed in the
countries of Cassay, Ava, and Pegu. Here the horse is
seldom above thirteen hands in height, but is tolerably
well-formed, active, and spirited. As we proceed to
the south and east the horse becomes more diminutive,
and those of Lao and Siam, and the southern provinces
of China, are inferior in form and stature to those of Ava
and Pegu. Barrow, in ' Travels in China' (Journey
from Tong-choo-foo to the Province of Canton), says
(p. 493), ^' that horses are rarely kept for luxury or for
labour, and the few animals kept for agriculture, which
are mostly asses, mules, or buffaloes, subsist in the winter
season on chaff" and straw, and their chief support in the
summer is derived from the strong grasses that grow in
I the ditches, and from the common reed, with which in
152
inSTOEY OF THE HOESE.
this part of the country, large tracts of swampy ground
are covered. The Siamese and Cochin-Chinese have no
cavalry, and make no use of their ponies, except for riding
on ordinary occasions ; and even for this purpose they
are not much in request, the higher classes preferring
the elephant.* In the Malayan Peninsula the horse has
not obtained a footing ; there are no made roads nor
wide plains in that country, and the natives living on
the wooded banks of the rivers are in the habit of using
canoes and boats in the place of beasts of carriage or
draught. In Sumatra, however, two breeds of ponies,
the Achin and Batta, occur ; these are of small size, and
spirited, but better adapted for light draught than the
saddle.
Passing to the island of Java, we find an improvement
in the breed of ponies, at least as respects size. Two
distinct races are discernible, one peculiar to the plains,
and one to the mountain districts : the former sometimes
exceeds thirteen hands, but is of a sluggish temperament
and coarse figure ; the mountain breed is very small, but
active and hardy. In Java ponies are used for the saddle,
and as beasts of burden, but never by the natives, at least
in agricultural labours or for any sort of draught. Eu-
ropeans however harness these diminutive ponies in their
carriages, and four drawing together will convey a tra-
veller over the well-made roads of the country at the
rate of ten or twelve miles an hour. The vehicle is, :
however, extremely light, for it would require twelve of i
these ponies to draw such a carriage as two good post-
horses would go with for a stage of fifteen miles without
any difficulty, on the same road. Since then one full-
grown horse is equal as respects work to six of these ponies,
and at most will not consume more than the food of two,
there is, looking at the expense merely, little advantage
in employing them for labour. In the islands of Bali and
Lombock ponies exist, but of a very inferior breed, yet in
the adjacent island of Sambawa there are two good races,
viz., the Tamboro and the Bima stocks: the ponies es-
* A Burmese pony of vei-y small stature has been kept for
several years in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park.
PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
153
pecially of the latter stock are handsome and are exten-
sively exported ; they have much symmetry and spirit,
and have a small head and slender limbs, but the skin is
thick and harsh, a circumstance at variance with what is
termed high blood. Leaving Sambawa, we find that
Flores, Sandal-wood Island, and Timor possess a few po-
nies, but in the Moluccas and New Guinea none appear
to exist. In Borneo the horse exists at its north-eastern
extremity, opposite the Sooloo group of islands, but in
other parts it is either rare or wanting. The horse ex-
tends through the Philippine Islands, and is abundant in
the island of Celebes, where, as we have said, it exists
in a wild as well as domesticated state. The Celebes
ponies are generally considered the best breed of any
belonging to the Indian Archipelago.
There is great variety, according to the assertions of
travellers, in the colour of the various breeds of pony
within the Archipelago, a circumstance that tends to
prove the diversity of stocks from which they have pro-
ceeded. The prevailing colour of the Achin pony is
piebald, a style of marking that becomes rarer as we
proceed eastward. The Batta ponies are for the most
part bay and mouse-coloured. In Java bays and greys
prevail ; roan and mouse-coloured also are not uncommon,
and occasionally black and chesnut are to be seen ; but
the Javanese have a great prejudice against these latter
colours, and especially chesnut, that on public occasions
they are not permitted to appear. Bima ponies are
mostly grey, bay, and dun ; and in the Celebes and
Philippine Islands, greys and bays prevail, almost to the
exclusion of other colours.
A breed of ponies, called Tuttoo by the Mahrattas, is
sedulously kept up in Duckhun (or Deccan), where it is
highly esteemed ; it is perhaps from this, among other
sources, that the ponies of the Archipelago are derived,
for doubtless we must look to continental India, and per-
haps China, as their original nursery.
A beautiful and spirited breed of ponies, brought from
Tartary, and remarkable for sureness of foot, is in use at
Laudour, in the Himalaya Mountains, where an estab-
154
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
lishment for the sick and convalescent of the armies in
India is formed. These ponies show high blood, and
have a perfect symmetry. They are extremely saga-
cious, and in traversing the dreadful passes of the moun-
tains display the utmost caution and intelligence, evi-
dently aware that a false step may hurl them to destruc-
tion. The rider, who must depend entirely on his pony,
will act most injudiciously if he interfere with it ; it
must be left to its own discretion, and will generally ac-
complish its task in safety.
Tlie Cossack Horse. — Entering upon the eastern bor-
ders of Europe, we encounter the Cossacks of the Don
and Volga, celebrated as horsemen, and terrible as light
cavalry from the rapidity of their movements. The
Cossack horses are by no means very showy animals,
and might at first sight appear inadequate to the severe
labours of a toilsome campaign. Yet it was upon such
horses, during the tremendous cold of a Russian winter,
that the Cossacks harassed the retreating forces of Na-
poleon. These horses are rough, meagre, angular, and
rather low ; but are very strong and fleet, and capable
of bearing the greatest privations. In the bitterest wea-
ther, when from cold and exhaustion alone hundreds of
the French soldiers and horses perished, the Cossacks
and their ragged steeds were all alert and active. An
annular bank of snow thrown hastily up, with a fire iir
the central space, round which the men collected in a
circle, with their saddled horses behind them, was suffi-
cient shelter from the keen blast.
Such is the Cossack horse — such also is the horse of
the Bashkirs, the Calmucks, and various tribes of central
and southern Siberia, from the Ural Mountains to the
great tributaries of the Lena. Throughout this extent
of country there are herds of feral or half-wild horses,
and of horses which we are inclined to believe are truly
wild, and not the descendants of a domestic race.
In Russia there are several good breeds of horses,
more or less immediately derived from the Cossack races,
but improved by Circassian, Persian, and Arab strains,
and both in that country, in Poland, and throughout the
PKINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
loo
Ukraine along the Dnieper, the long-maned, eel-backed,
dun stock is prevalent.
In Transylvania, Hungary, Wallachia, and Moldavia,
the ordinary race of horses is of small size, but consider-
able pov^^er, with marked osseous and muscular protu-
berances, a straight chafFron, large eyes, a small mouth,
• and open nostrils ; anteriorly the chest has no great
breadth, but the barrel is ample behind the shoulders ;
the croup declining, and the set-on of the tail low ; the
limbs are firm, and the hoofs sound and hard. A very
superior breed between this old common stock and
Turkish or Arab horses exists, forming what Desmarest
terms the noble Transylvanian and the noble Moldavian
races. In some of the mountain districts a small-sized
dun breed prevails.
Norway, Sweden, and Finland have good breeds of
small but strong and hardy horses ; and in Iceland a
similar but still smaller race, introduced by the old
Norse colonists, is celebrated for its power of enduring,
with little or no protection from man, the rigour of an
i Arctic winter. In 1804 there were, according to the
census taken, 26,254 horses in Iceland. They much
resemble the ponies of Shetland.
Of the hardiness of the Swedish horses, and of the
kind treatment they experience from their masters, Sir
A. de Capell Brooke gives the following account : —
" While changing horses, we were not a little enter-
I tained at the curious group formed by the peasants and
j their steeds breakfasting together ; both cordially par-
! taking of a large, hard, rye-cake. This is their constant
i food on the road ; and, indeed, throughout Sweden it
forms the chief, and frequently the only, subsistence of
the peasantry. Before setting out on a journey, a few
of these cakes are strung together, which serve for the
support of themselves and their horses. As the latter
! may sometimes belong to three or even four proprietors,
it is highly amusing, on the road, to observe the fre-
quent altercations between them, each endeavouring to
spare his own horse ; and, while running by the side of
your carriage, using his utmost endeavours to persuade
156
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
the driver that it is an animal of such qualities as not to
have the least occasion for the whip ; at the same time,
perhaps, giving him a hint, that, from what he knows
of his neighbour's beast, the lash would be well applied
there. The curious scenes that in consequence arise
form not the least entertaining part of the journey.
Their affection for their horses is so great, that I have
actually seen them shed tears when they have been
driven beyond their strength. Indeed, the expedition
with which these little animals proceed is surprising
when we consider the smallness of their size, which
hardly exceeds that of a pony. Seven or eight miles
within the hour are accomplished by them with ease ;
and the roads throughout Sweden being universally
good, they frequently do not relax from a gallop until
they have reached the post-house." (Sir Arthur de
Capell Brooke's ' Travels in Sweden,' &c.)
Germany possesses excellent horses of various breeds,
one of which is a noble black, called by the Dutch Hart-
draver, and by the French Ardrave, namely, fast-
trotter.
These horses run from fourteen to sixteen hands
high ; the head is small, the shoulders well laid back,
the haunches prominent, the croup short and broad, and
the limbs muscular and clean, but often fringed with
longish hair up the sinew above the pastern-joint. They
have considerable energy, but are said to be deficient in
endurance. Some of the cavalry regiments of Germany,
we believe, are mounted on these horses. Desmarest
notices the Hanoverian horses as excellent, and states
that they are either of a deep bay or black. The Frisian
race resembles the former, but is proportionably longer
in the body. " The so-named horses of Holland,
Flanders, the north of Picardy, and those of Berg,
Juliers, Treves, Cologne, and Mayence, are of the Fri-
sian stock."
The great black Flemish breed, without any white,
of massive form, with a huge head, heavy limbs, short
pasterns, large hoofs, and a mass of long hair at the pas-
tern-joint, is well known : — it is from crossing thisr
PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
157
heavy animal with finer and higher breeds, that we have
obtained some of our noblest cart-horses.
While referring to the horses of Germany, we may
by way of interlude introduce some observations pub-
lished a few years since in the ' Quarterly Review,' re-
lative to the opposite treatment which draught horses
receive in Germany and England. It is from an article
on German watering-places. The writer says : — " With
regard to the management of horses in harness, perhaps
the most striking feature to English eyes is, that the
Germans intrust these sensible animals with the free use
of their eyes. As soon as getting tired, or, as we are
often apt to term it, ' lazy,' they see the postilion threaten
them with his whip, they know perfectly well the limits
of his patience, and that after eight, ten, or twelve
threats, there will come a blow. As they travel along,
one eye is always shrewdly watching the driver : the
moment he begins his slow operation of lighting his
pipe, they immediately slacken their pace, knowing as
well as Archimedes could have proved, that he cannot
strike fire and them at the same time ; every move-
ment in the carriage they remark ; and, to any accurate
observer who meets a German vehicle, it must often be
perfectly evident that the poor horses know and feel,
even better than himself, that they are drawing a coach-
man, three bulky baronesses, their man and their maid,
and that to do this on a hot summer's day is no joke.
Now, what is our method ? In order to break in the
animal to draught, we put a collar round his neck, a
crupper under his tail, a pad on his back, a strap round
his belly, with traces at his sides ; and, lest he should
see that, though these things tickle and pinch, they have
not power to do more, the poor intelligent creature is
blinded with blinkers, and in this fearful state of ignor-
ance, with a groom or two at his head, and another at
his side, he is, without his knowledge, fixed to the pole
and splinter-bar of a carriage. If he kicks, even at a
fly, he suddenly receives a heavy punishment which he
does not comprehend ; something has struck him and has
hurt him severely ; but as fear magnifies all danger, so
158
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
for aught we know or care, he may fancy that the splin-
ter-bar which has cut him is some hostile animal, and
expect, when the pole bumps against his legs, to be again
assailed in that direction. Admitting that in time he
gets accustomed to these phenomena — becoming, what
we term, steady in harness — still, to the last hour of his
existence, he does not clearly understand what it is that
is hampering him, or what is that rattling noise which
is always at his heels : the sudden sting of the whip is
a pain with which he gets but too well acquainted, yet
the ' unde derivatur' of the sensation he cannot explain
— he neither knows when it is coming nor what it comes
from. If any trifling accident or even irregularity
occurs — if any harmless strap which ought to rest upon
his back happens to fall to his side — the unfortunate
animal, deprived of his eyesight, the natural lanterns of
the mind, is instantly alarmed ; and though fiora con-
stant heavy draught he may literally, without metaphor,
be on his last legs, yet if his blinkers should happen to
fall olf, the sight of his own dozing master, of his own
pretty mistress, and of his own fine yellow chariot in
motion, would scare him so dreadfully, that off he would
probably start, and the more they all pursued him the
faster would he fly ! I am aware that many of my readers,
especially those of the fairer sex, will feel disposed to
exclaim. Why admire German horses ? Can there be
any in creation better fed or warmer clothed than our
own ? In black and silver harness, are they not orna-
mented nearly as highly as ourselves ? Is there any
amusement in town which they do not attend ? Do we
not take them to the Italian Opera, to balls, plays, to
hear Paganini, &c., and don't they often go to two or
three routs of a night ? Are our horses ever seen stand-
ing before vulgar shops '? And do they not go to church
every Sunday, as regularly as ourselves ? Most humbly
do I admit the force of these observations ; all I persist
in asserting is, that horses are foolishly fond of their
eyesight ; like to wear their heads as nature has placed
them ; and have bad taste enough to prefer dull German
grooms and coachmen to our sharp English ones."
PRINCIPAL MODEKN BREEDS, 159
Passing to France, it appears to be only within the
last few years that a systematic attention to the improve-
ment of the different breeds has been carried out. In
Normandy, however, we have noticed a good and power-
ful breed — both bay and grey, but mostly of the former
colour — and Colonel H. Smith says, that he has seen at
Munich the Life-Guard cuirassiers mounted upon horses
of Normandy (of the old bay stock), selected by the
Bavarian government, and taken in part of the indemnity
paid by France in 1815-16 to the allied armies, and that
he never observed the Royal Guards of France so well
mounted, nor with their horses in such good order, as
those were in German hands. Since that date, the
French cavalry have had better steeds. In 1838 we
had an opportunity of seeing a cavalry regiment (then
at the barracks of Versailles), which was splendidly
mounted ; the horses were admirable ; and in the pre-
sent time Algeria offers unlimited means of elevating the
French races of the horse to the highest perfection.
M. Huzard says that many authors regard the horses of
Normandy as the descendants of an ancient Danish
stock, and suppose that this stock was introduced into
the country at the time of its conquest by the Norsemen.
The circumstance is not improbable.
Desmarest notices a race Limosine noble" of great
beauty, vigour, and lightness; and also a "race Na-
varrine noble," of Spanish origin, reared in Navarre,
Beam, Condomois, Le Fays de Foix, Roussillon, &c.
Both these races he says are reduced to total degenera-
tion. Was it of a horse of one of these breeds that the
Dauphin boasts in Shakspere's ' King Henry V.' ex-
claiming, "It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is
like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance en-
forces homage ?" Desmarest notices a race of a light grey
colour, confined to the Isle of Camargue, and to the
morasses near Aries (Provence), which he says exists
in a state of perfect freedom throughout the year, and
breeds like the wild horse. It is active and vigorous.
He also notices the Ardenne race, as hardy and capable
of great improvement ; and the laborious race of la
Franche-Compte. But these and other old breeds are
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
more or less rapidly passing away, as they themselves
merged out of others before them ; they are the dege-
nerate offsets of better studs, destined by the care of
man to become in their turn ameliorated.
In eastern and southern France, from the Jura to
Provence, a Svv^iss or Helvetian breed of horses is
much employed in the service of diligences and for
posting. These horses are generally black, stout,
muscular, and hardy ; of good size, with a heavy head
and obtuse muzzle, a broad croup, and hairy fetlocks.
This breed is capable of great improvement.
From France let us turn to Italy. When we reflect
that the ancient Romans, as they pushed their conquests,
drew to their own city the products of other countries,
we cannot but admit that they must necessarily have
established in Italy various breeds of horses ; Thessa-
lian, Armenian, Gallic, Gothic, German, and old Italian
stocks becoming interblended more or less together.
Yet as no system of improvement was pursued, and as
puerile fancies influenced the views and opinions, not
only of the people generally, but of the higher ranks
also, it is not to be expected that a renowned stock
would owe its origin to their exertions. When Rome
fell, and Goths, Ostrogoths, and Longobardi in their
turn swept over Italy, other changes would take place
in the character of the breeds of the horse ; and these
have again been influenced by Turkish, Barbary, Hun-
garian, and other races : and at length noble stocks
were established ; and now even Italy possesses good
horses, some of which still retain the name of Barbari
or Barbs, though with no positive claim to the title. A
writer speaking of the Neapolitan vehicles of pleasure,
which are driven along with reckless vehemence, says,
" In former times there used to be grand displays of
driving at the end of Carnival and beginning of Lent
(relics of ancient customs), and many of the great fami-
lies had numerous and excellent studs, and bred horses
of great spirit and beauty. Though these establish-
ments for horses of pure blood are entirely broken up,
the common breed of the kingdom is generally far from
bad, while many parts of Calabria, and some districts of
PillNGIPAL MODEHN BREEDS.
161
Apulia and Abruzzi, still furnish excellent animals. The
Neapolitan horse is small, but very compact and strong ;
his neck is short and bull-shaped, and his head rather
large, he is in short the prototype of the horse of the
ancient bassi-rilievi and other Roman sculptures found
in the country. He can live on hard fare, and is ca-
pable of an immense deal of work ; he is frequently
headstrong and vicious, but these defects are mainly
attributable to harsh treatment, as with proper gentle
usage, though always very spirited, he is generally
found to be docile and goodnatured. The Neapolitan
cavalry, composed almost entirely of these small horses,
bred under the burning sun of the south of Italy, with-
stood the rigours of the winter in the memorable
Russian campaign better than almost all the others ; and
it is a curious fact, that during his retreat from Moscow,
Napoleon owed his preservation to a body of three
hundred Neapolitan horse, v/ho were still mounted and
in a state to escort him." The buffalari, or keepers of
ij the savage herds of buffaloes in the wild marshes of the
I Calabrias, of Apulia, the Pontine Marshes, &c., are all
well mounted on horses of great vigour and spirit, with-
out which it would be impossible for them to manage
their charge or drive the herds to the fairs.
A writer in the * Penny Magazine' states that the great
I number of horses kept on the vast pastoral farms of the
j Campagna is a very striking feature of that economy.
I It was not unusual, he adds, to find from three hundred
I to four hundred horses of all sorts on one farm. Many
|l of these, perfectly wild and unbroken, seemed to be
kept for no other purpose than that of threshing out the
I corn ; this rude and primitive manner of threshing being
I common throughout Italy. On these immense farms,
no factor, no capo, or head of a company of herdsmen,
no cattle-driver, ever thinks of walking on foot : if he
has to go only a quarter of a mile, he vaults into his
' cumbersome antiquated saddle. They may be said to
pass more than half of their time on horseback. The
factor- of a friend who was showing us over a farm,
stopped and fell a-panting before we had gone two
162
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
hundred yards. " For the infantry," said he, ^' I am
bad, but I am good on horseback ;" and so he proved
himself to be when we all mounted. The stable is
generally of immense size ; and besides those that are
out, there are always within a certain number of horses
saddled and bitted and ready to start. Thus mounted,
the factor and upper men being armed with muskets,
and the herdsmen and cattle-drivers with long lances,
they gallop over the plains, looking at a distance like a
marauding band of wild Arabs. Some of these farm-
horses are old and well trained, and singularly patient
and docile, often remaining for many hours in vedette
without being fastened, and exposed all the while to
the great heat, and the terrible persecution and rage of
the gadflies and of other flies bigger and sharper than
we ever saw them elsewhere. Others he states to be
colts, some of which, when intended for the saddle, the
cattle-drivers break in and train ; but when destined for
draught, they are sold in their wild state. (See ' Penny
Magazine,' 1845, p. 330.)
From the same writer we learn that a few years since
the Roman and Neapolitan nobility took a pride in
their studs, and bred beautiful horses, both for the
saddle and draught. The Borghese family had a re-
markably fine breed of a curious bronze-like colour.
It was flourishing and numerous as late as the year
1796 ; but during the wars and spoliations of the French
Revolution the brood mares were carried off, the whole
stock was dispersed, and the type, as far as we could
discover, entirely lost. As the French invaders helped
themselves, it is probable that most of the Borghese
steeds perished in battle or under the toils of the march.
There were crosses of the breed as well in Tuscany and
the Neapolitan States as in the States of the Church ;
but a pure unmixed Borghese we never saw. It was a
common and a barbarous custom in the south of Italy
to put a distinctive mark on thorough-bred horses by
burning them on the flank with a red-hot iron, on the
face of which was cut the owner's crest, or a royal
crown, or some other device. The poverty consequent
PEINCIPAL MODERN BEEEDS.
163
upon wars and revolutions, and the establishment, in a
great part of the peninsula, of the French law of inhe-
ritance, which, in a few generations, must utterly break
up the most wealthy families, has prevented the re-
formation of good studs, or any extensive attempt to
restore the old breeding establishments in Italy. Here
and there an amateur is found sufficiently favoured by
fortune to have the means of bestowing some attention
to breeding; but, taking all the peninsula, their col-
lective number is but small. The only horses now
bred in the Campagna of Rome are of a mixed and
middling breed. They are all black ; their form is
neither decidedly bad nor decidedly good. They are
all entire, and by no means deficient in spirit. Occa-
I sionally a horse of truly admirable qualities is found
; among them. In these railroad days it sounds ridi-
I culous to talk of the speed of any other mode of travel-
ling ; but a quarter of a century ago we thought it was
I rare posting, that between Rome and Naples ! We
certainly never saw so much speed attained by post-
horses in any other country, not even in England, and
j when the post-boys were promised double fees. Most
travellers will remember the ^' Scampatori/' or "run-
aways," of the Pontine marshes. They were all
i poledri — colts or very young horses — hot, wild, vicious,
; and almost unbroken ; but for spirit, wind, and speed
! they were very often astonishing creatures. The mis-
i chief and the danger lay in getting them put-to. Very
S often they had just been caught and brought in from
the marshes, or from the great plain beyond them,
which is almost as wild as a desert of Arabia. It
would often require half a dozen of men to put-to a
pair of horses and to prevent their bolting when put-to.
VVith four of these snorting, neighing, kicking, and
j biting equinine devils, the task oi putting-to was tre-
imendous! There would be a couple of fellows at
every horse's head, holding on with all their might,
while the postilions were getting into their saddles ;
and then, the riders being fairly mounted, there was a
whoop and a scream, and away went the Scampatori,
like an arrow from a bow, starting with a gallop, and
164
HISTORY OF THE HOUSE.
rarely if ever moderating their pace until they came to
the next post-house, some twelve or fourteen English
miles off. " There is nothing for it," said an old
Neapolitan priest, " but to sit still and say, The Lord
have mercy upon us.' " As for stopping, there could
seldom be question of that, for the poledri had gene-
rally the bit between their teeth and the mastery over
their riders. Luckily the road was for many miles
broad, and as smooth as a bowling-green ; but for a
long space there was that ugly, deep, draining canal,
cut by Pope Pius VI., running close by the side of
the road ! The post-masters generally kept these
poledri in store for the English ; " for," said they,
"yourMilordo always likes to go fast, and he knows
what horses are." (' Penny Magazine,' 1845, p. 329,
et seq.)
A light race of horses is known in Italy under the
name of Barbari. These Barbari or Barbs, so called by
the Italians, are used to run matches or races, which
form the principal amusements of the Carnival at. Rome
and in other towns. They are of small size, being
usually under fourteen hands in height ; are clean
limbed, w^ell formed, compact, and vigorous ; show
great spirit, and many marks of good blood. Never-
theless, they are not comparable to a half or three-parts
blood pony of English breed. When we talk of the
races of the Italians with their Barbari, it must not be
supposed that they at all resemble the races of New-
market or Epsom. The horses, in the first place, are
not mounted : there is no skill in jockeyship to be dis-
played : in the next place they are urged from the
starting-place by shouts, and goaded on by a sharp in-
strument attached to them, and have their heads orna-
mented with gay plumes of feathers.
The whole affair is thus described by an eye-witness
of the sport as conducted at Rome : — " To a girth which
goes round the body of each, are attached several loose
straps which have at their ends small balls of lead from
which issue sharp steel points, — the motion imparted to
these straps by the animals' running keeps up a conti-
nual spurring on their flanks and bellies. Sheets of
PKINCIPAL MOBEEN BREEDS.
165
thin tin, stiff paper, or some other substance that will
make a rustling or rattling noise when agitated, are also
fastened on the horses' backs.
Italian Horse-racing.
" The last-mentioned articles serve to startle and alarm
them, as if the prickly leaden balls were not excitement
enough. The rearing, kicking, pawing, and snorting
jthey make, when thus equipped, may be easily con-
Iceived. The most interesting .'part of the sight is
that which is exhibited when they are just about to
start. A very strong rope, secured by a machine on
each side, is drawn across the street of the Corso, and
iup to this each man tries to bring his horse, holding it
in with all his might by the head. The Trasteverini,
and many of the peasantry in the neighbourhood of
Rome, are remarkably fine, muscular men ; and as they
[generally go to work with their arms and necks bare,
and as they have frequently to maintain a struggle of
downright strength with their excited horses, the action
3f their limbs and muscles, and other circumstances,
offer a useful exhibition to the sculptor or painter.
Though there are no riders, human life is more en-
dangered in these than in our races. Sometimes the
lorse masters his groom, and breaks away before the
Corso is cleared of people, in which and in several
(bther cases serious accidents are almost sure to happen.
166
HISTORY OF THE HOUSE.
When matters are ready, a troop of dragoons set off
from the other end of the Corso, and go at full gallop
towards the starting-post, clearing the way : these
soldiers then retire, and soon after an officer blows
a trumpet from a balcony erected near to the spot
whence the race is to begin. At the sound of the
trumpet the strong rope stretched across the street
drops, the grooms let go their hold, and off start the
horses like arrows from a bow. The harder they run,
the more they are pricked. Some of them have been
known to be so wise as to stop, when the motion of the
leaden balls, of course, would cease ; but generally
they run on at mad career, and occasionally shoio
emulation and spite by catching and biting at each
other.
"The judge of the race is no less a personage than the
Governor of Rome, who stands at a window in the
palace of Venice, at which building is the goal or win-
ning-post, or, as the Romans call it, * la ripresa de'
barberi.' A little beyond this palace the street is shut
in with a screen of strong canvas, through which the
horses not unfrequently dash, though to their eyes it
must look almost like a wall. The prize given to the
master of the winning horse is merely an ornamental
flag, and a piece of embroidered stuff.
" Durhig the. first six days of the Carnival, which at
Rome is limited to eight days, matches of m.ares, barbs,
and other horses, are run alternately ; but during the
two last days these different classes of animals run all
together, and thus naturally add to the riot, danger, and
confusion of the exhibition.
" Though betting, which gives such a perilous interest
to our racecourse, is by no means common, and the
prize contended for so little worth, nothing can exceed
the eagerness of the excitable Italians on these oc-
casions. During the heat the spectators honour with i
deafening ' bravos;' the horse that runs well, and hiss i
and hoot with almost equal noise all such as lag be- i
hind." (
In Corsica a small but lively and active breed of \
PEINCIPAL MODEEN BREEDS.
167
ponies exists, and is derived from a stock of great an-
tiquity. In Sardinia there is a fine race of horses, for
the improvement of which there is a government esta-
blishment, where Arabian and Spanish stallions are
kept. There is also a breed of small ponies. Besides
these, a species of wild horse, of indomitable temper,
and regarded by some naturalists as aboriginal, is found
in!the territory of the Baltei and of the Nurra, and in
the island of St. Antiochio, where the mouflon ranges
free.
From Italy we may proceed to Spain. From the
earliest periods Spain appears to have possessed noble
horses. It must be remembered that when Spain was
peopled by the Iberi and Celtse the Phcenicians not
only traded with the country, but had extensive settle-
ments there, and doubtless introduced horses from
Western Asia. Afterwards, the Carthaginians must on
their invasion have brought in the steeds of Numidia
and Libya, some of which, escaping the destruction of
war, would remain and intermingle with the native
breed. When Spain was freed from the Punic yoke,
and became a Roman province, it was celebrated for its
horses, numbers of which were- bred for the Roman
market. At a still later period the Visigoths, Vandals,
and Suevi overran Spain, bringing with them a race of
black steeds of great size and power, which, on the
expulsion of the Suevi and Alans by the Visigoths,
reached the shores of Northern Africa. In 711, during
the reign of the Gothic monarch Roderic, the Arabs of
Northern Africa, under Tarik Ibn Zeyad, invaded
Spain, and the country became soon divided into two
empires, till at length, after the lapse of nearly eight
centuries, the Saracenic power was destroyed. With
the African Arabs came their magnificent steeds ; and
Andalusia, which comprises the four Moorish kingdoms
of Seville, Cordoba, Jaen, and Granada, is still re-
nowned for its splendid breed of horses. Of these the
finest are bred in the Loma de Ubeda, the Dehesa of
Cordoba, and the Cartuja of Jerez. It may be observed,
however, that the declension of the Andalusian steed
168
HISTOKY OF THE HOUSE.
Andalusian Steed of the Cid.
began soon after the expulsion of the Moors ; this dete-
rioration increased rapidly during the Peninsular war,
and the subsequent political disturbances; still, how-
ever, there is little doubt but that the Andalusian stock
might be soon raised to its pristine state of excellence.
Bay, black, and grey are the three principal colours of
the Andalusian horse ; and of these the mulberry-black
PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
169
race is esteemed of the highest breed and greatest
strength. Some few are cream-coloured, called Per-
Unas, but from the colour of the eyes and skin it is
evident that they are affected by albinism. It is from
the Andalusian breed that the feral horses of Peru and
Mexico are derived.
We may now turn to the horses of the British Islands,
of which some breeds are unrivalled. We have already
observed that the Romans, when they first invaded
Britain, found the natives in possession of small but
hardy and spirited horses, which they yoked to war-
cars, in the management of which as charioteers they
were extremely skilful. That the British horse would
undergo considerable modification from its admixture
with other breeds, imported during the dominion of the
Romans in our island, from Italy, Gaul, and Spain,
cannot for a moment be doubted ; but what new breeds
arose, and to what extent the improvement attained, we
have but imperfect means of ascertaining. We know,
however, that a pony breed was kept up, and that
numbers were sent to Rome. To the present day
several breeds of ponies, continued most probably from
the ancient stock, maintain their ground in our island.
We may well believe that the Romans on their aban-
donment of their British possessions left a valuable stock
for the benefit of the Anglo-Saxons, who in a short time
established themselves in the island. What attention
they paid to the breed of horses is not very clear till we
come to Athelstan, who forbade the exportation of horses
under any circumstances, except as presents to monarchs,
whence it may be concluded that the English horse was
valued on the Continent. Besides adopting measures to
preserve the native breed, Athelstan endeavoured to im-
prove it, and in 930 received as presents from Hugh or
Hugues the Great (who had married his sister Ethelda,
and was the founder of the Capet dynasty) several Ger-
man running horses, that is horses formed for speed and
endurance. From this circumstance we may surmise a
gradual improvement in some of the English stocks of
horses, up to the time of the Norman Conquest, which
170
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
as might be expected, was productive of still further
changes, for the Norman barons were mounted on fine
horses ; many, as was William himself, on Spanish
chargers, and studs of this race were afterwards intro-
duced by them upon the estates they acquired by the
right of the sword. Though the figures on the Bayeux
tapestry are rude, still they lead us to infer that the
horses of the Normans were more light than the heavy
war-steeds used by knights clad in complete steel, at a
subsequent period ; for the armour at that time was not'
oppressive, being a sort of tunic with rings of steel sewn
on it, forming at once a sort of trowsers and body vest,
while the helmet was a mere skull-cap with a part called
a nasal to protect the front of the face. Instead of the
heavy tilting-spear, light lances, used also as javelins,
were employed, and no plates of armour encumbered
the horse.
William I. and Tonsta n. From the Bayeux tapestry.
As heavier armour came into vogue, heavier horses were
required, and the Norman barons did not neglect a breed
PRINCIPAL MODEEN BREEDS.
171
of animals so essential to their" power, and the mainte-
nance of their dignity. It may be interesting to inquire
as to what influence the Crusades had upon the horses
of our island, for it was during the wars of the Cross
that the chivalry of Europe came into contact with the
spirited and noble breeds of Arabia and Syria.
History informs us that the ruinous Crusade in which
Richard Cceur-de-Lion played so conspicuous a part,
drained France and England of men and money ; but
as so many knights, nobles, and; persons of rank joined
the expedition, taking with them their trained war-
horses, both countries must have been equally drained
of first-rate steeds, and more especially England, for
the King of France returned to Europe before the close
of the war, leaving only ten thousand troops behind him.
On the completion of the truce with Saladin, the sur-
vivors of an infuriate war returned home ; but in what
Condition ! — not as they set forth, in all the splendour of
chivalry — but ruined in fortune and health, and though
numbers of splendid coursers must have formed part of
the spoils taken at different times from the Saracens,
yet few, if any, of these ever found their way to the
British shores. Two horses of Eastern origin, purchased
in Cyprus, were possessed by Richard, and are cele-
brated as having been unequalled for speed ; besides
these he had Arabians, but the shipwreck of his vessel
and his imprisonment in Austria prove that neither
these nor any of his effects reached England. Such
was the fate of the third Crusade, nor was that conducted
by Prince Edward, son of Henry III. (afterwards Ed-
ward I.), productive of any advantage.
It was most probably the paucity of fine studs of horses
in England, at the time of the death of Richard Cceur-
de-Lion, that induced John, who possessed scarcely one
valuable qualification, to devote considerable attention
to the improvement of the breeds of horses. A hun-
dred chosen steeds were introduced from Flanders, a
circumstance by which the heavier breeds would become
benefited : and ultimately this monarch accumulated a
stud of the most superb horses in Europe. During sub-
172
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
sequent reigns, Spanish barbs, gigantic Lombardy war-
horses, or Destriers, and heavy Flanders horses were
obtained, often at the cost of enormous sums of money,
and thus gradually several distinct breeds or stocks
would be produced, exclusive of the pony. Of these
breeds one was the war-horse, fitted to bear a warrior
in the heavy armour then worn, oppressive to the wearer,
but more so to the horse, which was also in a great de-
gree protected in the same manner. The principal re-
quisites were vast power and endurance, not however
to the exclusion of a certain degree of fleetness, com-
bined with fire, courage, and noble action. We may
perhaps see its representative in some of the higher-
bred stallions of the massive clean-limbed draught race
of the present day, with flowing mane, arched neck,
powerful shoulders, round barrel and broad croup, or
perhaps in some of the most noble and spirited of the
larger coach-horses. The chief colours were black, bay
(Bayard), and grey (Lyard, dappled grey; Sulyard,
greyish white, in ancient heraldry) ; or white (Blan-
chard).
Besides this stalwart breed, there was evidently a
lighter race, varying in qualifications and stature. Of
Hare-hunting. From Royal M.S. 2 B. vii.
PEINCIPAL ]\10DEEN EEEEDS.
173
this stock, some were serviceable for the road, possess-
ing- strength, activity, and endurance ; others of stili
lighter contour, prancing palfreys, were used on occa-
sions of show, or in' various field-sports, as hawking,
and hunting the smaller beasts of chase.
Horses of these lighter breeds were often termed
running horses, and were matched to run races, a sport
practised at Smithfield as early as the time of Henry II.,
PIor=es playing on the tabor.
1
HISTOEY OF THE HORSE.
though racing was not then what it is in modern days :
nevertheless, it gave great satisfaction to the " sporting-
men" of the olden time, and it may be hoped super-
seded the brutal practice of baiting horses, at one time
in vogue, and the puerile exhibition of ponies trained
to beat on tabors, or sounding shields with their fore
and hind feet, keeping time to the movements of the
exhibitor and the accompanying music (see p. 173).
Another breed of importance in all times is the cart-
horse. This breed, undervalued by warriors, nobles,
and knights, would necessarily vary in qualities as cir-
cumstances might influence it; yet with the improve-
ment of the other stocks would the old cart-horse be-
come elevated, though perhaps in a slower ratio, into
breeds which the agriculturist regarded with pride.
It might be less showy and spirited than the heavy war-
horse, but was equally powerful and more hardy.
In the reign of Henry II. an impetus was given to
the improvement of the horse in our island ; and that
monarch, who paid no little attention to the subject, en-
couraged the importation of horses calculated to elevate
our native stocks. Fitzstephen records the delight
which the citizens of London took in the Smithfield
races. Thus, then, after the exhaustion of horses in
England, of which so many were drained to Palestine,
King John gave the first stimulus to the improvement
of the breeds of horses, which continued progressive
through many reins. We learn from an edict respecting
the regulation of the price of horses published by
Richard II., that Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and
the north and east ridings of Yorkshire were then, as
now, noted breeding districts.
When the civil wars of the houses of York and Lan-
caster commenced, and England was deluged with blood,
it cannot be expected that in the midst of turmoil and
dissension men should enter into pursuits and operations
requiring personal security and general public tran-
quillity ; consequently the various breeds of horses be-
came neglected, the losses occasioned by war and rapint
were not repaired, and a marked deterioration ensued
PEINCIPAL MODEEN BEEEDS.
175
Nor does it appear that any decided amelioration was at-
tempted until the time of that unfeeling monarch Henry
VIII., who formed a stud of horses and jennets from
Spain, and issued several decrees relative to the stature
of stallions and mares, the former to be not less than
fifteen hands high, the latter not less than thirteen ; and,
moreover, that of these in every nobleman's park, a cer-
tain number should be kept for the purpose of breeding
under the superintendence of the magistrates, who were
enjoined at certain times to make a sort of survey of the
stock in parks, commons, and pasture-lands, and destroy
such as were below the standard, or were inferior and
unlikely " animals. The success of these laws, which,
after the death of Henry VIII., were abrogated, is
somewhat problematical. During the reign of Mary it
cannot be doubted that the nobles derived horses from
Spain, that country being open to England after the
marriage of the queen with the Spanish prince (after-
wards Philip II.) ; yet though a fine Andalusian or
Asturian stock prevailed to a limited extent in the pos-
session of the nobility, we have good reason for believing
that the general breeds of the country were at a low par.
Indeed, it is only' within a few years, comparatively
speaking, that the Cleveland bay, the Suffolk punch, and
the modern Lincolnshire black, with the huge grey
breed, became established in perfection.
We scarcely know what improvement in horses was
effected during the reign of Elizabeth, but we suspect
nothing of general importance. No doubt private indi-
viduals possessed fleet and well-bred steeds ; for though
the queen's cavalry was but indii%rently mounted, still
we read of races in her day, and learn that these were
not only much in vogue, but carried on with such a
spirit of betting as to have injured the fortunes of many
of the nobility. Jarvis Markham, who wrote on the
management of horses in 1559, the year after Elizabeth's
accession to the crown, speaks of running-horses ; but it
would appear that the races at this time were rather the
. result of private matches made between gentlemen wlio
, rode their own horses than of a definite racing code or
I
176
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
system carried on according to fixed and acknowledged re-
gulations. Neither does it appear that the importance of
racing (abstracted from any gambling) was appreciated ;
for we find that Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, in his
* Memoirs ' (printed in 1764 by Horace Walpole, at his
private press at Strawberry Hill), enumerates horse-
races among the sports which he thought unworthy a
man of honour. His words are: "The exercise I do
not approve of is running of horses, there being much
cheating in that kind ; neither do I see why a brave man
should delight in a creature whose chief use is to help
him to run away." Lord Herbert lived in the reigns of
Elizabeth, James, and Charles I., and his observations
either prove that racing was ill conducted altogether, or
are not worthy a man of sense ; for though we most
heartily disapprove of the gambling transactions of the
turf, it must be confessed that it is to the establishment
of races on definite principles under the jurisdiction of
men of honour and wealth that the elevation of the horse
n our island is due. In Lord Herbert's time, how^ever,
horse-racing was without system, and was, besides, most
probably, a disorderly affair. It was in the reign of
James I. that horse-racing assumed a definite character,
and became conducted according to fixed regulations.
The breed appropriated to this sport originally selected
for speed, now became improved by Arab, Turkish, and
Barbary admixture. James I. introduced the Arab, and
purchased one of great celebrated from a merchant of the
name of Markham for the then enormous sum of five
hundred pounds ; he also purchased a horse called the
White Turk, bred on the north coast of Africa, from
Mr. Place, afterwards stud-master of the Protector Oliver
Cromwell. The value of these horses of Arab blood
was at that time not rightly appreciated, the predilection
being for large and bony steeds ; nevertheless, James I.
persevered in the ideas he had formed, proving that he
understood horse-craft as well as king-craft. In his
reign it was at Garterly in Yorkshire, Croydon in Surrey,
and occasionally at Theobald's, near Enfield Chase,
where the king resided, that the races were held. The '
PEINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
177
horses were regularly trained, and the weight to be car-
ried by each regularly adjusted. The races generally
were at that time termed bell-races, or bell-courses, the
prize being a little golden bell, whence the expression,
not yet quite obsolete, of " bearing the bell," that is, of
carrying off the prize.
We may here notice two celebrated horses, the
Helmsley Turk, introduced : by George Villiers, first
Duke of Buckingham, and the Morocco barb, by Lord
Fairfax. The characters of the race-horse now began to
bo modified, and speed and mettle to be preferred to
bone and stature.
Charles I., who patronized racing, established the
course at Newmarket ; it was also customary to have
races at Hyde Park, but they do not appear to have been
long continued. On the fall of Charles I. races were
suspended till Charles II. came to the throne. This
monarch was devoted to the turf, and sent his master of
the horse to the Levant for the purpose of procuring
mares and stallions of Arab blood. He appointed races
at Datchet Mead while he resided at Windsor, revived
the Newmarket course, and entered horses in his own
name ; the prize-bell was exchanged for a silver bowl or
cup of the value of a hundred guineas, and upon this
royal gift the name and pedigree of the winning horse
were usually engraved. During the subsequent reigns
of James II., William III., and Anne, racing continued,
and received royal patronage. It was in the reign of
I the latter sovereign that the celebrated Darley Arabian,
bred in the deserts of Palmyra, was introduced. This
horse became the progenitor of some of the most re-
nowned of our racing stock ; he was the sire of Flying
Childers, and the founder of the Eclipse progeny. At a
subsequent period Lord Godolphin's barb, generally
called the Godolphin Arabian, contributed to the cele-
brity of the English racer, and founded the Matchem
stock. We may also notice the Byerley Turk, the origin
of the Herod blood, to which belonged High-flyer, ac-
counted the best horse of his time in England. From
these and other Eastern sources, Barbs, Arabs, and
178 HISTOEY OF THE HOESE.
Persians, have descended a stock unequalled by any ir
the world for spirit and fleetness.
Anglo-Arab Horse,
Among racers remarkable for extraordinary speed,
VyQ may notice the following : Bay Malton, the property
of the Marquis of Rockingham, ran at York four miles
in seven minutes and forty-three and a half seconds.
Flying Childers, supposed to be the fleetest horse ever
bred, has been known to move eighty-two feet and a-hali
in a second, that is, nearly at the rate of a mile in a
minute. , On the long course at Newmarket, which is
four miles and about three hundred and eighty yards,
he went the distance in seven minutes and a-half ; and
on the short course, three miles, six furlongs, and ninety
three yards, he ran the circuit in six minutes and forty
seconds.
PBINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
119
Eclipse was supposed to be the fleetest horse next to
the Flying Childers, but was perhaps not much supe-
rior to Firetail, who in 1772 ran a mile in one minute
and four seconds. In 1786 Mr. Hull's horse Quibbler,
ran twenty-three miles round the flat at Newmarket in
fifty-seven minutes and ten seconds, — a most extraordi-
nary instance of speed and endurance. At the present
time England can boast of a splendid collection of high-
bred racers ; yet we do not often hear of such extraor-
dinary speed being displayed by any as by the horses
just alluded to, and we attribute this to the practice of
over-forcing the powers of the animals while young, in
order to bring them, at the age of three years, upon the
turf. Let it be remembered that the severe processes
01 breaking and training are completed in the second
3^ear ; that before the noble creature has its powers fairly
developed, its strength and speed are taxed to the ut-
termost ; it is urged on in the race, strained in every
limb, and worn out before it has attained maturity. It is
broken in constitution, Vvhile young, by a premature ex-
action of intense muscular exertion, and unless the prac-
tice be abolished, a degeneracy in the breed will infallibly
be the result. What but a degenerate progeny can be
expected from parents broken down in constitution by
heavy toil before maturity ?
With the elevation of the thorough-bred race-horse is
Race Mure and Foal.
180
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
connected that of the modern hunter, from which great
speed, power, and endurance are especially required.
The chase of the stag and fox is now carried on at a
killing speed ; the impetuous rider urges his horse to the
most terrific leaps, nor checks his pace over heavy ground,
wet, fallow, or ploughed lands, miry lanes, and heaths
rough with furze and bramble. Gallantly and well
through many a long burst is the noble animal expected
to bear perhaps a heavy rider ; and excited by the sport
strenuously does he exert every muscle in his sinewy
frame. The best hunters are nearly thorough-bred, per-
haps seven-eighths racer blood, and by a judicious system
of breeding, enormous strength, bone, and muscle have
been brought to combine with fire and fleetness. Such
are the steeds
more fleet than those
Begot by winds,* or the celestial breed
That bore the great Pelides through the press
Of heroes arm'd, and broke their crowded ranks.'
Somerville.
The subjoined anecdote was recently communicated
to us by Mr. Comport, of Rochford, Essex. It relates
to the feat of a hunter in the possession ot' that gentle-
man's late father, who was an ardent lover of the chase :
" In the winter of 1812, the harriers of Mr. Thomas
Comport, of Malmains Hall, Stoke, near Rochester,
came upon a buck which had escaped out of the Earl of
Darnley's park, at Cobham, and ran it upwards of twenty
miles right out. It is not my object however to describe
this chase, which was a most surprising one, but to re-
late an incident which occurred in the course of it.
Mr. Comport's horse, a gelding, upwards of seventeen
hands high, equal to eighteen stone, which was about the
weight Mr. Comport rode, in the course of this remark-
able chase, came to a fence which was unknown to
Mr. Comport, consisting of what Mr. Comport thought
to be merely a hedge and ditch, the hedge being upon a
high bank, and the ditch, about six feet wide, coming
* The poet here alludes to the ancient fable respecting the
Lusitanian mares impregnated by the Favonian wind. (See-
Virgil's Georgics, lib. iii. 1. 272, et seq., and Pliuy, viii. c. 42.)
PEINCIPAL MODEEN BEEEDS.
181
first. Mr. Comport rode the horse at the fence, and the
horse took it in grand style, and was in the act of cover-
ing the fence, when to Mr. Comport's surprise, and
apparently that of his horse, he discovered a wide ditch
also on the other side of the hedge : the plunging into
the second ditch appeared inevitable, but to Mr. Com-
port's astonishment the horse by some means checked
his leap, and, doubling his fore legs under him, came on
the bank on the opposite side of the hedge, and taking
another spring, cleared the second ditch safe and wide.
Mr. Comport, who is lately dead, and who had followed
the hounds for more than forty years, has often been
heard to declare that this leap was the most extraordi-
nary he had ever seen or heard of."
Certainly both the horse and the rider must have pos-
sessed an extraordinary degree of nerve and presence
of mind.
Ireland boasts of a fine and high-bred race of hunters,
which possess immense fire, courage, strength, and speed.
These horses are more angular than the English, and
perhaps in general are not so well ribbed up, but are
nevertheless capable of tremendous exertion. Over the
high banks and limestone walls dividing the fields, the
Irish hunter leaps with singular address ; instead of at-
tempting to clear such obstacles by a flying leap, as would
the uninitiated English hunter, he bounds to the top, and
of striking the wall first with his fore then with his hind
J hoofs, springs down, executing the feat with the agility
je : of a deer.
«■ , The following excellent observations on the treatment
of the hunter, we extract from the ' Penny Cyclopaedia.^
El The principles laid down apply to all horses from which
^6 quick and laborious work is exacted, as the roadster and
stage-coach horse : —
10 " During the sporting season the hunter is well fed,
ii' and with that kind of food which contains a great pro-
i portion of nutriment in little compass. A small quantity
3S of hay, rarely more than eight or ten pounds per day, is
allowed, and less than that on the day before work. The
i« ! quantity of corn may vary from fourteen to sixteen pounds
1)
162
HISTORY OF THE HOUSE.
daily. There is a prejudice in most hunting stables, and
probably well founded, against chafF, and it is^seldom that
the beans and oats are bruised. A bran-mash is given after
a day of more than usual latigue, and is serviceable at
other times, when there has not been more than ordi-
naiy work, provided that at least two days are suffered
to elapse before the horse is again taken into the field.
" No horse should be urged on after he has exhibited
unequivocal symptoms of distress, such as a drooping
pace, a staggering gait, a heavy bearing on the hand, a
rapid inspiration like a hurried sigh, and a peculiar con-
vulsive action of the diaphragm, as though the heart were
violently beating against the side. The loss of blood,
the administration of some cordial medicine, and slow
leading to the nearest stable, are the best restoratives at
<he moment of distress ; although the cordial would be
absolutely destructive a few hours afterwards, when in-
flammation had commenced.
" The hunting season having passed, the horse used to
be turned into the field as soon as the grass had begun
fairly to sprout, and there, with his feed or two feeds of
corn daily, and his hovel, into which he might retreat
from the sun or the storm, he. remained until the middle
of June, or the flies began to be troublesome. It was
delightful to see how much he enjoyed this short period of
liberty ; and well had he earned it. Of late years how-
ever it has become the fashion to confine him to his box,
whence he stirs not except for an hour's walking exer-
cise on the road, until he is taken into training for the
next winter's business.
" Nothing can be so erroneous or cruel as this. There
are few horses that have not materially suffered in their
legs and feet before the close of the hunting season.
There cannot be anything so refreshing to their feet as
the damp coolness of the herbage which they tread at
that period, and there is no ])hysic which so safely and
cfiectually as the spring grass carries off every humour
that may be lurking in their framiC.
" The training of the hunter for his work is a simple
aftair. It is, by means of exercise and of physic, getting
PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
183
English Hunter.
rid of all superfluous fat and flesh, without debilitating-
him. The physic is useful ; it is indispensable ; but the
chief thing is gradually to accustom him to the exertion
of every power that he possesses, without too much
hurrying his breathing, or overstraining or injuring
him."
The horses bred in the present day for the road and
the light cavalry, are from half to three quarters pure
blood ; such were also the horses used for the lighter
stage-coaches, more particularly on certain lines of road
before the powers of steam had rendered their services
unnecessary. It is not many years - since that we our-
selves came up from Brighton to London in five hours,
and splendid were the horses harnessed at each relay.
It was not however on every road that such horses were
kept.
There was a time, not very long ago, when coaches
were few, not as now, because railroads are laid down
in every direction, but because the roads were almost
impassable by such modes of conveyance, and when men
travelled almost exclusively on horseback — not without
a just fear of the mounted highwayman. Our readers
will remember Sir Walter Scott's account of the journey
184
HISTORY OF THE HOESE.
of young Osbaldiston to the north, and his adventure
with Morris, in the novel of ' Rob Roy.' It is a true
picture of the mode of travelling in the early part of the
eighteenth century. The fact is, that when the internal
commerce of England began to be developed, good roads
were few — nor was it till long afterwards that they were
constructed — and a well-seasoned roadster was an im-
portant animal ; far more so than in these modern days,
when no one would dream of travelling from London to
York on horseback. The old roadster in the time of our
great-grandfathers was a stout muscular horse, with tirm-
set limbs, and good action — he might have been half-
bred, or between a three-parts blood-horse and one of
the light draught breeds — and was capable of enormous
fatigue. It was less of rapidity than power of endur-
ance that was required, and upon this principle did the
breeder modify the old roadster.
Though the following directions for the treatment of
the roadsted saddle-horse may not be much needed, yet
as they apply to the gig-horse of the traveller, which is
often as high-bred, or nearly so, as the hunter, it may
not be amiss to recite them.
The horse should undergo some degree of training
Old Roadster,
PRINCIPAL MODEHN BEEEDS.
185
as to the pace, the distance, and the burden. When
there has been no preparation, the stages must at first be
short and the pace gentle. For a journey of three hun-
dred miles," the horse may travel from twenty to twenty-
five miles a day, resting on the Sunday, and doing the
work in tw^o stages, at the pace of six miles an hour.
This recjuires a seasoned horse, and the number of work-
ing hours per day is about four.
" The watering of the horse is a very important but dis-
regarded portion of his general management. The kind
of water has not been sufficiently considered. The dif-
ference between what is termed hard and soft water is a
circumstance of general observation. The former con-
tains certain saline principles which decom.pose some
bodies, as in the curdling of soap ; and prevent the so-
lution of others, as in the making of tea, the boiling of
vegetables, and the process of brewing. It is natural to
suppose that these different kinds of water would pro-
duce somewhat different effects on the animal frame, and
such is the fact. Hard water, freshly drawn from the
well, will frequently roughen the coat of the horse un-
accustomed to it, or cause griping pains, or materially
lessen the animal's pow er of exertion. The racing and
the hunting groom are perfectly aware of this ; and so is
the horse, for he will refuse the purest water fi om the
vv ell, if he can obtain access to the running stream, or
even the turbid pool. Where there is the power of
choice, the softer water should undoubtedly be preferred.
" The temperature of the water is of far more conse-
quence than its hardness. It will rarely harm if taken
from the pond or the running stream, but its coldness
when recently drawn from the well has often been in-
jurious. It has produced colic, spasm, and even death.
It should therefore be exposed for some hours, either in
the stable or in some tank.
" There is often considerable prejudice against the horse
being fairly supplied with water. It is supposed to chill
him ; to injure his wind, or to incapacitate him for hard
work. It certainly would do so, if, immediately after
drinking his fill, he were galloped hard, but not if he
186
HISTORY OF THE IIOBSE.
^vcre suffered to quench his thirst more frequently when
at rest in the stable. The horse that has irce access to
water wil! not drink so much in the course of a day as
another who, to cool his parched mouth, swallows as fast
as he can, and knows not when to stop.
" When on a journey a horse may with perfect safety
be far more liberally supplied with water than he gene-
rally is. An hour before his work commences he should
be permitted to drink a couple of quarts. A greater
quantity might probably be objected to. lie will per-
ibrm his task far more pleasantly and effectively than
with a parched mouth and tormenting thirst. The pre-
judice both of the hunting and the training groom on
this point is cruel as well as injurious. The task or the
journey being accomplished, and the horse having
breathed a few minutes, another quart, or even two, will
be delightfully refreshing to him, and will never do him
liarm. His corn may then be offered to him, which he
will readily take ; and before he has eaten the whole of
it two or three more quarts of water miiy be given.
" Towards the close of the day the speed of the traveller
should somewhat abate, and the horse should arrive at
his resting-place as dry and as cool as circumstances will
permit. If he is hot he must be walked about awhile,
or the perspiration will return in the stable. If he is
wet he must be carefully rubbed dry. The sooner this
is done the better ; and after he is clothed, watered, fed,
and bedded, he sliould as soon as possible be left to his
i-eposo.
" The horse of quick work, the stage-coach horse and
the poster, should be allowed as much as he will eat,
care being taken that no more is put into the manger than
he will readily dispose of. The quantity actually eaten
will depend on the degree of work and the natural appe-
tite of the horse, but it may be averaged at about sixty-
six pounds of chaff, seventeen and a half ])ounds of beans,
and seventy-seven of oats per week. When the work is
luuisually hard, the quantity of oats may be diminished,
that of beans increased, and a portion of barley added."
We may now turn to the slow draught horse, of which
rrJNCIPAL MODEEN BREEDS.
187
the finer breeds in our country are decidedly unequalled
by any in the world. It is true that between these noble
animals, the giants of their race and the half-starved ill-
ibrmcd drudge of the costermonger's cart, there are many
grhdations, and these lower and neglected animals serve
to show us what the old cart-horse was, till by care and
various crossings it became elevated into the Cleveland"
bay, the Suffolk punch, and the huge Lincolnshire black,
or mottled grey.
The Suiiblk punch is now seldom to be seen purc^
being much crossed with other breeds, to which it has
imparted compactness of form and power. We suspect
that it greatly contributed to the establishment of our
best old roadsters.
With respect to the Cleveland bay, it is confined in
its greatest purity principally to Durham and Yorkshire ;
it is one of the sources of our best hunters, crossed re-
peatedly by the blood-horse, and a breed between it and
a blood-horse of sufficient bone and stature constitutes the
splendid coach-horse, with arched neck, and noble bear-
ing. It is, moreover, one of the sources of our best
iiackneys and gig-horses.
The Lincolnshire black exceeds all other breeds in
stature and massiveness, and is a magnificent animal.
Its perfection is to be attributed to the Flander's horse,
and it is of this admirable mixed breed that the teams
in the distiller's and brewer's waggons in London are
chiefly composed. No one can behold them without
being struck with their appearance. Their strength is
prodigious, and many stand seventeen hands in height,
or even more. There is an enormous grey breed, ex-
hibiting the same power and stature ; it is evidently the
result of a cross between the ancient grey stock and the
huge Flemish. The largest and heaviest horses we ever
saw on the continent were mottled greys. A breed be-
tween the heavy Lincolnshire horse and the old Suffolk
punch is esteemed for superior activity.
Massive and huge as are the noble dray-horses which
the wealthy brewers and distillers of London pride them-
selves in displaying, it is astonishing to observe how
188
HISTOr.Y OF THE HOESE.
* • - English Cart-PIorse.
obedient and gentle they are. The voice of the driver
is sufficient to control or direct them, and they often
display remarkable intelligence.
The ordinary cart-horses of our country, and those
employed in the labours of the farm, are smaller, lighter,
and more active than the huge dray-horses above de-
scribed, and vary as to their degree of excellence, and
the amount of work they are capable of undergoing, A
good cart-horse will work eight or ten hours daily for
six days in the week -the pace will vary from two miles
and a half to three and a half per hour, according to the
weight, which, besides the cart (seven or eight hundred
weight), should never exceed twenty-four hundred
weight. All beyond this in weight, or in the time of
working, is oppressive and cruel. In ploughing, the
severity of the v/ork is dependent on the pace, the nature
of the soil, and the breadth of the furrow-slice. In ge-
PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
189
neral the pace is not more than at the rate of a mile and
a half or two miles an hour — the furrow varying from
eight inches to eleven. The distance travelled is usually
from twelve to sixteen miles daily during the season,
nor will this labour be too much either for the horse or
man.
" The agricultural horse," says an able writer, " is
seldom overworked, and on large farms is generally well
fed ; perhaps, in many cases, too much above his work.
This, however, is an error on the right side. A very
slight inspection of the animal will always enable the
owner to determine whether he is too well or not suffi-
ciently fed. The size of the horse, and the nature of the
work, and the season of the year, will make considerable
difference in the quantity and the quality of the food.
The following accounts will sufficiently elucidate the
general custom : — ' Mr. Harper, of Bank Hall, Lanca-
shire, ploughs seven acres per week, the year through,
on strong land with a team of three horses, and allows to
each weekly two bushels of oats, with hay, during the
winter six months, and during the remainder of the year
one bushel of oats per week, with green food. Mr.
EUman, of Glynde, in Sussex, allows two bushels of
oats, with pease-haulm or straw, with but very little hay,
during thirty winter weeks. He gives one bushel of
oats with green food during the summer.'* There is
very little difference in the management of these two
gentlemen, and that probably arising from circumstances
peculiar to their respective farms. The grand principles
of feeding with reference to agricultural horses are, to
keep the animal rather above his work, to give him good
and wholesome food, and, by the use of the nose-bag,
or other means, never to let him be worked more than
four or five hours without being baited."
Formerly a breed of pack-horses existed in England,
and most of the internal traffic of the country was car-
ried on by their means. Since the improvement of our
roads, however, the pack-horse has nearly disappeared,
* Agricultural Survey of Sussex, pp. 378, 381.
IIISTOllY Oi< THE H.OKSE.
lingering only in the more barren and hilly districts.
We have seen them in Derbyshire. These horses, of
small size, but active and hardy, used to travel in single
iile, headed by a leader furnished M'ith bells, so that in
the darkness of night, or enveloped by the dense mist
■which rests so often on the mountain side, the troop are
enabled to follow their experienced leader, or if scat-
tered, to rejoin the procession. In Derbyshire, or
rather in the Peak district of that county, these pack-
horses carry lime and sand. They are, however, less
frequently to be met with than formerly. Nevertheless ^
during a late visit to Buxton we saw several strings of
pack-horses, traversing the rough roads in the vicinity
of that village. These Peak horses are invariably
" knock-kneed" or " cow-kneed" on the hinder limbs,
and, if we may be permitted to judge, are the relics of
a very ancient unimproved breed. In attestation of the
once universal employment of the pack-horse, we find
roadside inns and houses of public entertainment in
various parts of the country thus designated, with an
appropriate sign over the door. At Turnham Green,
near London, for example, an inn of long standing re-
tains the name of ' The Pack-horse,' and by its title calls
to mind the time when the roads around the metropolis,
impracticable by wheeled carriages, were traversed by
cavalcades of laden horses, bearing packages of mer-
chandise. (See Shakspere's ' Henry V.' Pt. i. Actii.)
We have already stated that from a very early and
indefinite period a race of hardy ponies existed in our
island. Such were the steeds of the ancient Britons at
the period of the invasion of the Romans ; and from
that time to the present various breeds have maintained
their existence in the kingdom ; some of them remark-
able for spirit and beauty. It is to be observed, how-
ever, that the mountainous, wild, and barren districts
are their special nursery ; and consequently Wales, the
Shetland Isles and Orkneys, the Isle of Man, Dart-
moor, and the New Forest are noted for their ponies.
The Welsh pony is often a model, and is as active
and spirited as it is beautiful , a small head, a large full
PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS.
191
eye, short sharp ears, high withers, a deep yet round
body, short joints, flat legs, and small round hoofs, are
the characteristics of the best breed. Free and vigorous
in their actions, these miniature horses are endowed
with great powers of endurance, and in their own
mountain-home will tire out roadsters of far larger sta-
ture ; in fact their strength is much greater than might
at first be supposed.
"Welsh Pony.
In the Orkney and Shetland Isles the pony is still
less in size than the Welsh, but is often very handsome.
The shoulders, however, are apt to be thick and low,
yet the limbs are well knit, and the strength and spirit
of the little creatures are astonishing. Sir Walter Scott's
portraiture of these ponies, in his novel of ' The Pirate,*
is very characteristic ; they are in fact only semi-re-
claimed in their " misty islands,"
In Scotland a hardy race of ponies is very generally
used. Dandie Dinmont, his pony Dumple, and his dogs
192
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
Mustard and Pepper, form a group familiar to all our
readers.
An original contributor to the ' Penny Magazine,'
gives us, in his ' Notes on the New Forest,' the follow-
ing interesting observations on the half-wild ponies bred
in that district. Here, he says, " we have the horse
returned almost to a state of nature, and, true to all such
returns, possessing, in his small dimensions and under
his shaggy exterior, spirit and strength for which we
may seek in vain in those animals of the species which
have been bred to beauty, to symmetry, and to moment-
ary speed, at the expense of their more permanent and
more valuable qualities. The New Forest horse is, in-
deed, quite a study to those who wish to see the natural
development of this most useful animal, and to learn in
what way and to what extent his natural qualities are
broken in upon, even by what is considered the most
skilful and the most successful breeding.
The New Forest horses are not bred for size, sym-
metry, or any other particular character, but are left, as
we may say, to the general development of all the pro-
perties of the horse, good or bad, as man may esteem
them. These horses belong to the borderers on the
forest, who have rights of pasturage, or to the cottagers.
Until they are fit for the market, the New Forest horses
are left to shift for themselves as they best can ; and
though they are somebody's property, they are not pro-
perty which is cherished or even decently protected. In
summer they show that instinct upon which the domes-
tication of the horse depends, by associating together in
considerable herds ; and as they are tolerably well led
and correspondingly frisky at this season, the sight of
them scampering about through the forest, with a free-
dom and glee quite unknown among home-bred horses,
is exceedingly pleasant. In winter the scantiness of the
pasture forces them to break up their associations, and
they live dispersedly, generally in the cover of the trees,
adding the withered leaves, especially of the beech, to
the other produce of the soil ; and at this season of the
year they are exceedingly shaggy in their appearance.
PKINCIPAL MODEEN BEEEDS.
193
though the cleanness of their limbs and the fieetness of
their movements are not a jot abated. In the humid
parts of the forest they often suffer severely when the
winter is peculiarly inclement, because the withered grass
is flooded, and the frost seals it up under a coating of
ice ; but when they can find their way to the elevated
and dry moors, upon which no trees will grow, they find
a Avinter's repast in the furze, with which these are co-
vered in all situations where the soil is of a quality supe-
rior to the cragsand. In managing this prickly food,
which, by the way, is exceedingly wholesome even for
domesticated horses, they show some science, if the con-
duct of animals can be called by that name : they do not
attempt to grapple with the furze as it stands baj'^oneted
in a state of nature, but use the fore-foot in pounding
it ; and when it has efficiently performed this operation,
they eat it, not only with impunity, but with apparent
satisfaction. This affords a very useful lesson to man,
and it is one which is sometimes followed ; for, in many
districts where furze is abundant, it is bruised in mills
or by other means, and makes excellent green food for
horses during the winter months.
" In general the New Forest horses are captured and
sold for slaves, as one would say ; that is, for the per-
formance of labour at too early an age : for it seems a law
of nature that when these animals are left to themselves,
they are much longer in arriving at maturity than when
they are forced by what may be termed artificial means.
This peculiarity of the law of nature does not, however,
impair the usefulness of the animal or shorten the period
of that usefulness ; for when these forest horses are al-
lowed to run wild till they are about seven or eight
years old, their constitutions are fully established, and
they can undergo much and severe labour far beyond the
ordinary age of artificially reared horses. It is true
that, when allowed to run wild so long, these horses
are difficult to catch, and in most instances more difficult
to train ; but when they are once trained, they are ex-
ceedingly valuable — hardy, swift, sure-footed, and sel-
dom if ever subject to disease. In their manners they
194
HISTORY OF THE HOUSE.
bear some resemblance to the wild horses of South
America, of which such a lively description is given by-
Head, in his ' Rough Notes on the Pampas and, per-
haps, as the climate of the New Forest is somewhat dif-
ferent from that of the plains of South America, they
are superior both jn strength and in spirit. The forest
clowns who are employed in capturing the horses some-
times attempt to take them with a noose, something
after the same manner as the Gauchos do in South Ame-
rica ; but their noose and their mode of using it are
very clumsy and bungling as compared with the Ame-
rican lasso.
" According to the ordinary estimation of those who
are fond of fancy horses, the New Forest horse is by no
means beautiful : but he is. not a little picturesque, and
liarmonises well with the scenes in which he is found.
His tail and mane are at all times copious and flowing ;
and during the winter months his coat is somewhat
shaggy. When, however, he is taken into domestic
service, well fed, and sheltered from the weather, his
coat becomes habitually sleek, while the abundance of
the mane and tail remain. Perhaps one of the most ob-
jectionable points, and it is not a general one, is the
length of the body as compared with that of the legs ;
but, notwithstanding this, the back of the animal is
strong ; and though his head is rather heavy in appear-
ance, his neck is strong, and he carries it well."
These ponies we regard as the descendants of the an-
cient British stock. That they are superior to the feral
horses of South America, as the writer seems to inti-
mate, we can by no means admit. To enter into details
of all the breeds (interblended as they are) of the horse
within the British Isles, is out of the question, and to
record the numerous extraordinary performances of the
racer, the hunter, and the roadster, with which the
Sporting magazines are replete, is less the part of a zoo-
logist, than of a man devoted to the turf. It is to the
natural history of this noble and eminently useful animal
that our pages are devoted.
The movements of the horse, and the arrangement of
PEINCIPAL MODERN BEEEDS.
19a; r
the bones of the limbs, have already been noticed ; the
following- additional remarks, selected from one of a
series of interesting papers in the ' Penny Magazine ' ibr
1844, on the Locomotion of Animals, are worthy of
consideration.
" Quadrupeds (says the writer) move their fore-logs
either singly and successively, and in various orders
which correspond to the ditfercnt velocities of the ani-
mal. These different kinds of movement of the legs are
known under the terms walking, trotting, galloping, and
leaping.
"As everybody is familiar with the horse, we shall
select that animal to illustrate the manner in which the
locomotion of quadrupeds in, general is effected. The
subject possesses more or less interest to most persons,
yet of the millions of people who are in the daily habit
of seeing the horse in motion, how very few consider
Figures illustrative of action of Horse.
196
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
the means by which the movements of that valuable
animal are performed. Let us suppose the horse to be
standing on its four legs, as in Fig. 4, and that it com-
mences the walking step by moving its left hind-leg,
as in Fig. 1 ; this having been advanced and placed
on the ground, the right fore-leg is next raised and
advanced, as in Fig. 2, and having been placed on the
ground, the right hind-leg performs a similar move-
ment, and the legs of the animal are in the position
Fig. 3 ; lastly, the left fore-leg is advanced, and placed
in the position of Fig. 4. These four movements com-
plete the step, and during the series the centre of
gravity of the animal passes over a corresponding space.
This is the order in which nearly all quadrupeds move
their legs in slow walking ; but some authors do not !
coincide in this statement, amongst whom is Borelli,
who has figured the horse as moving both the legs on
the same side at once in walking, as some horses are
taught to do in the amble, and as the giraffe is said to do
naturally.
" A little consideration will clear up the error into
which Borelli and others have fallen respecting the
horse. It will be observed from the foregoing state-
ment _that the left hind-leg moves first ; the right fore-
leg second ; the right hind-leg third ; and the left
fore-leg fourth. Now if we do not analyse this order
of motion from its commencement, we may easily be
deceived ; for in walking by a horse, the two legs
appear indeed to move together on the same side, but
this arises from the continuity of the series of move-
ments, which we find begins with the left hind-leg,
and terminates with the left fore-leg ; being in like
manner the movement of the right fore-leg followed b}'
that of the right hind-leg ; which continuity of move-
ment, if not carefully discriminated, gives an impressior
that the animal moves both legs on the same side simul-
taneously.
" The Trot. — In trotting, the horse moves its legs ii
pairs diagonally : thus, if the legs a d {Fig. 5) be raisec
and advanced first, the legs b e will be raised the in
PEINCIPAL MODEEN BEEEDS.
197
stant those designated hy a d reach the ground. On
the other hand, when the legs b e are raised before
the legs a d reach the ground, there is a minute in-
terval during which all the legs are raised above the
ground at the same time. In trotting each leg moves
rather more frequently in the same period of time than
in walking, or nearly as 6 to 5. But the velocity ac-
quired by moving the legs in pairs, instead of consecu-
tively, depends on the circumstance that, in trotting,
each leg rests on the ground a short time, and swings;
Tlie Trot.
during a long one ; whilst in walking each leg swings^
during a short period, and rests during a comparatively
long one. In walking, the trunk oscillates laterally,
whereas in trotting it oscillates vertically ; but in each
of these kinds of movement there appears to be a slight
motion of the trunk of the animal both laterally and ver-
tically.
" It may be observed that the vertical line traversing
the base of support passes through the horse in such
a manner as to leave by far the greater part of tlie
weight of the body to be supported by the two fore-legs.
" The Gallop. — In galloping, the horse adopts three
different methods of using its organs of locomotion,
which are distinguished by the number and the order in
which the feet reach the ground.
" First order of motion — When a horse begins to gallop
on the right, the left hind-leg reaches the ground first ;
the right hind-leg and left fore-leg next follow at the
K
198
HISTORY OF THE HOUSE.
sauic time, and the right fore-leg last. This is called
the gallop of three beats.
Second order of motion. — If the four legs reach the
ground in succession, the left hind-foot reaches the
ground first, the right hind-foot second, the left fore-
foot third, and the right fore-foot fourth. This is the
gallop of four beats, sometimes denominated the canter.
This order of movement is not adapted for great speed,
but is an agreeable motion in riding on horseback for
ladies, or for gentlemen who ride lazily, or badly.
"Third order of motion, — In this kind of action the
orse moves the legs in the same order as in trotting ;
lat is, the left hind and right fore feet reach the
ground simultaneously, then the right hind and left
fore feet. This is the order in which the feet move in
racing, and whenever the greatest speed is required.
It is called the gallop of two beats.
" Leaping. — In leaping, the horse raises the fore-legs
I'rom the ground, and projects the body upwards and
forwards by the hind-legs alone. It is well known that
they leap rivulets, hedges, and ditches, with great ease,
even under the burden of heavy riders ; but to accom-
plish this an enormous expenditure of muscular action
must be required ; since the muscles which produce the
effect act at a great mechanical disadvantage.
' ' Horses which are constituted for great speed have the
shoulder-joints directed at a considerable angle with the
arm, Saintbell has given the relative proportions of the
several parts of the skeleton of the celebrated race-horse
Eclipse, together with the angles of inclination and
range of motion belonging to the joints of the legs.
According to his account, that horse, when galloping at
liberty, and at its greatest speed, passed over twenty-
five feet at each step : these strides were taken two and
a half times in a second, being at the rate of about four
miles in six minutes and two seconds, or forty miles in
an hour and twenty seconds."
( 199 )
CHAPTER VII.
ON THE ASS AND MULE.
[Domestic Ass.
From the contemplation of the horse in a state of subjec-
tion to man, let us turn to that of its humble relative the
ass. In our country, at least, this patient, serviceable
jeast is almost uniformly treated with contempt and even
cruelty ; it i^ neglected and underv-alued, yet to the poor
out industrious cottager it is an animal of no mean im-
portance. We agree with Mr. Bell that it is " obstinate
and stubborn," "indefatigable and enduring in labour,"
" the drudge of man," and " sunk in abject and hopeless
slavery ;" but not that it is " endowed with very limited
intelligence." Who that has marked the lively ass-colt
with its picturesque head and dark bright eyes gambolling
iiisTora' or the hoese.
around its clam in all the exuberance of animal buoyancy^
before " sharp misery has worn it to the bone," and blows
and starvation have crushed its energies — who, we say,
that has marked this picture, so worthy of Landseer s
pencil, would say that deficiency of animal intelligence
was its inborn characteristic ? Who that has seen the
dam defend her colt from the worrying dog, striking
with her fore-feet and ready to seize with her teeth,
w ould charge the creature with apathy ? Indeed, the
talented writer alluded to admits that these despised
animals occasionally exhibit a far higher character than
that ordinarily assigned to them, adding, "the most re-
markable instance of this kind within my own knowledge
was that of an ass in the possession of an ancestor of mine
w ho from age and disease was obliged to give up riding :
on horseback and betake himself to the easier, exercise of;
this animal's more gentle paces. Geheral, for that was-
the name of the ass in question, was of an unusual stature
— at least for those bred in this country. His pace was
easy and free, but swift perhaps beyond example, and
many times before my grandfather obtained him he had
been in at the death after a tolerably hard fox-chase.
Matches had often been made, and asses of unusual power
and fleetness had been placed against him ; but he never
met with a competitor. He was doeile, also, and. gentle,
and having survived his master, to the comfort of whose
latter days he had essentially contributed, he spent the
remainder of his life in ease and idleness, and at his
death was buried with due honours in his own little
paddocl^."
Instances of great docility, not unmixed with consider-
able spirit, in the ass, have come under ou^- own notice ;
we have known this animal open the fastenings of doors
and gates in order to free itself and rejoin its companions,
displaying no little skill and perseverance in the accom-
plishment of the work. When hampered by fetters, as
we often see it in lanes or on large commons, the address
with which it contrives to hobble along, while at the
same time it does itself no injury by passionate struggles
which would be both painful and unavailing, cannot have
THE ASS AND MULE.
201
been unobserved. All this is attributed to dullness and
apathy ; we should leather consider this caution and good
management under difficulties, as resulting from pru-
dence and sagacity. Let it be remembered that the
brain of the ass is proportionably larger than that of the
horse, we believe nearly in the ratio of eight to five.
The memory of the ass is very retentive, and it seldom
or never forgets the intricacies of a road once traversed ;
this animal has been known to return voluntarily from a
great distance over most toilsome paths, and after a con-
siderable absence, to its old home ; thus evincing local
attachment, or even attachment to some particular person,
no less than a union of memory, circumspection, and
boldness. The ass refuses to move if its eyes be covered
— a circumstance in accordance with the feelings of a
quadruped destined by nature to traverse irregular and
precipitous paths, where a keenness of vision is requisite
in order to ensure safety. Again, when overloaded, this
animal hangs its head, slouches its long ears, and assumes
that stolid look which is considered, but erroneously, as
characteristic of stupidity. With a heavy burden it can,
indeed, travel very far ; but it must go its own pace, for
it is unfitted (as a general rule) for sudden and rapid
exertion, and when I'airly overtasked it can only be urged
forward by most unwarrantable and barbarous severity of
chastisement. In this respect it difl^ers widely from the
horse, of which the generous self-devotion to the will of
man, as it is called, frequently impels it to exert its
powers until it drops dead. Which kind of conduct wins
the most admiration from man is not a matter of doubt,
but which evinces the greater share of real wisdom and
sagacity is quite another matter.
So far, then, do we contend against the correctness of
the prevailing ideas entertained respecting the innate
stupidity of this persevering, useful, and, in England,
brutally treated animal, the value of which in other
countries is more justly appreciated. England, we may
add, is by no means a congenial residence for the ass —
neither the climate nor the productions seem thoroughly
suited to its constitution ; here it is degenerated, and dis-
202
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
plays, but in a low degree, those qualities which render
it, and have rendered it, time immemorial so much in
request in Western Asia. In fact, the ass has radiated
from its original nursery more slowly than most other
domestic animals. Aristotle observes, that in his time
there were no asses in Pontus, Scythia,'or in the country
of the Celts (France and Germany) ; and as late as the
reign of Queen Elizabeth the ass was either extremely
rare or not extant in our island.* Nevertheless, the ass
was domesticated, as we have every reason to believe, at
an epoch prior to the horse : it is enumerated among the
riches of the patriarchs, and when the horse was in use
among the Israelites and other nations of Syria it con-
tinued the ordinary riding-beast — the beast of civil life,
in contradistinction to the horse, which was more espe-
cially appropriated to war. With respect to the origin
of the domestic ass, most writers refer it to the onager
or koulan ; but it is not improbable that other species
interbreeding with this may have contributed to the
modifications which the domestic ass from a remote period
appears to have presented. The ass, however, has never
lost the indications which prove that the "original stock
was destined by nature for a dry rugged mountainous
country, destitute of luxurious humid plains, abounding
with succulent vegetation. The hoofs, unlike those of
the horse, are long, concave beneath, with extremely
sharp rims, and admirably adapted for treading with se-
curity on slippery rough declivities, which, as experience
has fully taught, are ill-suited for the round flat hoof of the
horse. The shoulders are comparatively lower and the
croup higher than in the horse, and the animal can
better support a weight thrown partially on the croup or
hip-bones than when placed behind the withers sustained
by the dorsal vertebrae ; in ascending or descending steep
rugged paths the pressure of the weight on the croup
would, we think, be the least disadvantageous to a beast
of burden.
* In the time of Ethelred the ass was known in England,
but was rare and costly, and appears to have become in pro-
cess of time extinct.
THE ASS AND MULE.
203
The ass loves to roll itself in the dust of dry roads or
sandy places, as if to announce its desert-home of ancient
days ; it prefers the dry and prickly thistle and rough
coarse herbage to succulent pasturage, and is patient of
thirst, drinking but little, and then only sipping from
the surface, which it merely touches with its lips. It
dislikes wet or marshy ground, and will even avoid a
road-side puddle, as if disliking to tread in the wet. The
skin is hard and dry, and very seldom, if indeed ever, is
the hair to be seen streaming with perspiration. The
skin is far more insensible than that of the horse, and
consequently a slight goad used mercifully is far better
than the whip for stimulating the animal into action,
while the cudgel, the blows of which injure muscles and
bones, is only to be looked upon as the instrument of a
merciless ruffian.
The ass is about four years in coming to maturity, and
will live to a considerable age, sometimes more than
thirty years. In Brettell's description of the Isle of
Wight there is an account of one which drew up the
water in the deep well of Carisbrooke Castle, and which
worked daily at the wheel " for the space of fifty-two
years, and even then died in perfect health and strength
by accidentally falling over the ramparts of the castle.
One of its successors was a pensioner of the Duke of
Gloucester, uncle of George III., who settled on it an
annuity of a penny loaf a day — a bounty which it enjoyed
for a long period of years." Several other instances of
longevity have been noticed. The female ass goes
eleven months with young, and seldom produces more
than one foal at a birth.
The milk of the ass, which contains much sugar, has
been long used by persons of consumptive habits or deli-
cate health, and no doubt with beneficial effects, as it is
capable of being digested by stomachs unequal to the
task of assimilating the richer milk of the cow. Ac-
cording to Parmentier and Desyeux, the properties of the
milk of our herbivorous dornestic quadrupeds may be
placed in the following tabular series : —
•204
HISTOEY OF THE HOESE.
1. KJi jjiitutrr.
leese.
ougar.
\v hey.
1. Sheep.
1. Goaf.
1. Ass.
1. Ass.
2. Cow.
2. Sheep.
2. Mare.
2. Mare.
.3. Goat.
3. Cow.
3. Cow.
3. Cow.
4. Ass.
4. Ass.
4. Goaf.
4. Goaf.
5. Mare.
5. Mare.
5. Sheep.
5. Sheep.
The ass is subject to few diseases, and its skin is im-
Infested by parasitic insects.
We have said that in the East the ass in ancient times
vas generally used for the saddle. There, no degraded
ill-treated creature, it was carefully bred and reared,
and often clad in gay trappings. Its step was free and
vigorous, its form beautiful, its limbs sinewy and strong.
Princes and nobles, judges and priests, were among its
riders ; and a talented writer says in the ' Pictorial
Bible,' " we have ourselves seen asses on which princes
and great men might not disdain to ride." We might
point to numerous passages in the Scriptures illustrative
of the ancient domestication, general use, and high
value of the ass ; but these will suggest themselves to
our readers' minds. In Judges v. 10, we read of white
asses, which appear to have been used by the nobles,
priests, or judges of Israel ; these animals being not
only thus distinguished by colour, but remarkable also
for stature and symmetry, were highly esteemed. There
are still white asses to be seen in Syria, and that by no
means unfrequently ; and as in former days, they are
prized before others. In a note upon the passage in
question, the learned commentator referred to, speaking
of the white asses of western Asia, states that " they
are usually in every respect the finest of their species,
and their owners certainly take more pride in them than
in any other of their asses. They also sell at a much
higher price ; and those hackney ass-men who make a
livelihood by hiring out their asses to persons who want
a ride, always expect better pay for the white ass than
for any of the others. The superior estimation in which
THE ASS AND MULE.
205
they are held is indicated by the superior style of their
furniture and decorations; and in passing through the
streets the traveller will not fail to notice the conspicuous
appearance which they make in the line of asses which
stand waiting to be hired. The worsted trappings are
of gayer colours, the beads and small shells are more
abundant and fine, and the ornaments of metal more
bright. But above all, their white hides are fantastically
streaked and spotted with the red stains of the henna
plant, a barbarous kind of ornament which the western
Asiatics are fond of applying to their own beards and to
the manes and tails of their white horses."
Asses of a pure white colour, and to be regarded as
albinos, are occasionally to be seen in our island, but
perhaps more commonly in Spain, where piebald asses
of large stature (clouded with large grey patches on a
white ground) are still more frequent. Of this latter
breed we suppose was Sancho Panza's faithl'ul " dapple."
We have notes of a white ass bred by Lord Essex
from a fine stock of piebald Spanish asses kept up some
few years since by that nobleman at Watford in P^ssex.
This animal came into the possession of Mr. Herring
about the year 1828. It was not a true albino, for the
irides were cliesnut brown. The general coat, how-
ever, Mas purely and beautifully white, without either
dorsal line or humeral cross-bar ; but a few dusky spots
about the muzzle, some dark hairs in the tassel of the
tail and on the shoulders, taken in conjunction with the
colour of the iris, demonstrated that the rete mucosura
was not wholly destitute of colour. It was tall, vigorous,
and admirably proportioned. We may here observe,
en passant, that in our boyhood we saw four very tali
and purely white Spanish mules in the park of a gentle-
man near Bewdley in Worcestershire.
While speaking of the white colour of some breeds of
the ass, and the dappled markings of others, we may
observe, that a variety with zebra-like stripes upon the
limbs to the very hoofs is not unfrequcntly to be met
with in our island and elsewhere, and sometimes even a
double cross upon the shoulders is to seen. To what
206
HISTORY or THE HOUSE.
cause the zebra markings on the limbs (and we have
seen them strongly painted in mules) are to be attributed,
it is not easy to say. Is there, or has there been, a
striped wild ass indigenous in Asia ? or does this style
of marking proclaim a cross at a remote date with some
African species of the zebra section ? We cannot tell,
but we have observed that asses and mules thus marked
are larger and more powerful than the ordinary animals.
At Mocha (Mecca), as we learn from Lord Valentia,
there are two races of ass, of which one has the legs
banded transversely with black like the zebra. Most
probably in every country where the ass is domiciliated
a similar breed is more or less prevalent.
As the ass is an original native of Western Asia, it
is there that we naturally expect to find it in its highest
degree of perfection, nor are our expectations in the
main disappointed. Not that every breed is alike large
and powerful, for we learn that in Syria a small but
graceful and spirited breed, with an agreeable gait, is
coii^anon ; and that upon animals of this breed the
Syrian ladies ride from preference. We know, more-
ever, that in India, where the ass is neglected, the breeds
are of very inferior quality. In Western India these
animals are not much larger than good-sized Newfound-
land dogs. They are used in droves to carry small
loads of salt or grain ; they are also used by the pot-
makers to carry their clay ; and are always seen, as in
Europe, associated with gipsies. (^ Proceedings of
Zooi. Soc.,' 183/, p. 95.)
This statement agrees with that of Captain William-
son, Who describes the ass in British India as an ill-used
and miserable creature, degenerated and debased ac-
cordingly. He observes that these poor animals are
"remarkably small, being generally not more than
twenty or thirty inches high, and very much cat-hammed.
They are however very strong, and carry a single sack
on their loins, containing bricks, &c. to a considerable
weight. Their general use is among washermen, for
carrying the clothes. This class of people, whose em-
ployment is hereditary and immutable, have the sole pri-
THE ASS AND MULE.
207
vile^e of riding asses ; any other sect, either riding or
employing an ass, would be irreparably degraded."
(' Oriental Field Sports,' vol. ii.)
It is in Arabia that the ass, following as it were in the
wake of the horse, shows the highest blood, spirit, and
symmetry ; and where the direct Arab lineage has been
carried out, as in some districts of Persia, Syria, Spain,
&c., the ass maintains a not undignified standing. Many
travellers, and among others Chardin, describe the
Arabian ass as a really elegant creature. The coat is
smooth and clean ; the head is carried high and proudly ;
the limbs are clean, well-formed, and muscular, and in
walking or galloping they are thrown out gracefully.
It is only for the saddle that these Arab asses are used,
and they are imported in considerable numbers into
Persia and Syria. Some of the finest sell for a consi-
derable sum (Chardin says 400 livres ; but what is the
livre of Western Asia ? perhaps a few pence only).
They are taught an easy ambling pace, and are made
use of by the wealthy, who adorn them with splendid
trappings.
In Syria, besides the small breed already noticed,
there are, according to Dr. Russell, three well-marked
breeds. The first is of Arab lineage, and reserved ex-
clusively for the saddle ; animals of this breed are exten-
sively used by the middle classes, the sheikhs, or religious
men, and the elderly of the more opulent classes. They
are fed and dressed with the same care as horses, the
bridle is ornamented with shells, fringe, &c., and the
saddle is covered with a fine carpet ; they are active,
spirited, and of tall stature, and very docile. The stir-
rups are made in the European fashion, and not in the
broad box fashion of those used for horses. Asses of this
high lineage are sent to Persia, where they are greatly
valued. In Ispahan, according to Morier, "the mol-
jahs, or men of the law, are generally to be seen riding
on mules, but they also account it a dignity and suited to
their character to ride on white asses, which is a striking
illustration of what we read in Judges v."
The second breed in Syria is a stout animal, used for
208
IIISTOBY OF THE HOESE.
work of every description to which the ass is applicable.
These animals serve in the plough, and large caravans of
them are daily employed in taking provisions from the
villages to the towns.
The third variety of the ass in Syria is known by the
name of the Damascus ass, because it is very common
in that city. It is characterized by a peculiarly long-
body and long ears. It is of large stature, exceeding
the ordinary breed, and its skin is smoother, and of a
much darker colour. The bakers of Damascus employ
it in transporting flour and brushwood. " A rider on
this animal sitting almost close to the tail, when viewed
from behind has the figure of a centaur."
A writer on Persia, speaking of the asses of that
country, states, that with the exception of those of Ara-
bian extraction, they are by no means remarkable for
beauty, and though strong, and capable of bearing much
fatigue, they are not much superior to the better sort of
asses in our country, but are more tractable, in conse-
quence of being more kindly treated and more cared foi*.
Poor travellers have generally an ass to carry a little
baggage for them. " It keeps of its own accord in
company with the mules, horses, and asses which belong
to the party, and does not require much watching.
When the master is tired of walking, he relieves himself
by a little ride upon his donkey : when that is the case,
he generally springs upon the back of the animal all of
a sudden, because in general if the ass gets any suspicion
of this intention, he runs about, and it sometimes takes
much trouble to catch him. The men ride their asses
without bridles or halters, merely guiding them by tap-
ping their necks with a stick ; so that if the rider wishes
his ass to go more to the left on the road, he taps him
on the right side of his neck." ;We learn from the same
writer that it is a common practice in Persia to slit the
nostrils of the asses, which gives them a curious appear-
ance. It is done with a view of assisting them in their
breathing.
In Europe no country is so celebrated for its breed of
asses as Spain ; these animals are of large stature and
THE ASS AND MULE.
2m
fine symmetry, and many are extremely valuable. A
^ ery important reason for the preservation of this beau-
tiful stock in high perfection is the production of mules,
which in the mountain districts are of paramount impor-
tance, and indeed are highly valued, both for the saddle
and as beasts of burden, throughout the whole of the
peninsula. By the humbler and even middle classes in
8pain, the ass is ordinarily employed for the saddle and
in agricultural labour, as well as for general work, and
in its stature, gait, and actions presents a marked con-
trast with the overworked, ill-fed, and ill-used animal, to
be seen gleaning a miserable pittance on the commons
and in the lanes of our country, Spanish asses have
been introduced at various times into England, and that
at considerable expense ; but as far as we can learn, our
native breed has not been benefited by their importation,
not because such a result would not take place by judi-
cious inter- breeding, but because the ass, being for the
most part the property only of the poor and ignorant,
both the wish and the means to imj^rove the race are
wanting. With respect to the horse, the case is the
reverse.
Italy possesses a breed of asses little if at all inferior
to those of Spain. It is probable that this stock has de-
scended from a race of remote antiquity in that country,
for these animals were highly esteemed by the Romans,
and individuals occasionally sold them for large sums.
Anciently the asses of Greece were much valued, but in
the present day the breed is of inferior quality. In some
j)arts of France (le Poitou et le Mirebalais) there is a
fine race of asses. These animals are numerous in Sar-
dinia, but they are not so fine as those in Spain or Italy.
In the north of Europe the ass is little known. Linnaeus
says that it was rare in Sweden in his time, and only
kept in the parks of nobles (see ' Fauna Suecica,' 1746).
In America the ass, like the horse, is now common, es-
pecially in Peru and Paraguay, v/here great numbers are
maintained for the sake of keeping up a stock of mules,
animals absolutely necessary in the mining districts,
where they have superseded the indigenous llama, the
210
HISTOrtY OF THE IIOESE.
ancient Peruvian beast of burden, the camel of the.crags
of the New World.
There is no doubt that the ass was introduced into *| '
South America by the Spaniards, and there, like 'the '
horse, it has run wild, and in some districts multiplied to
so great an extent, as, for example, in the kingdbm of ,
Quito, that numbers, it is affirmed, may be had for little . ,
more than the trouble of catching. When wanted they
are hunted by the natives, and ensnared by means of the j
lazo. They are active and fleet, and exhibit evident
proofs of their Spanish origin ; and were it not for the
excessive numbers in which they exist, or did formerly,
thence becoming destructive to the cultivated lands, they
would prove a valuable acquisition. .1
Baron Humboldt (' Personal Narrative') informs us
that in the sixteenth century these animals were so abun-
dant in the Isle of Fortaventura, that they were hunted
and killed by thousands in order to save the harvest.
The same author mentions the extraordinary fact of their
being able to obtain liquid, when herding in the arid
plains, where no water exists. Their fine sense of
smelling informs them that a considerable quantity of
moisture is contained in the melon thistle (cactus melo-
cactiis), and their instinct suggests to them the readiest
method of procuring it from that singular vegetable cis-
tern. Before they attempt to make an opening into it, !
they carefully push aside, or break off with their hoofs, ;
the sharp thorns by which it is protected, and in this they \
generally succeed perfectly, though some few become
wounded or even lamed by the operation. In this proce-
dure, there is no particle of the innate stupidity which !
it is customary to attribute to the ass, as one of its essen- |
tial characteristics. 1 !
The produce of the male ass and mare is termed a '
mule — of the male horse and female ass, a hinney — le '
bardeau of the French. The hinney is rare, and of little \ '
value, being of small stature, and destitute of symmetry '
and strength. On the contrary, the mule is an animal | \
of great value and utility, and in the mountain countries | '
of southern Europe is the most efficient beast of burden. '
THE ASS AND LIULE.
2il
The first notice of the mule on record is to be found
in Genesis xxvi. 24 : — " This was that Anah that found
the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeoii
his father." On this passage, however, there is much
contrariety of opinion. According to the Jewish Rab-
bins, and some learned commentators, Anah was the first
who coupled the ass and m.are, while others regard the
word yeminij translated mules, to mean a gigantic race
of warriors, and this is the opinion of Bochart. The
Syriac version and St. Jerome render the word aquas
calidas" warm springs ; and that this is the true meaning
is the opinion, we believe, of most of the learned men of
the present day. Speaking as a zoologist, we should say,
that whatever the Hebrew word may mean, mules are
not intended, for the horse was not known, as far as we
can discover, at so early a period (b.c. 1600 or 1500)
in Palestine. But rejecting this passage as of little
weight, still we find the mule expressly noticed long
212
IIISTOEY OF THE IIOESE.
before the Christian era. In the time of David, and
probably much earlier, the mule was used both for the
saddle and as a beast of ordinary burden. We read of
provisions being brought " on asses, and on camels, and
on mules, and on oxen" (1 Chron. xii. 40). David
had saddle-mules, and it was on a mule that Absalom
rode when he retreated from the battle, at the close of
which he lost his life (2 Sam. xviii. 9). Togarmah
traded in mules as well as horses (Ezek. xxvii. 14). In
Esther, viii. 14, we read of the posts or couriers of Persia
and Media riding upon mules and camels.
In the present day there are various breeds of mules
in the East, and some are remarkable for beauty.
The most valuable in Syria are bred between the Arab
mare and a male ass, selected for figure and spirit, and
some of these sell at a high price.
" The better sort of mules which are capable of carry-
Laden .Spp>iiis;i Mule.
THE ASS AND MULE.
213
ing heavy loads are employed in the caravans, and the
common sort are of great service for the mill and water-
wheels. Both are maintained at less expense than
horses, and, being surer-footed, are better suited for
traversing the rugged roads in mountainous countries.
The domestic trade with the maritime towns and the
mountains is not only carried on chiefly by mule cara-
vans, but they are sent even to Erzeroum, Constanti-
nople, and other remote towns. In these caravans the
male travellers are mounted on mules lightly laden
(usually with the mere personal baggage of the rider),
and the women either ride in the same manner (sitting
astride as they always do like men), or in a kind of
wooden cradle, called muhaffy, hung on one side of the
mule, with another to balance it, occupied or not, but
made equi-ponderant to the other. But persons of ^a
certain rank travel in a kind of litter carried by two
nmles. Within the towns, and in short excursions to
the circumjacent gardens, asses generally have the pre-
ference, and the mules are charged with the baggage.
Burckhardt states that the breed of Baalbec mules is
nmch esteemed, and that he had seen some which were
worth on the spot SOL or 35/., a large sum in that
quarter." — ' Phys. Hist. Palestine.'
Mr. Lane, in a note to chap. viii. of the ' Arabian
Nights,' states that the litter borne by mules is generally
one resembling a palanquin ; it is usually carried by
four of these animals, two before and two behind, or by
two only ; or more commonly by camels, and sometimes
by two horses. This litter is called " takht-rawan,"
and also " mihaffeh."
We are informed by an entertaining writer on Persia,
that the mules of that country are not very large, but
have amazing strength and power of endurance. They
will travel the stony and steep roads over rocky moun-
tiiins day after day at the rate of from twenty-five to
fifty miles per diem, loaded with a weight of three hun-
dred pounds. They require more food than the horse —
the muleteers never remove the pack-saddles from their
jbacks, except when cleaning and currying them. If the
214
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
men find that the back has been galled, they take away
some of the stuffing from the pack-saddle, where it
presses on the sore part, and then put the saddle on
again, experience having taught them that such sores,
unless healed under the saddle, are apt to break out
again.
From an early period the mule has been valued in
southern Europe. The Roman ladies had equipages
drawn by mules, as appears from medals of Julia and
Agrippina ; and in Spain the carriages of persons of
high rank are drawn even in the present day by mules
splendidly caparisoned, and formerly the highest hidalgos
rode, except when in battle, on these animals. In the
poem of the ' Cid ' we read that Diego Lainez, when he
rode forth to meet the good King Ferdinand, had three
hundred hidalgos in his train all on mules —
" All these knights on mules are mounted,
Ruy a war-horse doth bestride ;
All wear gold and silken raiment,
Ruy in mailed steel doth ride."
Mules are now of general use in Spain and Portugal,
and some are of great stature and beauty, being fifteen
or even sixteen hands in height, and often worth_more
than 50/. Not only is the mule employed for the saddle
and for draught, but it is by caravans of laden mules that,
the internal traffic of the country is carried on, and,
indeed, in the mountain-ranges these animals, from their
sure-footedness and sagacity, are indispensable. With
wary caution and cool resolution they traverse the diffi-
cult pass along the edge of the tremendous precipice,
where a false step would be destruction ; they plod their
way up the toilsome winding ascent, or follow the steep
downward path, rugged as it may be, with untiring per-
severance. It sometimes happens that an abrupt declivity
of more than usual steepness has to be passed, and it is
then that the mule has to exert all its sagacity and
resolution ; it proceeds cautiously, with the fore-legs
stretched forwards, and the hind limbs bent under the
body, and takes step by step, with the utmost circum-
THE ASS AND MULE.
215
spection, till at length, retaining its attitude and keeping
its balance, it slides down the rocky surface of the de-
clivity, and gains the place of security. The traveller
who ventures the mountain-passes on a well-tried mule
must keep his nerves firm and his head steady, and trust
to the animal entirely ; he must neither check nor urge
it ; though the narrow-winding shelf along which he
passes presents a towering wall on one side, and a pro-
found abyss on the other, still he may rely on his mule
if he can on his own firmness.
Mule of tlie East.
That mules should be employed in carrying on the
inland commerce of Spain is not surprising. The great
cities and towns are few and far asunder ; the communi-
cations between them are slow and insecure ; the face of
the land is rugged and intersected by high ridges of
mountains ; there are few carriage-roads ; no canals ; no
internal navigation. Hence are these patient sure-footed
animals of more solid and general importance even than
the horse. In consequence of this system of land-car-
riage, a great amount of property is constantly in the
hands of a class of persons, to whose care it is intrusted.
216
HISTORY OF THE HOKSE.
These men are called arrieros, or muleteers, and are
noted for their liardihood and fidelity.
An original writer on * The Labourers of Europe,' in
the ' Penny Magazine,' givesjus the following account.
The arrieros, or muleteers, of Spain form a numerous
and rather conspicuous part of the Spanish population.
Mules are preferred in Spain for driving, as being more
sure-footed and hardier than horses. Besides which
there are caravans of mules, with loads on their backs,
constantly crossing Spain on the various roads, carrying-
corn, rice, flour, pulse, wine, and oil, in skins, as well as
goods from the sea-ports to the interior. The muleteer
is a primitive being ; he wanders all over the vast Penin-
sula ; his home is everywhere ; light-hearted and jovial,
he is also honest, and his punctuality in general may bo
depended upon. He is very kind to his mules, calls
them by their names, talks to them, scolds them, and
his first care on arriving at the inn is to see them com-
fortably provided for ; and then, and not till then, he
thinks of himself. He is sutler, or travelling merchant,
carries parcels, and executes commissions for people on
the road. The master muleteer, or owner of a number
of mules, sends his servants on various journeys, and
pays their expenses on the road, besides their wages.
On more important and profitable expeditions he sets
forth himself. During the war in the Peninsula the
muleteers were much employed by the English commis-
sariat to carry pi'ovisions for the army, and they 'were
paid handsomely. Accordingly, some of them were
known to have come with their mules from the heart of
Castile, then in possession of the French, to the fron-
tiers of Portugal, where were the English cantonments,
evading the French posts and scouring parties. Often
in the dead of the night has the English bivouac been
cheered by the distant chaunt of the Spanish muleteer,
singing national ballads of the ' good land of Valencia,
the Eden of Spain,' or boasting of the ^ impregnable
city of Zaragoza, which the French shall never con-
<i|uer,' and of its patroness our ' Lady del Pilar,' the
jingling of the mule's bells echoing to each cadence."
THE ASS AND MULE.
21T
" How carols now the lusty mulefeer!
Of love, vomance, devotion is liis laj%
As wliilome be was wont the leagues to cheer,
His quick bells wildlj'^ jingling by the way? —
No ! as he speeds, he chaunts — Viva el Rev!" —
Clulde Harold,
A similar account of the Spanish muleteer is given by
Washington Irving. "The muleteer is the general
medium of traffic, and the legitimate traverser of the
land crossing the Peninsula from the Pyrenees and the
Asturias to the Alpuxarras, the Serrania de Ronda, and
even the gates of Gibraltar. He lives frugally and
hardily ; his alforjas of coarse cloth holds his scanty
stock of provisions ; a leather bottle hanging at his
saddle-bow contains w'me or water, for a supply across
barren mountains and thirsty plains. A mule-cloth
spread upon the ground is his bed at night, and his
pack-saddle is his pillow. His low, but clean-limbed
and sinewy form betokens strength ; his complexion is
dark and sun-burnt ; his eye resolute but quiet in its
expression, except when kindled by sudden emotion ;
his demeanour is frank, manly, and courteous, and he
never passes you without a grave salutation, — ' Dios
guarde a usted, Va usted con Dios, caballero !' ' God
guard you, God be with you, cavalier !' " Such then
are the men who, from the established custom of em-
ploying mules time immemorial in Spain as the trans-
porters of merchandise, have sprung up, and established
themselves as an important class of the population. The
muleteer and his caravan of mules, their " quick bells
wildly jingling," constitute essential features in a Spanish
1 landscape. At a former period in our island, before
roads were fitted for wheel-carriages, the carrier and his
j string of pack-horses in like manner gave animation to
I the wilder districts.
Mules are extensively employed in the mining dis-
tricts of South America, and vast members are bred ac-
' cordingly. When the Spaniards first invaded Peru and
[ Chili, they found the llama domesticated, and used as a
I beast of burden, its flesh and wool being also in great
218
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
request. It was their only substitute for the horse, ass,
mule, and camel of the old world. Its flesh was eaten,
its skin converted into leather, and its wool spun and
manufactured into cloth. One of the labours to which
the llama was subjected was that of bringing down ore
from the mines in the mountains. Its ordinary load was
eighty or one hundred pounds, and its average rate of
travelling with this burden over rugged mountain passes
from twelve to fifteen miles per day. Like the camel,
if too heavily laden, it would lie down, and obstinately
refuse to proceed, nor would it bear to be urged beyond^
its accustomed pace. Gregory de Bolivar estimated
that in his day three hundred thousand w^ere employed
in the transport of the mines of Potosi alone, and lour
millions annually killed for food. To the llama the
mule has succeeded : and, as in Spain, its value is well
appreciated. Baron Humboldt in his personal narrative
depicts in a veiy forcible manner the sagacity and sure-
footedness of the mule under circumstances of no trifling
emergency, nor will a short extract from his narrative
be here out of place. "The valleys," he says, " of
Guanaguana and Caripe are separated by a kind of dyke
or calcareous ridge, well known by the name of the
Cuchilla de Guanaguana. The path is indeed in several
places only fourteen or fifteen inches broad, and the
ridge of the mountain along which the road runs is
covered with a short turf, extremely slippery. The
slopes on each side are steep, and the traveller, if he
should stumble, might slide down seven or eight hun-
dred feet. The mules of this country are so sure-footed
that they inspire the greatest confidence. Their habits
are the same as those of Switzerland and the Pyrenees.
In'proportion as a country is more savage, the instinct
of domestic animals improves in address and sagacity.
When the mules feel them.selves in danger, they stop,
turning their heads to the right and to the leit : the
motion of their ears seems to indicate that they reflect
on the decision they ought to take. Their resolution is
slow but always just, if it be free, that is to say, if it be |
not crossed or hastened by the imprudence of the tra-
THE ASt3 AND MULE.
219
veller. It is on the frightful roads of the Andes that
the intelligence of horses and beasts of burden displays
itself in an astonishing manner. Thus the mountaineers
are heard to say, ' I will not give you the mule whose
step is easiest, but him who reasons best.' This popular
expression, dictated by long experience, combats the
system of animated machines better perhaps than all the
arguments of speculative philosophy."
In another part of his interesting narrative the same
philosophic writer describes, with still greater minute-
ness, the dangers of a far more difficult pass which occurs
in the provinces of Venezuela and Cumana, and which,
from its terrific character, the missionaries have noted by
giving it the title of the Purgatory. In descending this
pass all must be trusted to the mules — " in going down
they draw their hind legs near their fore legs, and, lower-
ing their crupper, let themselves slide down at a venture,
but the rider runs no risk provided he loosens the bridle
and leaves the animal at perfect liberty in its move-
ments." He then proceeds to say that, after passing
through a thick forest, " we descended without inter-
mission for seven hours, and it is difficult to form an
idea of a more tremendous descent — it is a real cliemin
des echelles (road of steps), a kind of ravine in which
during the rainy seasons impetuous torrents tumble from
rock to rock. The steps are from two to three feet
high, and the unfortunate beasts of burden, after having
measured with their eye the space necessary to let their
load pass between the trunks of the trees, leap from
\ one rock to another. Afraid of missing their leap, we
i saw them stop for a few minutes to examine the ground
and bring together their four feet like wild goats. If
the animal do not reach the nearest block of stone he
sinks half his depth into the soft ochrey clay that fills
I up the interstices of the rock. When the blocks are
I wanting, enormous roots serve as supports to the feet of
imen and beasts; these are some of them twenty inches
' thick, and often issue from the trunks of the trees
much above the level of the soil. The Creoles have
sufficient confidence in the address and happy instinct
220
14IST0I1Y OF THE HOKSE.
of the mules to remain on their saddles during this long-
and dangerous descent."
Whilst in Spain, Portugal, Italy, the south of France,
and South America, mules are reared in vast numbers,
few, comparatively speaking, arc bred in our island ; and
in northern Europe this hybrid is almost or quite un-
known. With respect to the British islands, tlie charac-
ters of the country, the state of the roads, and the un-
bounded facilities of communication between the most
distant places by means of wheel-carriages, canals, and
navigable rivers, render the employment of mules en-
tirely out of the question. Nevertheless, they might,
under certain circumstances, be brought to serve with
advantage in various operations of agriculture, especially
in the hilly districts ; and a breed of great strength and
stature might easily be procured between the Spanish
male ass and the half-bred mare. Fine and very power-
ful mules bred in this country have occasionally passed
under our notice, and, indeed, we lately saw a team of
such animals equalling the ordinary cart-horse in stature,
if not standing taller, in proportion to their bulk. A
beautiful and spirited mule of a brown colour, with zebra
markings on the legs, was, and perhaps is now, in the
possession of one of the princi})al butchers of Hammer-
smith ; we have often admired its action and docility.
We have already alluded to four white Spanish mules,
which we chanced to see at a time when we little dreamed
that this animal would ever be the subject of our pen ;
though noticed in boyhood, the impression they made
upon our mind is indelible ; it was at the same time, and
ill the same grounds, that we first saw a pure white pea-
cock.
Naturalists have assumed as a rule that hybrids, the
produce of two parents of different species, are incapable
of continuing the race ; and this perhaps is true to a cer-
tain extent : nevertheless, it would appear to be equally
true that hybrids not unfrequently interbreed with one
of the pure stock from which they have sprung. The
ancients, indeed, mention a sort of mules in Phrygia,
Syria, Cappadocia, and Airica, which arc stated to iiavo
THE ASS AND MULE.
221
been prolific. (See Aristotle, ' Hist. Anim.' lib. vi. ; Varro,
* De Re Rustica,' lib. ii. ; Columella, lib. vii. ; Pliny, lib.
viii.^ But on such authorities it is unsafe to trust im-
plicitly.) Bewick says — " Mules have not unfrequently
been known to bring forth young, especially in hot coun-
tries ; and instances have not been wanting both in Eng-
land and Scotland, though they are rare. But it would
require a succession of experiments to prove that mules
will breed with each other, and produce an offspring
equally capable of continuing the race."
For ourselves we believe the mule or hybrid between
the ass and mare to be utterly incapable of continuing
the intermediate race, though we are ready to admit
that the female mule may produce young, the male pa-
rent being a horse ; and that the male mule and mare
will occasionally breed together, and perhaps in more
genial climates than our own instances of this intermix-
ture may be more abu^ndant. Mr. Bell says — " The
mule has occasionally been known to produce young with
the horse or the ass ; these cases are, however, extremely
rare, and serve as illustrations of the statement I have
already made ; as there is no instance oa record of two
mules having bred together." To this he adds, in a
note, " The following fact must doubtless be placed to
the account of reproducing in the mule : a small mare
w^as placed in a paddock in the Zoological Society's gar-
dens, in company with a male white ass, and a male hy-
brid between the zebra and the ass (animals nearer allitd
than the horse and ass, be it remembered). She had a
foal which was distinctly marked with black stripes across
the legs," and therefore was regarded as the produce on
the male side of the hybrid, as was probably the fact.
Some years since, in Cheshire, we saw a slender-limbed
beautiful animal, intermediate in appearance between the
mule and horse, and we were assured that it was the off-
spring of a mare and mule, and that from the circum-
stances in which the mare was placed the male parentage
of the animal in question could not be otherwise.
With regard to its physical characteristics, the mule
seems to partake rather of the properties of the ass than
222
HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
of the horse. In stature it vies with the latter ; its neck
is long, but not arched, and its limbs are long, but slen-
der ; its colour is usually of a dark tint, more or less in-
clining to brown ; but it has a large head, long ears, an
upright hogged mane, a tasselled tail, thin hinder quar-
ters, dorsal and humeral stripes, sometimes stripes on
the limbs, and the warty excrescences confined to the
anterior limbs ; in these points agreeing with the ass.
Its hoofs, like those ol the ass rather than the horse, in-
dicate its fitness for a craggy mountain home ; it is more
patient, more persevering, more calculating, more cun-
ning than the horse, but less impetuous, less fiery, less
animated. Under certain conditions it exceeds the horse
in utility ; under others it is decidedly inferior to that
noble animal. To the Spaniard, amidst the mountain
ranges, to Peruvian or Chilian of the Andes, it is all-
important, and from its hardiness might be most advan-
tageously reared in Australia, Van Diemen's Land, and
New Zealand.
The following hybrids, or mules, between different
species of the solidungulous or equine family have been
produced and reared at the gardens of the Zoological
Society of London, and by the keepers of various mena-
geries : —
1. Mule between Burchells Zebra (male) and Ass (female).
2. „ „ Common Zebra (male) and Ass (female).
3. „ „ Dziggetai (male) and Ass (female) : flett
and beautiful.
4. „ „ Zebra and Exmoor Pony — tlie mule was
very little striped about the legs.
5. „ „ Zebra and Dziggetai.
In several instances these hybrids or mules were ren-
dered obedient, and became very serviceable animals,
exhibiting surprising muscular powers.
Some years since, a hybrid between Burchell's zebra
and a female ass, bred at Windsor, on one of the farms of
His Majesty George IV., and presented to the Zoological
Society, was broke in at the age of two years old, in
company with a mule between a male zebra and female
THE ASS AND MULE.
223
ass (also bred at Windsor), to work in a light spring-cart
belonging to the Society. It was not without some
trouble that their subjugation was effected ; their temper,
that of the latter in particular, being wild and even vicious,
and strangers who approached too familiarly were
in danger of a bite or kick, which were the instantaneous
answers to any annoying liberties. In stature both these
mules were nearly equal, and intermediate between the
ass and zebra ; hut the markings on the true zebra-mule
were more numerous and distinct than on its companion.
The ground colour was deep dun, and the stripes on the
neck and body were dark and thickly set, although not
well defined. The chaffron, muzzle, and fore-part of
the neck were dull bay ; the ears were barred with
white, and tipped with dark brown, and the mane was
partly white and partly brown, but the colours did not
regularly alternate. In the Burchell's or plain zebra-
mule, the general ground-tint was clear drab or dun, with
a slight reddish tinge ; bay prevailed on the face ; the
chaffron was not striped, but the ears were barred/ and
tipped with white, the mane being also of that tone ; on
the neck and body the stripes were faint and confused,
but they were continued more distinctly down the out-
side of all the limbs to the fetlocks ; but the darkest and
best defined lines were the dorsal and those across the
shoulders ; inside of the limbs white.
In the years 1832-1833, and subsequently, these ani-
mals were driven tandem-fashion through the crowded
streets of London ; they were very powerful, correct,
and quick in their paces, and sufficiently obedient to the
reins. Of late years, we believe that they have been
restricted to labour within the Society's gardens ; and,
indeed, it is only a short time since that we saw a
hybrid, apparently between Burchell's zebra and the ass,
employed in drawing a heavy iron garden-roller over
the grass. It appeared to be extremely docile, and was
conducted so as to bring the roller with great nicety
round the margins of the flower-beds.
There can be no doubt that mules between animals of
the zebra group and the ass or mare might be very easily
224
HISTOHY OF THE HOKSE.
reared and broken in ; those between the quagga and the
mare in particular (as the hybrid bred by the Earl of
Morton, and already alluded to, sufficiently proved)
would be large and powerful.
With respect to the species of the zebra, or hippoti-
grine group, though they display great obstinacy, their
subjugation is far from impossible. If we mistake not, a
pair of pure zebras were reclaimed and driven by a cele-
brated equestrian some years since ; and Lord Morton
was in the habit of driving a pair of quaggas in a curricle
about the parks and streets of London. It is not how-
ever very likely, while the generous horse is at our ser-
vice, that any of the striped African equidse will be
brought into general use, or that any attention, at least
in Europe and Asia, will be devoted to the production
of zebraine hybrids. Nevertheless a cross between the
Asiatic dziggetai and ass might be of value, but how far
this cross-breed would prove fertile inter se, remains to
be proved. A series of experiments, even zoologically
considered, are well worth making ; nor are the means
wanting either in this country or France.
Zebra and Horse.
APPENDIX.
ON THE DISEASES OF THE HORSE.
FROM A TREATISE IN THE ' STORE OF KNOWLEDGE.',
By WILLIAM YOUATT.
The principal diseases of the horse are connected with the
circulatory system. From the state of habitual excitement
in which the animal is kept, in order to enable him to ex-
ecute his task, the heart and the blood-vessels will often act
too impetuously : the vital fluid will be hurried along too
rapidly, either through the frame generally, or some par-
ticular part of it, and there will be congestion, accumulation
of blood in that part, or inflammation, either local or general,
disturbing the functions of some organ, or of the whole frame.
Congestion. — Take a young horse on his first entrance into
the stables ; feed him somewhat highly, and what is the
consequence ? He has swellings of the legs, or inflammation
of the joints, or perhaps of the lungs. Take a horse that
has lived somewhat above his work, and gallop him to the
top of his speed : his nervous system becomes highly ex-
cited— the heart beats with fearful rapidity — the blood is
pumped into the lungs faster than they can discharge it — the
pulmonary vessels become gorged, fatigued, and utterly pow-
erless— the blood, arrested in its course, becomes viscid, and
death speedily ensues. We have but one chance of saving our
patient — the instantaneous and copious abstraction of blood ;
and only one means of preventing the recurrence of this dan-
gerous state, namely, not suffering too great an accumula-
tion of the sanguineous fluid by over-feeding, and by regular
and systematic exercise, which will inure the circulatory ves-
sels to prompt and efficient action when they are suddenly
called upon to exert themselves. The cause and the re-
medy are sufficiently plain.
Again, the brain has functions of the most important
nature to discharge, and more blood flows through it than
through any other portion of the frame of equal bulk. In
order to prevent this organ from being oppressed by a too
great determination of blood to it, the vessels, although
numerous, are small, and pursue a very circuitous and wind-
ing course. If a horse highly fed, and full of blood, is sud-
denly and sharply exercised, the course of the blood is acce-
lerated in every direction, and to the brain among other
226
DISEASES OF THE HORSE.
parts. The vessels that ramify on its surface or penetrate
its substance are completely distended and gorged with it.
Perhaps they are ruptured, and the effused blood presses
upon the brain ; it presses upon the origins of the nerves on
which sensation and motion depend, and the animal suddenly
drops powerless. A prompt and copious abstraction of blood,
or, in other words, a diminution of this pressure, can alone
save the patient. Here is the nature, the cause, and the
treatment of apoplexy.
Sometimes this disease assumes a different form. The
horse has not been performing more than his ordinary work,
or perhaps he may not have been out of the stable. He is
found with his head drooping and his vision impaired. He
is staggering about. He falls, and lies half unconscious, or
he struggles violently and dangerously. There is the same
congestion of blood in the head, the same pressure on the
nervous origins, but produced by a different cause. He has
been accustomed habitually to overload his stomach, or he
was, on the previous day, kept too long from his food, and
then he fell ravenously upon it, and ate until his stomach
was completely distended and unable to propel forward its
accumulated contents. Thus distended, its blood-vessels
are compressed, and the circulation through them is im-
peded or altogether suspended. The blood is still forced on
by the heart, and driven in accumulated quantity to other
organs, and to the brain among the rest ; and there con-
gestion takes place, as just described, and the animal becomes
sleepy, unconscious, and, if he is not speedily relieved, he
dies. This too is apoplexy ; the horseman calls it stomach
staggers. Its cause is improper feeding. The division of
the hours of labour, and the introduction of the nose-hag,
have much diminished the frequency of its occurrence. The
remedies are plain, — bleeding, physicking, and the removal
of the contents of the stomach by means of a pump contrived
for that purpose.
Congestions of other kinds occasionally present themselves.
It is no uncommon thing for the blood to loiter in the com-
plicated vessels of the liver, until the covering of that viscus
has burst, and an accumulation of coagulated black blood
has presented itself. This congestion constitutes the swelled
legs to which so many horses are subject when they stand too
long idle in the stable, and it is the source of many of the
accumulations of serous fluid in various parts of the body,
and particularly in the chest, the abdomen, and the brain.
Inflammation is opposed to congestion, as consisting in an
active state of the capillary arterial vessels ; the bloo4 rushes
DISEASES OF THE HORSE.
227
througli them with far greater rapidity than in health, from
the excited state of the nervous system by which they are
supplied.
Inflammation is either local or diffused. It is confined to
one organ, or to a particular portion of that organ ; or it in-
volves many neighbouring ones, or it is spread over the whole
frame. In the latter case it assumes the name of fever. Fever
is general or constitutional inflammation, and is said to be
sympathetic or symptomatic when it can be traced to some
local affection or cause, and idiopathic when we cannot so
trace it The truth probably is, that every fever has its local
cause, but we have not a sufficient knowledge of the animal
economy to discover that cause.
Inflammation may be considered with reference to the
membranes which it attacks.
The mucous membranes line all the cavities that communi-
cate with the external surface of the body. There is fre-
quent inflammation of the membrane of the mouth. Blain,
or Glossanthrax, is a vesicular enlargement which runs along
the side of the tongue. Its cause is unknown. It should be
lanced freely and deeply, and some aperient medicine ad-
ministered. Barbs, or paps, are smaller enlargements, found
more in the neighbourhood of the bridle of the tongue* They
should never be touched with any instrument : a little cool-
ing medicine will generally remove them. Lampas is in^
flatnmation of the palate> or enlargement of the bars of the
palate. The roof of the mouth may be slightly lanced, or a
little aperient medicine administered : but the sensibility of
the mouth should never be destroyed by the application of
the heated iron. Canker and wounds in the mouth from
various causes, will be best remedied by diluted tincture of
myrrh, or a weak solution of alum.
Foreign bodies in the gullet may generally be removed by
means of the probang used in the hoove of cattle ; or the
oesophagus may be opened, and the obstructing body taken out.
It is on the mucous membranes that poisons principally
exert their influence. The yew is the most frequent vegetable
poison. The horse may be saved by timely recourse to equal
parts of vinegar and water injected into the stomach, after the
poison has been as much as possible removed by means of
the stomach-pump. For arsenic or corrosive sublimate there
is rarely any antidote.
Spasmodic colic is too frequently produced by exposure to
cold, or the drinking of cold water, or the use of too much
green meat. The horse should be walked about, strong fric-
tion used over the belly, and spirit of turpentine given in
228
DISEASES OF THE HORSE.
doses of two ounces, with an ounce each of laudanum and
spirit of nitrous aether, in warm water or ale. If the spasm
is not soon relieved the animal should be bled, an aloetic ball
administered, and injections of warm water with a solution of
aloes thrown up. This spasmodic action of the bowels, when
long continued, is liable to produce introsusception, or en-
tanglement, of them, and the case is then hopeless.
Superpurgation often follows the administration of a too
strong or improper dose of physic. The torture which it
produces will be evident by the agonised expression of the
countenance, and the frequent lo(;king at the flanks. Plenty
of thin starch or arrowroot should be given both by the
mouth and by injection ; and, twelve hours having passed
without relief being experienced, chalk, catechu, and opium
should be added to the gruel.
Worms in the intestines are not often productive of much
mischief, except they exist in very great quantities. Small
doses of emetic tartar with a little ginger may be given to
the horse half an hour before his first meal, in order to expel
the round white worm ; and injections of linseed-oil or aloes
will usually remove the ascarides, or needle- worms.
The respiratory passages are all lined by the mucous
membrane. Catarrh, or cold, inflammation of the upper
air passages, should never be long neglected. A few mashes
or a little medicine will usually remove it. If it is neglected,
and occasionally in defiance of all treatment, it will dege-
nerate into other diseases. The larynx may become the
principal seat of inflammation. Laryngitis will be shown
by extreme difficulty of breathing, accompanied by a strange
roaring noise, and an evident enlargement and great tender-
ness of the larynx when felt externally. The windpipe
must be opened in such case, and the best advice will be
necessary. Sometimes the subdivisions of the trachea,
before or when it first enters the lungs, will be the part
affected, and we have bronchitis. This is characterized by
a quick and hard breathing, and a peculiar wheezing sound,
with the coughing up of mucus. Here too decisive measures
must be adopted, and a skilful practitioner employed. His
assistance is equally necessary in distemper, influenza, and
epidemic catarrh, names indicating varieties of the same
disease, and the product of atmospheric influence ; differing
to a certain degree in every season, but in all characterized
by intense inflammation of the mucous surfaces, and rapid
and utter prostration of strength, and in all demanding the
abatement of that inflammation, and yet little expenditure of
vital power.
DISEASES OF THE HOUSE.
229
Cough may degenerate into inflammation of the lungs ;
or this fearful malady may be developed without a single
premonitory symptom, and prove fatal in twenty-four or
even in twelve hours. It is mostly characterized by deathly
coldness of the extremities, expansion of the nostril, redness
of its lining membrane, singularly anxious countenance, con-
stant gazing at the flank, and an unwillingness to move. A
successful treatment of such a case can be founded only on
the most prompt and fearless and decisive measures. The
lancet should be freely used. Counter-irritants should fol-
low as soon as the violence of the disease is in the slightest
degree abated ; sedatives must succeed to them, and fortu-
nate will he be who often saves his patient after all the
decisive symptoms of pneumonia are once developed.
Among the consequences of these severe affections of the
lungs are chronic cough, not always much diminishing the
usefulness of the horse, but strangely aggravated at times by
any fresh accession of catarrh, and too often degenerating
into thick wind, which always materially interferes with the
speed of the horse, and in a great proportion of cases ter-
minates in broken wind. It is rare indeed that either of
these diseases admits of cure. That obstruction in some part
of the respiratory canal, which varies in almost every horse,
and produces the peculiar sound termed roaring, is also rarely
removed.
Glanders, the most destructive of all the diseases to which
the horse is exposed, is the consequence of breathing the
atmosphere of foul and vitiated stables. It is the winding-
up of almost every other disease, and in every stage it is
most contagious. Its most prominent symptoms ai-e a small,
but constant discharge of sticky matter from the nose ; an en-
largement and induration of the glands beneath and within
the lower jaw, on one or both sides, and, before the termina-
tion of the disease, chancrous inflammation of the nostril on
the same side with the enlarged gland. Its contagiousness
should never be forgotten, for if a glandered horse is once
introduced into a stable, almost every inhabitant of that
stable will, sooner or later, become infected and die.
The urinary and genital organs are also lined by mucous
membranes. The horse is subject to inflammation of the
kidneys from eating musty oats or mowburnt hay, or from
exposure to cold and injuries of the loins. Bleeding, physic,
and counter-irritants over the region of the loins should be
had recourse to. Diabetes, or profuse staling, is difficult to
treat. The inflammation that may exist should first be sub-
dued ; and then opium, catechu, and the uva ursi adminis-
230
DISEASES or THE HORSE.
tered. Inflammation of the bladder will be best alleviated by-
mucilaginous drinks of almost any kind. Inflammation of
the neck of the bladder, evinced by the frequent and painful
discharge of small quantities of urine, will yield only to the
abstraction of blood and the exhibition of opium. A ca-
theter may be easily passed into the bladder of the mare, and
the urine evacuated, but it will require a skilful veterinary-
surgeon to effect this in the horse. A stone in the bladder is
readily detected by the practitioner, and may be extracted
with comparative ease. The sheath of the penis is often dis-
eased from the presence of corrosive mucous matter. This
may easily be removed with warm soap and water.
To the mucous membranes belong the conjunctival tunic
of the eye, and the diseases of the eye generally may be here
considered. A scabby itchiness on the edge of the eye-lid
may be cured by a diluted nitrated ointment of mercury.
Warts should be cut off with the scissors, and the roots
touched with lunar caustic. Inflammation of the haw should
be abated by the employment of cooling lotions, but that use-
ful defence of the eye should never, if possible, be removed.
Common ophthalmia will yield as readily to cooling applica-
tions as inflammation of the same organ in any other animal ;
but there is another species of inflammation, commencing in
the same way as the first, and for a while apparently yield-
ing to treatment, but which changes from eye to eye, and
returns again and again, until blindness is produced in one
or both organs of vision. The most frequent cause is heredi-
tary predisposition. The reader cannot be too often re-
minded that the qualities of the sire, good or bad, descend,
and scarcely changed, to his offspring. How moon-blindness
was first produced no one knows ; but its continuance in our
stables is to be traced to this cause principally, or almost
alone, and it pursues its course until cataract is produced,
for which there is no remedy. Gutta serena (palsy of the
optic nerve) is sometimes observed, and many have been
deceived, for the eye retains its perfect transparency. Here
also medical treatment is of no avail.
The serous membranes are of great importance. The brain
and spinal marrow, with the origins of the nerves, are sur-
rounded by them ; so are the heart, the lungs, the intestinal
canal, and the organs whose office it is to prepare the genera-
tive fluid.
Inflammation of the brain. — Mad staggers fall under this
division. It is inflammation of the meninges, or envelopes of
the brain, produced by over-exertion, or by any of the causes
of general fever, and it is characterised by the wildest deli-
DISEASES OF THE HOESE.
231
rium. Nothing but the most profuse blood-letting, active
purgation, and blistering the head, will afford the slightest
hope of success. Tetanus, or Locked Jaw, is a constant spasm
of all the voluntary muscles, and particularly those of the
neck, the spine, and the head, arising from the injury of some
nervous fibril — that injury spreading to the origin of the
nerve — the brain becoming affected, and universal and un-
broken spasmodic action being the result. Bleeding, physick-
ing, blistering the course of the spine, and the administration
of opium in enormous doses, will alone give any chance of
cure. Epilepsy is not a frequent disease in the horse, but it
seldom admits of cure. It is also very apt to return at the
most distant and uncertain intervals. Palsy is the suspension
of nervous power. It is usually confined to the hinder limbs,
and sometimes to one limb only. Bleeding, physicking,
antimonial medicines, and blistering of the spine, are most
likely to produce a cure, but they too often utterly fail of
success. Rabies, or madness, is evidently a disease of the
nervous system, and, once being developed, is altogether with-
out remedy. The utter destruction of the bitten part with the
lunar caustic, soon after the infliction of the wound, will how-
ever, in a great majority of cases, prevent that development.
Pleurisy, or inflammation of the serous covering of the
lungs and the lining of the cavity of the chest, is generally
connected with inflammation of the substance of the lungs ;
but it occasionally exists independent of any state of those
organs. The pulse is in this case hard and full, instead of
being oppressed ; the extremities are not so intensely cold as
in pneumonia ; the membrane of the nose is little reddened,
and the sides are tender. It is of importance to distinguish
accurately between the two, because in pleurisy more active
jjurgation may be pursued, and the effect of counter-irritants
will be greater from their proximity to the seat of disease.
Copious bleedings and sedatives here also should be had re-
course to. It is in connexion with pleurisy that a serous
fluid is effused in the chest, the existence and the extent of
which may be ascertained by the practised ear, and which in
many cases may be safely evacuated.
The heart is surrounded by a serous membrane, the peri-
cardium, that secretes a fluid, the interposition of whicli pre-
vents any injurious friction or concussion in the constant
action of this organ. If this fluid increases to a great degree,
it constitutes dropsy of the heart, and the action of the heart
may be impeded or destroyed. In an early stage it is diffi-
cult to detect, and in every stage difiicult to cure.
The heart itself is oftefi diseased 5 it sympathises with the
232
DISEASES OF THE HOESE.
inflammatory affection of every organ, and therefore is itself
occasionally inflamed. Carditis, or inflammation of the heart,
is characterised by the strength of its pulsations, the tremor
of which can be seen, and the sound can be heard at a dis-
tance of several yards. Speedy and copious blood-letting
will afibrd the only hope of cure in such a case.
The outer coat of the stomach and intestines is composed
of a serous membrane, the peritoneum, which adds strength
and firmness to their textures, attaches and supports and
confines them iu their respective places, and secretes a fluid
that prevents all injurious friction between them. This coat
is exceedingly subject to inflammation, which is somewhat
gradual in its approach. The pulse is quickened, but small ;
the legs cold ; the belly tender ; there is constant pain, and
every motion increases it : there is also rapid and great pro-
stration of strength. These symptoms will sufficiently charac-
terise peritoneal inflammation. Bleeding, aperient injections,
and extensive counter-irritation will afibrd the only hope of
cure.
The time for castration varies according to the breed and
destiny of the horse. On the farmer's colt it may be effected
when the animal is not more than four or five months old,
and it is comparatively seldom that a fatal case then occurs.
For other horses, much depends on their growth, and par-
ticularly on the development of their fore quarters. Little
improvement has been effected in the old mode of castrating,
except the opening of the scrotum and the division of the
cord by the knife, instead of the heated iron.
Synovial or joint membranes are interposed between the
divisions of the bones, and frequently between the tendons,
in order to secrete a certain fluid that shall facilitate motion
and obviate friction. Occasionally the membrane is lace-
rated, and the synovia escapes. This is termed opened joint,
and violent inflammation rapidly ensues. The duty of the
practitioner is to close this opening as quickly as possible.
Nothing is so effectual here as the application of the cautery.
A great deal of inflammation and engorgement are produced
around the opening, partially, if not altogether, closing it ;
or at least enabling the coagulated synovia to occupy and
obliterate it. Perhaps, in order to secure the desired result,
the whole of the joint should be blistered. After this a
bandage should be firmly applied, and kept on as long as it
is wanted. If there is any secondary eruption of the
synovia, the cautery must again be had recourse to.
The Navicular Disease is a bruise, or inflammation, or
perhaps destruction, of the cartilage of the navicular bone,
DISEASES OF THE HOESE.
233
vLere the flexor tendon of the foot passes over it in order to
reach the coffin-bone. The veterinary surgeon can alone
ascertain the existence and proper treatment of this disease.
Spavin is an enlargement of the inner side of the hock. The
splint-bones support the inferior layer of those of the hock,
and as they sustain a very unequal degree of concussion and
weight, the cartilaginous substance which unites them to the
shank-bone takes on inflammation. It becomes bony instead
of cartilaginous, and the disposition to this change being set
up in the part, bony matter continues to be deposited, until
a very considerable enlargement takes place, known by the
name of spavin, and there is considerable lameness in the
hock-joint. The bony tumour is blistered, and probably
fired, but there is no diminution of the lameness until the
parts have adapted themselves, after a considerable process
of time, to the altered duty required of them, and then the
lameness materially diminishes, and the horse becomes, to a
very considerable extent, useful. Curb is an enlargement
of the back of the hock, three or four inches below its point.
It is a strain of the ligament which there binds the tendons
down in their place. The patient should be subjected to
almost absolute rest ; a blister should be applied over the
back of the tumour, and, occasionally, firing will be requisite
to complete the cure. Near the fetlock, and where the
tendons are exposed to injury from pressure or friction, little
bags or sacs are placed, from which a lubricating mucous
fluid constantly escapes. In the violent tasks which the
horse occasionally has to perform, these become bruised and
inflamed, and enlarged and hardened, and are termed wind-
galls. They blemish the horse, but are no cause of lameness
after the inflammation has subsided, unless they become
A^ery much enlarged. The cautery will then be the best
cure. Immediately above' the hock enlargements of a similar
nature are sometimes found, and, as they project both in-
wardly and outwardly, they are termed thorough-pins. They
are seldom a cause of lameness, but they indicate great and
perhaps injurious exertion of the joint. On the inside of
the hock a tumour of this kind, but of a more serious nature,
is found. It is one of these enlarged mucous bags, but very
deeply seated and the subcutaneous vein of the hock passing
over it. The course of the blood through the vein is thus
in some measure arrested, and a portion of the vessel be-
comes distended. This is a serious evil, since, ^ from the
deep-seatedness of the mucous bag, it is almost impossible
to act eff"ectually upon it. It is termed hog or blood spavin.
The cellular tissue which fills the interstices of the various
234
DISEASES OF THE HOESE.
organs, or enters into their texture, is the seat of many diseases.
From the badness of the harness, or the brutality of the at-
tendant, the poll of the horse becomes contused. Inflamma-
tion is set up, considerable swelling ensues. An ulcerative
process soon commences, and chasms and sinuses of the most
frightful extent begin to be formed. The withers also are
occasionally bruised, and the same process takes place there,
and sinuses penetrate deep beneath the shoulder, and the
hones of the withers are frequently exposed. These abscesses
are termed poll evil and Jistidous withers, and in the treat-
ment of them the horse is often tortured to a dreadful extent.
A better mode of management has however been introduced ;
setons are passed through the most dependent parts ; no col-
lection of sanious fluid is permitted to exist, and milder
stimulants are applied to the surface of the ulcer.
An abscess of a peculiar character is found between the
branches of the lower jaw in young horses. It is preceded
by some degree of fever. It is usually slow in its progress,
but at length it attains a considerable size, including the
whole of the cellular tissue in that neighbourhood. There
is one uniform mass of tumefaction. This is strangles. It
seems to be an efibrt of nature to get rid of something that
oppresses the constitution, and the treatment of it is now
simple and effectual. It is encouraged by fomentations and
blisters. It is punctured as soon as the fluctuation of a fluid
within it can be fairly detected — the pus speedily escapes,
and there is an end of the matter.
Farcy. — While the arterial capillaries are engaged in
building up the frame, the absorbents are employed in re-
moving that which is not only useless, but would be poisonous
and destructive. They take up the matter of glanders and
of every ulcerating surface, and they are occasionally irri-
tated, inflamed, and ulcerated from the acrimonious nature
of the poison which they carry. The absorbents are fur-
nished with numerous valves. The fluid is for a while ar-
rested by them, and there the inflammation is greatest, and
ulceration takes place. This is the history of the farcy cords
and buds. Farcy is a highly contagious disease, whether or
not it be connected with glanders. It, however, occasionally
admits of cure from the application of the cautery to the buds,
and the administration of the corrosive sublimate or the sul-
phate of iron internally.
The skin of the horse is subject to various diseases. Large
pimples or lumps suddenly appear on it, and, after remaining
a few days, the cuticle peels off, and a circular scaly spot is
left. This is called surfeit. The cause is obscure, but princi-
DISEASES OF THE HORSE.
235
pally referrible to indigestion. A slight bleeding will always
be serviceable. Physic rarely does good, but alteratives com-
posed of nitre, black antimony, and sulphur, will be very
beneficial. Mange is a disease of a different character. It is
the curse of the stable into which it enters, for it will almost
certainly affect every horse. Thorough dressings with Bar-
badoes tar and linseed-oil, in the proportion of one of the
former to three of the latter, will be the most effectual ex-
ternal application, while alteratives and physic should be
given internally. Hide-hound is a very appropriate term for
the peculiar sticking of the hide to the ribs when a horse is
out of condition. The subcutaneous adipose matter is all ab-
sorbed. The alterative above recommended will be very
useful here.
The legs, and the hind ones more than the fore ones, are
subject to frequent and great and obstinate swellings, attended
by great pain and considerable fever. It is acute inflamma-
tion of the cellular substance of the legs. Physic and diu-
retics, and tonics if there is the slightest appearance of
debility, are the proper means of cure. Friction and bandages
will also be useful occasionally. There is no disease in which
the farrier and the groom do greater mischief than in this.
Grease is an undue secretion of the fluid which was de-
signed to lubricate the skin of the heels, and that secretion
is also altered in quality. The hind legs begin to swell — a
fluid exudes from the heels — the hairs of the heels become
erect like so many bristles, and the skin of the heel is hot
and greasy. Soon afterwards cracks appear across the heel :
they discharge a thick and offensive matter, and then deepen.
They spread up the leg, and so does the tumefaction of the
part. In process of time the skin, inflamed and ulcerated,
undergoes an alteration of structure ; prominences or granu-
lations appear on it, assuming the appearance of a collection
of grapes, or the skin of a pine-apple. They increase, and a
foetid discharge appears from the crevices between them.
The cause is generally neglect of the horse. He is suf-
fered to stand in the stable with his heels cold and wet, which
necessarily disposes them to inflammation and disease.
In the first stage of grease, bran or turnip or carrot poul-
tices will be serviceable, with moderate physic. Then as-
tringents must be employed, and the best are alum or sulphate
of copper in powder, mixed with several times the quantity
of Bole Armenian, and sprinkled on the sores. These should
be alternated every three or four days. The grapy heels are
a disgrace to the stable in which they are found, and admit
not of radical cure.
236
DISEASES OF THE HOESE.
Spli7its are bony enlargements, generally on the inside of
the leg, arising from undue pressure on the inner splint-bone,
and this either caused by the natural conformation of the
leg, or violent blows on it. These excrescences will often
gradually disappear, or will yield to a simple operation, or
to the application of the hydriodate of potash or blister oint-
ments. Sp7'ai7is, if neglected, occasionally become very
serious evils. Rest, warm fomentations, poultices, or, in
bad cases, blistering, are the usual remedies. Windgalls, if
they are of considerable size, or accompanied by much in-
flammation or lameness, will find in a blister the most effec-
tual remedy. Sprains of the fetlock demand prompt and
severe blistering. Nothing short of this will produce a per-
manent cure. Sprains of the pastern and coffin-joints de-
mand still more prompt and decisive treatment. If neglected
or inefficiently managed, the neighbouring ligaments will be
involved, more extensive inflammation will be set up, and
bony matter, under the name of ring-hone, will spread over
the pasterns and cartilages of the foot. Firing alone will, in
the majority of cases, be efficient here.
Inflammation of the foot, or acute founder. — In speaking
of the structure of the foot, the laminae, or fleshy plates on
the front and sides of the coffin-bone, were described. From
over-exertion, or undue exposure to cold or wet, or sudden
change from cold to heat, inflammation of these laminae is
apt to occur, and a dreadfully painful disease it is. It is
easily detected by the heat of the feet, and the torture which
is produced by the slightest touch of the hammer. The shoe
must be removed, the sole well pared out, plentiful bleeding
from the toe had recourse to, the foot well poulticed, and
cooling medicines resorted to. The bleeding should be re-
peated if manifest benefit is not procured, and cloths dipped
in dissolved nitre, which are colder than the common poul-
tice, should be substituted. After this a poultice around the
foot and pastern should succeed. Little food should be given,
and that must consist of green meat or mashes.
Pumiced Feet. — This is one of the consequences of in-
flamed feet. The sole of the foot becomes flattened, or even
convex, by the pressure of the weight above. There is no
cure here, and the only palliation of the evil is obtained from
the application of a shoe so beveled off from the crust that
it shall not press upon or touch the sole. This, however, is
only a temporary palliation, for the sole will continue to pro-
ject, and the horse will be useless.
Contracted Feet. — By this is meant an increase in the
length of the foot, and a gradual narrowing as the heels are
DISEASES OF THE HORSE.
237
approached; and as the necessary consequence of this, a
diminution of the width of the foot and a concavity of the
sole. In point of fact, the whole of the foot, including the
coffin-bone, becomes narrowed, and consequently elongated.
This change of form is accompanied by considerable pain ;
the action of the horse is altered ; there is a shortened tread,
and a hesitating way of putting the foot to the ground.
The frog and heel would expand when the weight of the
horse descends and is thrown upon them, but the nailing of
the shoe at the heels prevents it. Thence the pain and lame-
ness. Mr. Turner of Regent-street obviates this by a very
simple method. He puts four or five nails in the shoe on
the outside, and only two on the inside. There is then suffi-
cient room for the natural expansion to take place, and the
foot and action of the horse are little or not at all changed.
This is an admirable contrivance, and recourse should al-
ways be had to it.
77ie Navicular Joint Disease. — There are many horses with
open and well-formed feet that are lame. In every motion
of the foot there is a great deal of action between the navi-
cular bone and the tiexor tendon which passes over it in
order to be inserted into the navicular bone. From concus-
sion or violent motion, the membrane or the cartilage which
covers the navicular bone is bruised or abraded, the horse
becomes lame, and often continues so for life. This disease
admits of remedy to a very considerable extent ; no one,
however, but a skilful veterinary surgeon is capable of suc-
cessfully undertaking it.
Sand-crack is a division of the crust of the hoof from the
upper part of it downward. It bespeaks brittleness of the
foot, and often arises from a single false step. If the crack
has not penetrated through the horn, it must nevertheless be
pared fairly out, and generally a coating of pitch should be
bound round the foot. If the crack has reached the quick,
that must be done which ought to be done in every case— a
skilful surgeon should be consulted, otherwise false quarter
may ensue.
False Quarter is a division of tJie ligament by which the
crust is secreted. It is one of the varieties of sand-crack,
and exceedingly difficult of cure.
Tread or Overreach is a clumsy habit of setting one foot
upon or bruising the other. It should immediately and
carefully be attended to, or a bad caSe of quittor may ensue.
Quittor is the formation of little pipes between the crust
and the hoof, by means of js'hich the purulent matter secreted
from some wound beneath the crust makes its escape. The
238
DISEASES OF THE HOKSE.
healing of this, and of every species of prick or wound in the
sole or crust, is often exceedingly difficult.
Corns are said to exist when the posterior part of the foot
between the external crust and the bars is unnaturally con-
tracted and becomes inflamed. Corns are the consequence
of continued and unnatural pressure. The thorough cure of
corns will put the ingenuity of the operator to the trial.
Thrush is the consequence of unnatural pressure on the
frog. It is the cause and the effect of contraction, whether
it is found in the heels of the fore feet or the hinder ones.
It is not difficult of cure when taken in time, but when
neglected it often becomes a very serious matter.
Canker is the consequence of thrush, or, indeed, of almost
every disease of the foot. It is attended by a greater or less
separation of horn, which sometimes leaves the whole of the
sole bare. This also, like the diseases of the foot generally,
is difficult of cure.
Few things are more neglected, and yet of greater import-
ance to the comfort and durability of the horse, than a proper
system of Shoeing. It is necessary that the foot should be
defended from the wear and tear of the roads, but that very
defence too often entails on the animal a degree of injury
and suffering scarcely credible. The shoe is fixed to the
foot, and often interferes with and limits the beautiful ex-
pansibility of that organ, and thus causes much unnecessary
concussion and mischief.
The shoe of a healthy foot should offer a perfectly flat
surface to the ground. The bearing or weight of the horse
will then be diffused over the surface of the shoe, and there
will be no injurious accumulation of it on different points.
Too often, however, there is a convexity towards the inner
edge, which causes an inequality of bearing, and breaks and
destroys the crust. Round the outer edge of the shoe, and
extended over two^thirds of it on the lower surface, a groove
is sunk, through which pass the nails for the fastening of the
shoe. At first ihey somewhat project, but they are soon
worn down to the level of the shoe, which in the healthy foot
should not vary from the heel to the toe.
The width of the shoe will depend on that of the foot. The
general rule is that it should protect the sole from injury,
and be as wide at the heel as the frog will permit.
The upper surface of the shoe should be differently formed.
It should be flat along the upper end, outer supporting the
crust, or, in other words, the weight of the horse, and widest
at the heel, so as to meet and withstand the shock of the
bars and the crust. The inner portion of the shoe should be
DISEASES OF THE HOKSE.
239
beveled off, in order that, in the descent of the sole, that
part of the foot may not be bruised. The owner of the horse
should occasionally be present when the shoes are removed,
and he will be too often surprised to see how far the smith,
almost wilfully, deviates from the right construction of this
apparently simple apparatus. The beveled shoe is a little
more troublesome to make and to apply than that which is
often used by the village smith, but it will be the owner's
fault if his directions are not implicitly obeyed.
Even at the commencement of the operation of shoeing the
eye of the master or the trustworthy groom will be requisite.
The shoe is often torn from the foot in a most violent and
cruel way. Scarcely half the clenches are raised when the
smith seizes the shoe with his pincers, and forcibly wrenches
it off. The shrinking of the horse will tell how much he
suffers, and the fragments of the crust will also afford suffi-
cient proofs of the mischief that has been done, especially
when it is recollected that every nail-hole is enlarged by
this brutal force, and the future safety of the shoe to a
greater or less degree weakened, and pieces of the nail are
sometimes left in the substance of the crust, which become
the cause of future disease.
In the paring out of the foot, also, there is frequently
great mischief done. The formidable hutteris is still often
found in the smithy of the country farrier, although it is
banished from the practice of every respectable operator. A
worse evil, however, remains. By the butteris much of the
sole was injuriously removed, and the foot was occasionally
weakened, but the drawing-knife frequently left a portion of
sole sufficient to destroy the elasticity of the foot, and to lay
the foundation for contraction, corns, and permanent lame-
ness. One object then of the looker-on is to ascertain the
actual state of the foot. On the descent of the crust, when
the foot is placed on the ground, depends the elasticity and
healthy state of the foot, and that may be satisfactorily de-
termined by the yielding of the sole, although to a very
slight degree, when it is strongly pressed upon with the
thumb. The sole being pared out, the crust on each side
may be lowered, but never reduced to a level with the sole,
otherwise this portion will be exposed to continual injury.
The heels often suffer considerably from the carelessness or
ignorance of the smith. The weight of the horse is not thrown
equably on them, but considerably more on the inner than the
outer quarter. The consequence of this is that the inner heel
is worn down more than the outer, and the foundation is laid
for tenderness and ulceration. The smith is too often m-
240
DISEASES OF THE HOUSE.
attentive to this, and pares away an equal quantity of horn
from the inner and outer heel, leaving the former weaker
and lower, and less able to support the weight thrown
upon it.
Mention has already been made of the use of the bars in
admitting and yet limiting to its proper extent the expan-
sion of the foot. The smith in the majority of country
forges, and in too many of those that disgrace the metropolis,
seems to have waged interminable war with these portions
of the foot, and avails himself of every opportunity to pare
them down, or perfectly destroy them, forgetting, or never
having learned, that the destruction of the bars necessarily
leads to contraction by removing the chief impediment to it.
The horn between the crust and the bar should be well
pared out. Every one accustomed to horses must have ob-
served the great relief that is given to the horse with corns
when this angle is pared out, and yet, from some fatality,
the smith rarely leaves it where nature placed it, but cuts
away every portion of it.
The true function of the frog is easily understood. It gives
security to the tread, and contributes to the expansion of the
heels; but the smith, although these cases come before him
every day, seems to be quite unaware of the course which he
should pursue, and either leaves the frog almost untouched,
and then it becomes bruised and injured, or he pares it away
so that it cannot come into contact with the ground, and
consequently is not enabled to do its duty.
The owner of the horse will therefore find it his interest
occasionally to visit the forge, and, guided by the simple
principles which have been stated, he will seldom err in his
opinion of what is going forward there. He should impress
two principles deeply on his mind, that a great deal more
depends on the paring out of the foot than in the construction
of the shoe : that few shoes, except they press upon the sole,
or are made shamefully bad, will lame the horse, but that he
may be very easily lamed by an ignorant or improper paring
out of the foot.
Where the owner of the horse has sufficient influence with
the smith, he will find it advisable always to have a few sets
of shoes ready made. Much time will be saved, in case of
accident, and there will not be, as is too often the case, the
cutting and paring and injuring of the foot, in order to make
it fit the shoe. More injury than would be readily believed
is done to the foot by contriving to get on it too small a shoe.
THE END.
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