THE HORSE IN AMERICA
[Illustration:
Original lithograph published by Currier & Ives.
FLORA TEMPLE
This remarkable mare was the first trotter to go a mile better than
2.20. For more than six years she was called “Queen of the Trotting
Turf.” Nothing is known as to her breeding, but from 1853 to 1859
she beat all the good horses in the country. She was a light bay,
14⅛ hands in height, and weighed 835 pounds when in training.
]
The Horse
IN AMERICA
A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE VARIOUS TYPES COMMON IN THE UNITED STATES,
WITH SOMETHING OF THEIR HISTORY AND VARYING CHARACTERISTICS
BY
JOHN GILMER SPEED
[Illustration]
_Illustrated_
NEW YORK
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
MCMV
_Copyright, 1905, by_
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
_Published, October, 1905_
THIS BOOK
THE AUTHOR DEDICATES TO HIS FRIEND
COLONEL CLARENCE R. EDWARDS, U.S.A.
WHOSE INHERITED LOVE FOR HORSES HAS
BEEN CULTIVATED BY STUDY AND
STRENGTHENED BY PRACTICE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HORSES
CHAPTER TWO ARAB AND BARB HORSES
CHAPTER THREE THE THOROUGHBRED IN AMERICA
CHAPTER FOUR THE MORGAN HORSE
CHAPTER FIVE MESSENGER AND THE EARLY TROTTERS
CHAPTER SIX RYSDYK’S HAMBLETONIAN AND THE STANDARD BRED TROTTERS
CHAPTER SEVEN THE CLAY AND CLAY-ARABIAN
CHAPTER EIGHT THE DENMARK, OR KENTUCKY SADDLE-HORSE
CHAPTER NINE THE GOVERNMENT AS A BREEDER
CHAPTER TEN FOREIGN HORSES OF VARIOUS KINDS
CHAPTER ELEVEN THE BREEDING OF MULES
CHAPTER TWELVE HOW TO BUY A HORSE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN THE STABLE AND ITS MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER FOURTEEN RIDING AND DRIVING
CHAPTER FIFTEEN TRAINING VS. BREAKING
CHAPTER SIXTEEN CONFORMATION AND ACTION
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
There have been so many books written about horses that in offering a
new one I feel that an explanation, if not an apology, is due. And I am
embarrassed as to how to frame the explanation without seeming to
reflect on the books previously given to the public. Nothing could be
further from my desire. Most of these previous books have been devoted
to special kinds or types of horses without any effort to cover a very
broad field. Some others have been frankly partizan with the avowed
purpose of proving that this type or that was the only one that was
worth serious consideration. All these are interesting, but valuable
chiefly to the careful student bent on going into the subject of horse
breeding and horse training in all of its branches. To do this an
ordinary reader would have to study half a hundred books with the danger
of becoming confused in the multiplicity of theories and conflicting
statements and with the final result of knowing as little in the end as
in the beginning. In this modest little volume I have endeavored briefly
to show how the horses in America have been developed and have come to
be what they are to-day. If I have succeeded even partly in my purpose I
will have my ample reward; if I fail, my book will end on a few dusty
library shelves along with hundreds of others on kindred subjects.
There is a peculiar characteristic of most writers on the horse. Let a
man be ever so fair in his ordinary business and social life, he is apt,
when he becomes interested in horses, to throw away his judicial
attitude and change into an advocate who sees only one side. When his
interest in that one side carries him to the length of writing, the
tendency is to be so partizan that he is even discourteous to others who
do not agree with him. This queer disposition to wrangle and dispute is
due, no doubt, to the fact that horse breeding is not yet by any means
an exact science, and the data, guiding even those who exercise the
greatest care and intelligence, is not trustworthy. We do not know with
certainty how any of the great types has been produced, for the
beginnings of all of them are covered up by fictions, based on
traditions not recorded, but handed down from generation to generation,
or on fictions that have been manufactured with ingenious mendacity. All
this is a pity, but there is no help for it now. What we can do is to
tell what is true, show what has been demonstrated by known achievements
and go on working in the material that we have at hand, so that we may
assist in increasing the great property value that this country has in
its horses.
That property value is immense. In the beginning of 1905, the
Agricultural Department estimated that the (taxable) value of the horses
in the United States was $1,200,310,020, and of mules $251,840,378, or a
total of $1,452,150,398. This is only about eight per cent less than the
aggregate value of the cows, beef cattle, sheep and hogs in the whole
country. Merely, therefore, from an economic standpoint this question of
preserving and increasing the value of horses is one of prime
importance. At this particular time it is a question not only of
increasing, but even of preserving, this value, for new agencies are
coming into competition with horses for many purposes and are being
substituted for horses in many others. The automobiles and the electric
tramways are not merely passing fads. They have come to stay until
substituted by something else which has not yet swum into our ken. The
common horses will soon be obsolete except on our farms, and even on the
farms they ought to be given up, for, notwithstanding all the great
breeding establishments in the various states, by far the greater number
of the horses are bred on the farms at present. That should always be
the case; but it may not be so when the time comes that is rapidly
approaching and a common horse will have next to no value at all.
Farmers more than others need to realize that only such horses should be
bred that will have a value for other than strictly farm work, for a
farmer should be able to sell his surplus stock with a fair profit. If
farmers have not the foresight to anticipate the inevitable, then they
will have to accept the loss that will surely ensue.
Every breeder whether farmer, amateur or professional, should breed to a
type. Any other method is merely a haphazard waste of time and money.
When I say breed to a type, I mean always a reproducing type. There are
several such in this country, a few of which belong to us, though most
of them are of foreign origin. The Thoroughbred is English, the
Percheron is French, the Hackney is English, the Orlof is Russian, the
Clydesdale is English, the Morgan is American, the Denmark is American,
the Clay-Arabian is American, and the standard bred trotter a kind of
“go-as-you-please” mongrel; nevertheless he is considered by many the
noblest achievement of intelligent American horse breeding. When any one
goes in for horse breeding on either a small or a large scale, whether
with one mare or with one hundred mares, he should, in selecting mates,
always strive for a definite type in the foal. If intelligence and
correct information be guided by experience the results are apt to be
pleasantly satisfactory.
The first cardinal principle of horse breeding was formulated in England
a century and a half ago in the expression: “Like begets like.” This
rule has been followed in the creation and maintenance of all the great
horse types in the civilized world, and singularly enough all of them,
both great and small in size, have descended from Arab and Barb stock.
This concise rule of breeding, “Like begets like,” has been
misunderstood by some who did not take a sufficiently comprehensive view
of it. This likeness does not refer merely to one thing; not to blood
alone, nor to conformation, nor to performance; but to blood and to
conformation and performance, but most of all to blood. Where blood
lines, as to likeness, are disregarded, and conformation and performance
are alone considered, the result is sure to be a lot of mongrels, some
of them, it is true, of most surpassing excellence, but as a general
thing, quite incapable of reproducing themselves with any reasonable
certainty.
The great danger always in breeding horses and other domestic animals
with the idea of improving a type or a family, is that mongrels may be
produced. A mongrel is an animal that results from the union of
dissimilar and heterogeneous blood. An improved and established
reproducing type has hitherto been, and probably always will be, the
result of the mingling of similar and homogeneous blood, crossed and
recrossed until the similar becomes consanguineous. The Arab and Barb, I
have said, are the foundation in blood of all the great types from the
Percheron to the Thoroughbred. To be sure, other and dissimilar blood
was used in the beginning of the making of all the types, but there was
such crossing and recrossing, such grading up by a selection of mates,
that the blood became similar, and the rule: “Like begets like,” being
constantly followed a type becomes established.
When a type has been established and is of unquestioned value to the
world, it should be preserved most carefully. The French, the Russians,
the Germans and the Austrians do this by means of Governmental breeding
farms. The English accomplish the same result by reason of the custom of
primogeniture and entailed estates. Continuity in breeding is essential
to its complete success. In this country when a breeder dies, his
collection of horses is usually dispersed by sale to settle his estate.
Considering our lack of Governmental assistance we have done amazingly
well to become the greatest horse-producing country in the world. Our
greatness, however, is mainly due to the vastness of our area, the
fertility of our soil and consequent cheapness of pasturage, and to the
high average intelligence of the American people. We have not exercised
the scientific intelligence in breeding that some European people have
done. So as breeders we have not a great deal to be proud of. We have
done better as to quantity than quality. But we can do better, and I am
sure that we will, for the time is hard upon us when the four-year-old
horse that is not worth $300 in the market will not be worth his keep.
There is, however, an important public aspect to this question of
improving and maintaining the breed of horses. Without good horses for
cavalry the efficiency of an army is very much crippled. When our Civil
War broke out horseback riding in the North had as an exercise for
pleasure been generally given up, and nine-tenths of the men who went
into the service on the Union side could not ride. On the other hand, at
least seven-tenths of those who went into the Confederate army could
ride. Moreover, the North had a scant supply of horses fit for cavalry,
while in many States of the South such animals were abundant. Here we
had on one side the material for a quickly-made cavalry, and on the
other side practically no material either in horses or men for such a
branch of the army. Critics of the war attribute the early successes of
the South to the superiority of the cavalry. The Northern side was
obliged to wait for nearly two years before that arm of the service was
equal to that of the South. Thus, this distressful war was probably
continued for more than a year longer than it would have been had the
two sides in the beginning been equally supplied with riders and riding
horses. And in the Japanese-Russian War, now in progress, the Japanese
are hampered dreadfully by their lack of cavalry. They have beaten the
Russians time and again only to let the Russians get away because of the
Japanese inability, from lack of horses and horsemen, to cut off the
line of retreat. It is a most distressingly expensive thing to be
without horses in time of war; unless proper horses are abundant in time
of peace, and the people who own them use them under the saddle, when
war comes there is a scarcity of men who know how to ride. Good material
for cavalry in horses and men is an excellent national investment.
In addition to my chapters on the breeding of various types I have added
several others on the keeping, handling and using of horses so that if
an owner have only this one book, he may be able to have at least a
little useful information of many sorts and kinds.
THE HORSE IN AMERICA
CHAPTER ONE
PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HORSES
The paleontologists tell us that the rocks abound with fossils which
show that Equidæ were numerous all over America in the Eocene period.
These were the ancestors of the horse that was first domesticated, and
though there were millions of them on the Continent of North America in
the period mentioned there were no horses here at all when Columbus made
his great discovery, and the first explorers came to find out what this
new India was like. The remains of the prehistoric horse, when first
found, baffled the naturalists, and he was called by Richard Owen
Hyracotherium or Hyrax-like-Beast. The first fossils discovered showed
that the horse was millions and millions of years ago under twenty-four
inches in stature, with a spreading foot and five toes. In his
development from this beginning the horse furnishes one of the most
interesting examples of evolution. When he had five toes he lived in
low-lying, marshy land and the toes were needed so that he could get
about. He had a short neck and short jaws, as longer were not needed to
enable him to feed on the easily reached herbage. As the earth became
harder, the waters receding, his neck and jaws lengthened, as it was
necessary for him to reach further to crop the less luxuriant and
shorter grasses. He lost, also one toe after another so that he might
travel faster and so escape his enemies. These toes, of course, did not
disappear all at once, but grew shorter, until they hung above the
ground. The “splint bones” on a horse’s legs are the remains of two of
these once indispensable toes, while the hoof is the nail of the last
remaining toe.
As the neck of the horse grew longer and two toes had been dropped, the
legs lengthened and by the time he became what the scientists call a
“Neohipparion” he was about three feet high, and his skeleton bore a
very striking resemblance to that of the horse of to-day. The teeth also
changed with the rest of the animal. In the earliest specimens
discovered the teeth were short crowned and covered with low, rounded
knobs, similar to the teeth of other omnivorous animals, such as monkeys
and hogs, and were quite different from the grinders of the modern
animal. When the marshy lands of the too-well watered earth had changed
into grassy plains the teeth of the horse also changed from short
crowned to long crowned, so that they could clip the shorter and dryer
grasses and grind them up by thorough mastication into the nutritious
food required for the animal’s well being.
Indeed, the whole history of the evolution of the horse by natural
selection is a complete illustration of adaptation to environment. Even
to-day in the Falkland Islands, where the whole surface is soft, mossy
bogland, the horses’ feet grow to over twelve inches in length, and curl
up so that frequently they can hardly walk upon them. Where we use
horses on hard, artificial roads it is necessary to have this toe-nail
or hoof pared, and protected by shoes.
Where the horse was first domesticated is a matter of dispute upon which
historians are not at all agreed. Some say it was in Egypt, some select
Armenia, and some content themselves with the general statement that
horses were indigenous in Western and Central Asia. It would be
interesting to go into this discussion were it not that it would delay
us too long from the subject in hand. At first they were used only in
war and for sport, the camel being used for journeys and transportation,
and the ox for agriculture. Indeed, I fancy the horse was never used to
the plough until in the tenth century in Europe. The sculptures of
ancient Greece and contemporaneous civilizations give us the best idea
obtainable of what manner of animal the horse was in the periods when
those sculptures were made. Mr. Edward L. Anderson, one of the most
careful students of the horse and his history, says: “Whether Western
Asia is or is not the home of the horse, he was doubtless domesticated
there in very early times, and it was from Syria that the Egyptians
received their horses through their Bedouin conquerors. The horses of
the Babylonians probably came from Persia, and the original source of
all these may have been Central Asia, from which last-named region the
animal also passed into Europe, if the horse were not indigenous to some
of the countries in which history finds it. We learn that Sargon I.
(3800 B.C.) rode in his chariot more than two thousand years before
there is an exhibition of the horse in the Egyptian sculptures or proof
of its existence in Syria, and his kingdom of Akkad bordered upon
Persia, giving a strong presumption that the desert horse came from the
last-named region through Babylonian hands. It seems after an
examination of the representations on the monuments, that the Eastern
horse has changed but little during thousands of years. Taking a copy of
one of the sculptures of the palace of Ashur-bani-pal, supposed to have
been executed about the middle of the seventh century before our era,
and assuming that the bareheaded men were 5 feet 8 inches in height, I
found that the horses would stand about 14½ hands—very near the normal
size of the desert horse of our day. The horses of ancient Greece must
have been starvelings from some Northern clime, for the animals on the
Parthenon frieze are but a trifle over 12 hands in height, and are the
prototypes of the Norwegian Fiord pony—a fixed type of a very valuable
small horse.”
The British horse is as old as history. He was short in stature and
heavy of build. New blood was infused by both the Romans and the
Normans, and when larger horses were needed to carry heavily-armored
knights, Flemish horses were introduced both for use and breeding, so
that by the time the Oriental blood was introduced they had in England
many pretty large horses, resembling somewhat the Cleveland Bay of the
present time, though not so tall by three or four inches, and not so
well finished. The horses that were first brought to America by the
English were such as I have suggested. But the first horses brought
hither were not English, but Spanish, and these were undoubtedly of
Oriental blood as were the horses generally in Spain after the Moslem
occupation. But when the Spanish first came there were no horses, as has
been said before, in either North or South America. Columbus in his
second voyage brought horses with him to Santo Domingo. But Cortez, when
he landed in 1519 in what is now Mexico, was the first to bring horses
to the mainland. They were the wonder of the Indians who believed that
they were fabulous creatures from the sun. The wild horses of Mexico and
Peru were no doubt descended from the escaped war horses of the Spanish
soldiers slain in battle. These escaped horses reproduced rapidly, and
the plains became populous with them. So, also, with the horses
abandoned by De Soto, who returned from his Mississippi expedition in
boats leaving his horses behind. Professor Osborn of the American Museum
of Natural History, has recently been conducting explorations in Mexico,
studying the wild horses there, and his conclusions are proof of the
accuracy of the surmises which have been made by the historians of the
early Spanish adventurers.
Flanders horses were brought to New York in 1625 and English horses to
Massachusetts in 1629. Previous to these importations, however, English
horses had been landed in Virginia, and in 1647 the first French horses
reached Canada, being landed at the still very quaint village of
Tadousac. Indeed, during all the colonial times there were many
importations as well as much breeding, for on horseback was the only way
a journey could be taken, except by foot or in a canoe. They needed good
serviceable horses, and they obtained them both by importation and
breeding. I suspect that the general run of horses in the Colonial era
in New England and along the Atlantic seaboard was very similar to the
horse that is now to be found in the province of Quebec, Canada. Every
one who has visited this province knows that these habitant horses are
very serviceable and handy, besides being quite fast enough for a
country where the roads have not been made first class. Harnessed to a
calash, an ancient, two-wheeled, French carriage, they take great
journeys with much satisfaction to their drivers and small discomfort to
themselves. Then the Colonists had the Narragansett pacer, a horse
highly esteemed not only for speed but for the amble which made his slow
gait most excellent for long journeys. When Silas Deane was the
colleague of Benjamin Franklin at the French Court during the
Revolutionary War, he proposed getting over from Rhode Island one of
these pacers as a present for the queen. Indeed, there are those who
maintain stoutly that the virtues of the American trotter as well as the
American saddle-horse came from these pacers. That may be the case so
far as the trotters are concerned, for of the horses bred to trot fast,
as we shall presently see, more are pacers than trotters. As a matter of
fact, however, Barbs are apt to pace, and these Narragansetts may have
had such an origin. In the blood of all our horse types there is some
proportion of Barb blood, and we find pacers among all except
Thoroughbreds. I am sure I never saw a Thoroughbred that paced, or heard
of one.
The history of the American horses with which we are concerned to-day
may be said to have begun after the War of the Revolution. But the basic
stock upon which the blood of the post-revolutionary importations was
grafted was most important and also interesting. It was gathered from
every country having colonies in North America and blended after its
arrival. The Spanish and French blood was strongly Oriental and mixed
kindly with that from Holland and England. At any rate, when Messenger
came in 1788 and Diomed in 1799 there was good material in the way of
horse-flesh ready and waiting to be improved.
CHAPTER TWO
ARAB AND BARB HORSES
The Arab horse from Nejd and the Berber horse from Barbary are the most
interesting and most important specimens of the equine race. This has
been the case as far back as the history of the horse runs and tradition
makes it to have been so for a much longer period. And, moreover, these
horses in the perpetuation of established European and American types
are as important to-day as ever. From this Nejdee Arabian and Berber of
Barbary have sprung by a mingling of these ancient bloods with other
strains, all of the reproducing horse types of signal value in the
civilized world, including the Percheron of France, the Orlof of Russia,
the charger of Austria, the Thoroughbred of England, the Morgan of
Vermont, Mr. Huntington’s rare but interesting Clay-Arabians of New York
and the Denmarks of Kentucky. The same is the case with other types or
semi-types, but I only particularize these because the mere mention of
them shows to what uses this singularly prepotent blood can be put when
the two extremes of equine types, and those between the extremes as
well, appear to owe their reproducing quality to the blood of these
handsome little animals that have been bred, preserved and, so far as
possible, monopolized by the nomadic tribes of Barbary and of Nejd. Nejd
comprises the nine provinces of Central Arabia, while the Berbers wander
all through the Barbary states which consist of Morocco, Algeria, Tunis,
and Tripoli, but keep as remote as possible from what European influence
that exists in that section of the world.
[Illustration:
NIMR (ARAB)
Imported by Randolph Huntington
]
To most horsemen in America the name of Arab is anathema. They will have
none of him. So far as their light goes they are quite right in their
prejudice. But prejudice in this instance, as in most others, is the
result of ignorance. And I trust in the light of what I shall say about
the Nejdee Arabian, the Berbers of Barbary and the influence of this
blood on the equine stock of the world, I may say this without any
offense. If I give the offense then I preface it with the apology that I
mean none. The truth is that seven out of ten of the Arabian horses
taken into Europe or brought to America have been inferior specimens and
not of the correct breed; twenty per cent at least have been mongrels
and impostures, while of the remaining ten per cent not more than one
per cent have been correct in their breeding, conformation and capacity
to do what was expected of them.
Some men reading the history of this type and that have persuaded
themselves that a few Arabs selected personally in Arabia would enable
them to beat their competitors as breeders and even to win against
horses that traced back one hundred or two hundred years ago to Arab and
Barb ancestors. Such folly always resulted in costly disappointment.
This folly and consequent disappointment will become manifest as my
narrative proceeds. But before going any further I do not wish any of my
readers to harbor the notion that I think an Arab would stand any chance
on an ordinary race-course to outrun an English Thoroughbred, or to
out-trot in harness or under saddle an Orlof or an American. I maintain
no such absurdity. But I do maintain that all these types, so that they
may preserve their reproductive capacities, must get from time to time
fresh infusions of this blood. That is why the purely bred Arabian—and
the Nejdee is the purest of all—is as valuable to-day as when the
Godolphin Barb and the Darley Arabian began the regeneration of the
English horse into that wonderful Thoroughbred, which is one of
England’s proudest achievements and most constant sources of wealth.
Historical records dating back to the fifth century show that the best
quality and the greatest number of Arabian horses were to be found in
Nejd. They are also to be found there to-day, and the number has not, so
far as the records speak, increased. They have never been numerous, as
it has never been the policy of the chiefs to breed for numbers, but for
quality. It is not true, however, that a lack of forage was the
restraining cause of this comparative scarcity of horses in the very
section where they have been kept in their greatest perfection. As a
matter of fact, the pasture land of Arabia is singularly good. The very
desert, during the greater part of the year, supplies sufficient browse
for camels; while the pasture grass for horses, kine, and above all for
sheep on the upper hill slopes, and especially in Nejd, is first-rate.
To be sure there are occasional droughts, but few grazing countries in
the world are free from them. No, the scarcity in horses is not due to a
lack of food, but to two other reasons entirely satisfactory to the
chiefs of Nejd. Horses there are not a common possession and used by
all. On the contrary, their ownership is a mark of distinction and an
indication of wealth, as they are never used except for war and the
chase and racing, the camel carrying the burdens and doing the heavy
work of the caravans. The second reason for the scarcity is that Nejdee
horses are very rarely sold to be taken out of the province. This is not
the result of sentiment, but one purely of protection and the desire to
preserve a monopoly in a race that is easily the very purest in the
world.
The traditions as to the origin of the Arabian horse are numerous. Some
hold that they are indigenous. If this were supported, then the
traditions would lose interest. But the traditions are interesting and
in general effect were thus expressed by the Emir Abd-El-Kader in 1854,
in a letter addressed to General Daumas, a division commander who served
long in Arabia and who was later a senator of France. He said that God
created the horse before man, and then this domestic animal was handed
down: “1st. From Adam to Ishmael; 2d, from Ishmael to Solomon; 3d, from
Solomon to Mohammed; 4th, from Mohammed to our own times.” This
tradition, it must be said, is very general and comprehensive in its
scope, but to the Arabs it has a significant meaning, as they claim that
Ishmael, the bastard son of Abraham, was not only one of themselves but
their founder, for is it not written in the Bible that when Hagar, the
concubine of Abraham, fled into the wilderness, an angel appeared to her
and said:
“I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be
numbered for multitude. Behold, thou art with child, and shalt
bear a son and shalt call his name Ishmael; and he will be a wild
man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand
against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his
brethren.”
Indeed, this son of Abraham was the very personification of the Arabian
people throughout their whole history, and he needed horses as the
Arabian people have needed them ever since to assist in the forays and
expeditions which give to life its spice and its prize. Then again,
there is a tradition that Nejd got its horses from Solomon; another that
they came from Yemen. This seems to me the same tradition, for Yemen’s
ancient name was Sheba; and what more natural than for Solomon to have
rewarded with gifts of horses the Queen of Sheba’s people for giving him
one of his most satisfactory wives. Then there is a story that has been
builded up in our own days by a man who was a Methodist minister before
he became a manufacturer of trotting-horse pedigrees in this country.
This interesting man in his old age, if he did not resume the occupation
of his youth, did study the Bible in the endeavor to show that the
Arabian horses never had been much in quality and many in numbers, and
that their antiquity was not of any importance for they had not been
taken into Arabia from Armenia until the third century. A century or so
made little difference to a man like Wallace, who unwittingly gave to
these horses two centuries more of record than history really accounts
for. But whether the Nejdee Arabs were indigenous or brought into the
land by Ishmael, or sent by Solomon, or taken there by the Armenians, it
is certain that they were there a hundred years before Mohammed became a
prophet, and in characteristics of size, temper and performance they
were the same that we find to-day. So that gives us a long record of
fifteen centuries during which we know that the greatest care has been
taken to keep them pure in blood and to train them to the work for which
they were required.
The tradition as to the Berber horse of Barbary is much simpler, as
these robber tribes have not developed poets or historians, and content
themselves with saying that the horses have always been there. And so
far as we are concerned that statement is as satisfactory as any other.
But we do know that supplies of these horses were obtained by Saladin in
his domestic wars, and were used also in his contests with the
faith-breaking crusaders who vainly tried to destroy the Moslem rule and
obtain perpetual possession of Jerusalem. From the earliest times it has
been a mooted point as to which was the superior, the Berber or the
Nejdee. Among the Europeans who have lived much in Egypt this is still a
disputed matter, and when Count de Lesseps was a young man he endeavored
to decide the question by a series of races at 4½ kilometers (about 2⅘
miles). Other horses, however, were admitted. In the first heat there
were three Nejdee horses all bred in Cairo—the purity of the blood being
open to suspicion—and one Syrian horse. A Cairo-bred Nejdee was the
winner. In the second heat there were three Nejdee horses, one bred in
Cairo, and one Barbary horse from Tunis owned and ridden by Count de
Lesseps himself. The Barb won. In the third heat there were three Nejdee
horses, one of them ridden by de Lesseps, and one Samean horse. A
Cairo-bred Nejdee horse won. In the fourth heat there were three Nejdee
horses and one Egyptian horse from Abfeh. A Nejdee horse was the winner.
Then came the final heat between the winners of the trial heats. The
result was that the de Lesseps Barbary horse was first, a Cairo-bred
Nejdee horse was second, and Nejdee horses third and fourth.
This trial was cited by General Daumas as evidence that at least the
Barb was not inferior to the Nejdee in fleetness. It only indicates to
me that Count de Lesseps was the shrewder of the contestants and had
selected the best individual animal among the sixteen competitors.
However, the Emir Abd-El-Kader believed in the superiority of the Barbs,
and as an instance of this, quoted the practice of Aamrou-El-Kais, an
ancient King of Arabia, who “took infinite pains to secure Barbary
horses wherewith to combat his enemies. He was doubtful of success if
obliged to trust himself to Arab horses. It is not possible, in my
opinion, to give a more invincible proof of the superiority of the
Barb.” This illustration may have been convincing to the learned
Musselman, but to-day we should want, I think, a more modern instance to
be satisfied; and we should want to know more of the individuals in the
de Lesseps’s trials than has been recorded. That the Barbs have had as
great influence in the creation of other types as the Nejdees is
undoubtedly true, for while it has never been easy to get the best
specimens of Barbary horses for exportation, it has never been so
difficult as to get Nejdee Arabians of equivalent excellence. The
Berbers were natives of Palestine and expelled by one of the Persian
kings. They emigrated to Egypt, but were refused permission to settle,
so they crossed over to the other side of the Nile. They were
adventuresome robbers, as they are to-day, and no doubt have taken their
horses with them from their first setting out from Palestine. So I quote
Abd-El-Kader again: “As for the Berbers themselves, everything proves
that they have been known from time immemorial, and that they came from
the East to settle in the Maghreb, where we find them at the present
day.”
Europe did not know much of these Arab and Barb horses until the Arabs
and Moors invaded and conquered Spain. The invasion of Spain began in
the eighth century and the rule lasted until into the thirteenth
century, though the Moors held Grenada for two centuries later. What
became a conquest was begun merely as a raid for rich booty, and, of
course, the Arabs, of whom it has been said, “their kingdom is the
saddle,” were mounted. The Berbers, of course, took their horses, and it
is likely that during those long centuries, it was the first time out of
the Sahara that Arabian and Barb horses were bred extensively and their
blood united. It is undoubtedly a fact that after the expulsion of these
conquerors, Spain was well supplied with excellent horses, horses which
assisted the armies of Spain to hold what her navigators had discovered.
The pilgrims returning from Palestine, also told of the excellent horses
in the East, and the Crusaders, more practical men, had all the evidence
that they needed in their battles with the Musselman to enable them to
testify to the hardiness and the fleetness of the horses of the desert.
And so when lighter cavalry was needed to replace the heavily-armed
knights, whose armor the use of gunpowder had made obsolete, the
soldiers and statesmen of the seventeenth century knew where to look for
the blood that would improve the home-bred horses. It was as difficult
then as now to get Arabs and Barbs of the best blood, but some at least
were obtained, and from the beginning in England in the earliest years
of the eighteenth century we trace back to Eastern horses to find the
founders of the wonderful Thoroughbreds, which in their way are the best
horses the world has seen. In France, too, there were many importations
for the upbuilding of the native stock, but this took a different
direction, and we are not so much concerned with it as with the English.
The English stud book of the Messrs. Weatherby, the first effort to keep
trustworthy records of the breeding of horses, begins with 1700, the
only Eastern horse mentioned before this being the Byerly Turk, a
charger used by Captain Byerly in Ireland in 1689. Then they had the
Darley Arabian, Markham’s Arabian, the Alasker Turk, Leede’s Arabian and
the Godolphin Barb. The most important of these were the Godolphin Barb
and the Darley Arabian. We do not know exactly whence any of these came,
nor do we know the pedigree of any. Indeed, to know, or pretend to know
the pedigree of a Nejdee or Berber horse is to show ignorance or to
confess imposture. The breeders do not keep or give pedigrees except
when they wish to bolster up the merits of an inferior animal. And then
they do it because they have been asked to do so by European or American
purchasers not acquainted with the Arab practices. It seems as sensible
to ask an Arab for the pedigree of a horse as to ask a diamond merchant
for the pedigree of a stone. The Arabs have had these horses time out of
mind. They know them to be purely bred. What more could a sensible man
want? But if the purchaser insists, then he may have any kind of
pedigree that seems to please him most. He can have pure Nejdee, pure
Barb, a cross between the two, or any admixture of Egyptian, Syrian, or
Turkish blood that best suits his taste. But as a matter of fact, these
Eastern pedigrees are pure fakes, merely made up things, such, for
instance, as the recorded pedigree of the famous Hambletonian, the
founder of the standard bred trotter in America. To the Arabs in their
breeding, pedigree makes no more difference in mating than it does to
the birds of the air or the beasts of the forest. They know that they
have animals of pure blood and that the progeny of them will still be
pure no matter how closely the parents may be related. There is
selection, of course, as inferior males are not permitted to be sires.
Instead of that they are sometimes destroyed, or sent to Syria and even
to Mesopotamia to serve the mares of those regions where the mares are
Arabs but not pure Nejdees. Here is one queer fact about the Arab and
Barb blood, and proof also of its wonderful prepotency. So long as it is
mingled with other blood not too heterogeneous, the most close
inbreeding appears not only to do no harm, but actually to do good. This
is particularly so with the English Thoroughbred, the American Morgan,
and the Kentucky Denmark.
All we are told about the Darley Arabian is this. Mr. Darley of
Yorkshire, had a brother who was a merchant in Aleppo. This brother
brought home a black bay[1] stallion some 14 hands in stature, about
1700. He became in 1707 the sire of Flying Childers, the greatest
race-horse in England and the progenitor of most of those on the running
turf in America and England to-day. The dam of Flying Childers was also
rich in Oriental blood, as she was an inbred Spanker and Spanker was by
D’Arcy’s Yellow Turk from the daughter of Morocco Barb and Old Bald Peg,
the latter being by an Arab horse from a Barb mare. So we see that this
first great English race-horse was almost of pure Eastern blood.
Footnote 1:
A very unusual color for a Nejdee.
Of Markham’s Arabian we only know that he met with the disapproval of
the then Master of Horse, the Duke of Newcastle, and had scant chance.
Of the Godolphin Barb we know very little previous to his coming to
England, where he was held in such little esteem that he was used as a
teaser for Hobgoblin. We are told, however, that he was first taken to
France and held of such little account that he was used as a cart horse,
in Paris. He was finally brought to England about 1725, and became the
property of Lord Godolphin. He was a brown bay, 15 hands high, and with
an unnaturally high crest. He served Roxana in 1731, the produce being
Lath, next to Flying Childers the greatest horse in England in the first
half of the eighteenth century. Roxana was by Bald Galloway, her dam
sister to Chanter by the Alasker Turk from a daughter by Leedes’s
Arabian and a mare by Spanker. Here we see again the value of these
crosses of Oriental blood. From the mating of the Godolphin Barb and
Roxana also came Cade, the sire of Regulus, the grandam of that most
marvelous horse, Eclipse. When all this had happened the English were
sure they were on the right road. And they have kept on that road with
great persistency, not going back, however, in my opinion, frequently
enough to the pure Nejdee and Berber stock for fresh infusions. That
they have not done this is natural enough, however. A breeder wants
results quickly. To get a collateral strain from fresh Arab and Barb
blood equal to the present thoroughbred would probably take fifty years.
No private breeder cares to do that. And the English government does not
officially breed horses. The French, the Austrians and the Russians all,
however, have agents in Arabia trying to buy the animals that are best
suited to do just what I have suggested. And they all succeed. It is too
much, however, to expect this from a private breeder.[2]
Footnote 2:
According to the reckoning of Major Roger D. Upton of the 9th Royal
Lancers, there were used in the formation of the English stud from the
time of James I, to the beginning of the 19th Century, Eastern horses
to this extent: 101 Arab stallions, 7 Arab mares, 42 Barb stallions,
24 Barb mares, 1 Egyptian stallion, 5 Persian stallions, 20 Turkish
stallions, and 2 “Foreign” stallions, or 210 in all. In the popular
mind of all of these were classed as Arabs. This is not right, as the
real Arab is much purer in blood than the others, though the Barbs
have virtues by no means to be despised.
One, however, in this country has had the courage and the tenacity of
purpose to do this. I allude to Mr. Randolph Huntington, of Oyster Bay
on Long Island. Mr. Huntington has mingled Arab and Barb blood with that
of the Henry Clay family to which he is very partial. His success in
creating a reproducing type has been demonstrated in the face of
handicaps that would have worn out the patience of a less tenacious and
determined man. This experiment of Mr. Huntington makes a story of its
own which I shall tell in a later chapter.
[Illustration: RANDOLPH HUNTINGTON AND HIS IMPORTED ARAB MARE NAOMI, AND
FOAL]
From the time that superior horses began to be imported into this
country, and that was in the Colonial era, there have always been a few
Arabs and Barbs brought over of various degrees of excellence. Of
course, all of the English Thoroughbreds were rich in the blood,
Messenger among them. They came also into Canada with the French, and
the Spaniards who had crossed the Mississippi and gone to California
from Mexico brought many horses all presumably of this breed. The hardy
Mustangs of the West, which were a very distinct type, were evidently
descended from the castaways of the Spanish explorers. To President
Jefferson there came a gift of Arab stallions and mares. These were sold
and the money turned into the treasury. After Ibraheem Pasha overran
Arabia in 1817, and took several hundred head of Nejdee horses to Egypt
it was easier for a time to buy them for exportation. And from there at
about this time there were several importations into America. This
supply, however, was soon exhausted, as the Egyptians are not skilled
horse breeders. Besides, the French got the pick of this captured lot.
Then again, Teysul, King of Nejd, made a present of forty stallions and
mares to Abdul-Azeez, Sultan of Turkey. From this source came Zilcaadi,
the grandsire of the great Morgan horse Golddust, and also the Arab
stallion Leopard, given to General Grant in 1879, when the Barb, Linden
Tree, was also presented to him by the Sultan. It was with these two
Grant stallions, by the way, that Mr. Huntington began the experiment I
just alluded to.
What gave the Arab horse a kind of disrepute in America was the
experiments of Mr. A. Keene Richards. Mr. Richards was a man of wealth
and education and a breeder of race-horses in the Blue Grass section of
Kentucky. In studying the history of the English Thoroughbred he came to
the conclusion he would like to get fresh infusions of the original
blood. He went to Arabia, and personally selected several stallions.
These he mated with his Thoroughbred mares, and when the colts were old
enough he entered them in the races. They were not fast enough to win
even when conceded weight. He went again, this was about 1855, taking
with him the animal painter, Troye. They took their time, and came back
with a superior lot. Mr. Richards tried over again the same experiment
with the same result. The colts did not have the speed to beat the
Thoroughbreds. It seems to me that any one except an incurable
enthusiast would have anticipated exactly what happened. If Mr. Richards
had waited several generations and then injected the new infusions of
the Arab blood, the result probably would have been quite different. The
Civil War came along about this time, however, and the experiment ended
in what was considered a failure. But that blood taken to Kentucky at
that time by Mr. Richards has been valuable in an unexpected way, for it
has been preserved in the half-bred horses in the horse-breeding
section, and it crops out all the time in those wonderful saddle-horses
of the Denmark strain, which are sent all over the country to delight
the lovers of horseback exercise as well as to monopolize the ribbons in
the horse shows. Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, in England, has had experiences
similar to Mr. Richard’s. But he has gone the same wrong road, and has
been in too much of a hurry. Continuity in breeding is something beyond
the capacity of an individual; his life is not long enough. That is why
every government should have a stud to keep up the standard of the
horses. In the United States the interests are so diverse that it is not
likely that this will soon be done in an extensive way, though already
begun on a small scale, but each State, whose people are horse breeders,
should do something of the sort, so that the success of an undertaking
might not depend upon the uncertain life and more uncertain fortunes of
any one man.
In Arabia the horses are trained at a very early age. Indeed, the
suckling colt is handled almost from his birth. As a yearling he is
trained to obey, exercised with the halter and the bit. At two-years old
he is ridden gently but without fear of hurting him. At three there is a
let-up in his work, so that he may acquire his full growth; but he is
used enough to keep him from forgetting what he has been taught. At four
he is considered full-grown and is put to as hard service as the Arab
usually knows. It is a mistaken idea that the Arab horse is considered a
member of the family to which he belongs, and that he is pampered,
petted and caressed by the women and children, and stabled in the same
tents as his owners. Those are all fanciful ideas of the poets. On the
contrary, an Arab horse is early immured to hardships, so that in
emergency he may subsist on scant food and little water. Every one has
heard it said that an Arab would give his last crust to his horse rather
than eat it himself. I readily grant that in some cases he would do so,
and so would any other man of sense in a like predicament. The Arabs are
great robbers and wonderful chaps to run away. In the desert they do not
have telegraphs and telephones to intercept a fleeing thief. There it is
a question of the fastest and longest enduring horse. So of course, a
fleeing Arab, with his pursuers hot on his track, would give his last
crust to his horse rather than eat it himself. He would be a fool if he
did not. That last crust might be the very fuel that would keep life and
strength in his engine of escape. The Arab is not a sentimentalist
except when he talks or makes poetry. In his words he exhausts his whole
supply. Beneath them he is a very shrewd, cold and able man of affairs.