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[Illustration: THE PILLION]
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THE
HORSE AND HIS RIDER:
OR,
Sketches and Anecdotes of the Noble Quadruped,
and of Equestrian Nations.
BY ROLLO SPRINGFIELD.
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LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL 186 STRAND.
MDCCCXLVII.
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LONDON.
VIZETELLY BROTHERS AND CO., PRINTERS AND ENGRAVERS,
PETERBOROUGH COURT, FLEET STREET.
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CONTENTS.
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CHAPTER PAGE
I. DOMESTICATION OF THE HORSE—HORSE 1
FURNITURE—VARIOUS BREEDS—BLOOD
HORSES—PONIES
II. PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE 23
HORSE—SAGACITY—FIDELITY—SOCIABILITY,
&C.—ANECDOTES—INSANITY
III. VICES, AND DISAGREEABLE OR DANGEROUS 50
HABITS
IV. SPEED AND ENDURANCE—CARNIVOROUS 66
HORSES—HORSEFLESH AS FOOD—HORSEBAITING
V. PRIMITIVE STATE OF WILD HORSES—THE 86
STEPPES
VI. THE CENTAUR—THE MONGOLS AND CALMUCKS—A 100
RUSSIAN TABOON
VII. THE COSSACKS—THE CIRCASSIANS—THE 131
MAMELUKES
VIII. BELA—A STORY OF THE CAUCASUS 150
IX. RUNJEET SINGH’S FAMOUS HORSE 179
LYLEE—ANECDOTES—PERSIAN HORSES
X. ARABIAN HORSES 194
XI. FERAL HORSES OF AMERICA—INDIANS AND 204
GAUCHOS
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CHAPTER I
DOMESTICATION OF THE HORSE—HORSE FURNITURE—VARIOUS BREEDS—BLOOD
HORSES—PONIES.
THE reduction of the horse to the domestic state, as Buffon justly
observes, is the greatest acquisition from the animal world ever made by
the art and industry of man. Every one knows and admires the graceful
symmetry, the speed, vigour, docility, and endurance of that noble
creature; but few, perhaps, have reflected on the important part he has
played in the history of our race; few are aware how much we owe it to
him, that we at this day are not as rude and wretched as our barbarian
forefathers, but live surrounded by those countless blessings which are
the birthright of every child born in a civilised land. We fear that
there has been little gratitude or humanity evinced in our general
treatment of the horse; and now that we rush along like the wind on the
wings of steam, we are perhaps in danger of still more undervaluing his
worth. But had we never known his aid, how different far would have been
the fortunes of mankind! how hardly would it have fulfilled its destiny,
to “multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion
over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth!” Unaided by the strength and swiftness
of this generous servant, men would but partially and slowly have
emerged from barbarism; at the most they would have congregated into
tribes and petty states, covering only as much ground as might be
traversed in a day’s march or two on foot; and these would have been
perpetually engaged in war and rapine: but peace, order, plenty,
knowledge, and national power, could never have been established or have
made progress, so long as men, divided by wide tracts of country, had no
means of rapidly communicating with each other, and of uniting together
for their mutual welfare.
Neither sacred nor profane history informs us in what country the horse
was first domesticated, or whether he was first used for draught or
riding. It is probable that the animal was employed for both purposes in
very early times, and in various parts of the world; but though many of
the ancients possessed great mastery over their horses, and performed
with them admirable feats of skill and agility, it is nevertheless
surprising by what slow steps the arts and inventions, connected with
horsemanship, have reached their present degree of perfection. The
polished Greeks, as well as the ruder nations of northern Africa, for a
long while rode without either saddle or bridle, guiding their horses
with the voice or the hand, or with a light switch. They touched the
animal on the right or left of the face to make him turn in the opposite
direction; they stopped him by touching his muzzle, and urged him
forward with the heel. The horses must have been excellently trained, to
be governed by such slight means, in the violence of their course, or in
the tumult of battle; but the attention, docility, and memory of this
animal are such, that it is hard to say to what a degree of obedience he
may not be brought.
Bridles and bits were at length introduced; but many centuries elapsed
before any thing that can properly be called a saddle was used. Instead
of these, cloths, single or padded, and skins of wild beasts, often
richly adorned, were placed beneath the rider, but always without
stirrups. It is a very extraordinary fact that even the Romans, in the
times when luxury was carried to the utmost excess amongst them, never
devised so simple an expedient for assisting the horseman to mount,
lessening his fatigue, and securing his seat, although painful diseases
were not infrequently eased by the habit of riding with the feet
unsupported. Many ancient sculptures prove that the horsemen of almost
every country used to mount on the right side of the animal, in order
the better to grasp the mane which hangs on that side. The practice is
invariably reversed in modern days, and none but a Billy Button would
think of mounting on the _off_ side, notwithstanding the classical
authority that may be alleged for so doing.
The ancient heroes generally leaped on their horses’ backs; or their
spear, if they carried one, had a loop, or projection, about two feet
from the bottom, which served them as a step. The horse was sometimes
trained to lower his neck and back, or to kneel down for his rider; and
both in Greece and Rome the local magistracy were bound to see that
blocks, for mounting from (what the Scotch call _loupin-on stanes_),
were placed along the roads at convenient distances. The great, however,
thought it more dignified to use living blocks, and to climb into their
seats, by setting their feet on the bent backs of their slaves; and many
who could not command such costly help used to carry a light ladder
about with them—a curious piece of horse furniture!
What a signal instance was given of the deep humiliation into which
Imperial Rome had fallen, when a haughty Persian monarch mounted his
horse from the back of the Emperor Valerian! The use of stirrups left
pride and insolence without a pretext for thus degrading God’s image.
Instead of offering his back to be trampled on, the servant now only
held the stirrup for his lord. In the middle ages, the great were fond
of exacting this token of servility from their humbled rivals: Emperors
of Germany have held the stirrup for the Pope; and Henry II. of England,
when his rancour against Thomas à Becket was hottest, thought to cajole
the great prelate by a similar show of feigned respect.
The first distinct notice we have of the use of the saddle occurs in an
edict of the Emperor Theodosius (A.D. 385); from which we also learn
that it was usual for those who hired post-horses to provide their own
saddles. The edict directs that no traveller shall use a saddle weighing
more than sixty pounds! Such cumbrous contrivances must have been more
like the howdahs placed on the backs of elephants, than the light and
elegant saddle of modern times. Fortunately for the soldiers of those
days, it does not appear that the military punishment of “carrying the
saddle” was devised until a later period. It was commonly inflicted on
horse-soldiers, and even on knights in the middle ages, for breach of
discipline. A saddle, bridle, and other appurtenances were laid on the
offender’s shoulders, and he was compelled to march about for a certain
length of time, without stopping, exposed to the scoffs and jeers of all
who saw him thus oddly accoutred. Well for him that his burden did not
amount to the liberal weight allowed by the Roman emperor!
Side-saddles for ladies were an invention of comparatively recent date.
The first seen in England was made for Anne of Bohemia, Richard the
Second’s queen. It was, probably, more like a pillion than the
side-saddle of our day; and if any of our young readers do not know what
is meant by the word “pillion,” their grandmammas may, perhaps, be able
to describe the thing to them from recollection, for it was in high
fashion not a great many years ago. It was a sort of very low-backed
arm-chair, which was fastened on the horse’s croup, behind the saddle,
on which a man rode who had all the care of managing the horse, while
the lady sat at her ease, supporting herself by grasping a belt which he
wore, or by passing her arm round his body—if the gentleman was not too
ticklish.
Horse-shoeing was not practised for many centuries after the horse
himself was in very general use; nor were hoof-protectors essentially
necessary until paved tracts and hard roads became more frequent than
they were in old times. The first foot defence of the horse seems to
have been copied from that of his master. It was a sort of sandal,
commonly made of matting, rope, or leather. The Emperor Nero, in his
profusion, had his horses and mules shod with silver; and his Empress,
Poppæa, was not content with less than gold for the same purpose. These
sandals were very insecure, and were apt to be left sticking in the mud;
they were, therefore, seldom put on the animal for the whole journey,
but only at the worst places. Nor do they appear to have been adequate
to protect the hoof from injury; for instance, when Mithridates was
besieging the town of Cyzicus, in his first war against the Romans, he
was obliged to send away his whole cavalry to Bithynia, because the
horses’ hoofs were all worn down, and their feet disordered.
Here again, as in the case of the stirrupless saddle, we are lost in
wonder at the fact, that men should, for nearly a thousand years, have
gone on fastening plates of metal under horses’ hoofs by the clumsy
means of strings and bands; and that it should never in all that time
have occurred to them to try nails where strings had failed. Next to the
inventive powers of men there is really nothing so wonderful as their
want of inventiveness, and the stupid way in which they will continue
from generation to generation, doing something very absurd from mere
force of habit, and utter want of thought! It is humiliating to think,
how men have been content to remain for ages separated by the smallest
possible partitions from discoveries in the arts, that tend to the
convenience and embellishment of life. We have had India rubber ever
since America was explored, yet, until a few years ago, we made no use
of it except for rubbing pencil marks out of paper!
Here follows a charade by no less eminent a person than the great
statesman, Charles James Fox. Why do we introduce it in this place? That
is a question which the ingenious reader will answer for himself when he
shall have solved the charade. The key to it will be found in the
preceding pages:—
“Inscribed on many a learned page,
In mystic characters and sage,
Long time my first has stood;
And though its golden age be past,
In wooden walls it yet may last,
Till clothed in flesh and blood.
My second is a welcome prize
For those who love their curious eyes
With foreign sights to pamper;
But should it chance their gaze to meet,
_Al improviso_, in the street,
Oh! how’t would make them scamper!
My third’s a kind of wandering throne,
To woman limited alone,
The Salique law reversing;
But when the imaginary queen
Prepares to act this novel scene,
Her royal part rehearsing;
O’erturning her presumptuous plan,
Up jumps the old usurper—Man.”
The various uses for which the horse is habitually employed require
corresponding varieties in the make and shape of the animal. The dray
horses of the London brewers are very handsome; but their beauty is of a
different kind from that of the Newmarket racer. That which is a good
quality in one kind of horse may be a defect in another. An animal, for
instance, which is intended for the saddle ought to stand with his fore
legs erect; if they slope backwards from shoulder to hoof the rider must
be very cautious, for he has to do with a stumbler. A draught-horse, on
the other hand, ought to lean a little forward over his fore feet when
at rest. That portion of his own weight which brings down the ill-made
saddle-horse on his knees, is by the draught-horse thrown against the
collar, and helps him in his labour. Look at a team straining hard to
drag a heavy wagon out of a rut or over some obstruction: they fling
themselves forward, so as to be kept from falling only by the traces,
just as you may see a man doing who tugs at a rope fastened to a
canal-boat, or a truck. Again, though the hunter and the racer are both
made for speed, they must each exhibit certain peculiarities of form
adapted to the work they have respectively to do. The hunter requires
great strength and elasticity in his forehand, to enable him to bear the
shock with which he alights on the ground from a leap. In the racer, on
the contrary, the principal power is wanted from behind, to propel the
animal forward in his gallop; and the very lowness of the forehand may
throw more weight in front, and cause the whole machine to be more
easily and speedily moved. The hind-legs of the greyhound are longer
than the fore-legs; the difference is still more remarkable in the hare,
and it is seen in an extraordinary degree in the kangaroo, an animal
whose running is a series of prodigious leaps. The celebrated Eclipse,
who never was beaten, was remarkably low in front, his hind-quarters
even rising above his fore ones. As we have mentioned the name of this
unrivalled runner, we cannot do less than give some particulars of his
history.
He was bred by the Duke of Cumberland, and sold at his death to Mr.
Wildman, a sheep salesman, for seventy-five guineas. Colonel O’Kelly
purchased a share of him from Wildman. In the spring of the following
year, when the reputation of this wonderful animal was at its height,
O’Kelly wished to become sole owner of him, and bought the remaining
share for eleven hundred guineas.
O’Kelly, aware of his horse’s powers, backed him freely on his first
race in 1769. This excited curiosity among sporting men; they thought
the colonel must have had some extraordinary reason for betting largely
on a horse that no one had ever heard of before, and that had not given
any public proof of his powers. Some persons, accordingly, tried to
watch one of his trials; which the owner, no doubt, wished to keep as
secret as possible. They were a little too late on the ground; but they
found an old woman, who gave them all the information they wanted. On
their inquiring, whether she had seen a race, she replied, she could not
tell whether it was a race or not, but she had just seen a horse with a
white leg running away at a monstrous rate, and another horse, a great
way behind, trying to run after him; but she was sure he would never
catch the white-legged horse if he ran to the world’s end.
The first heat was easily won, when O’Kelly, observing that the rider
had been pulling at Eclipse during the whole of the race, offered a
wager that he would _place_ the horses in the next heat (that is, that
he would name the order in which they would be when the foremost reached
the winning post). This seemed a thing so highly improbable that he
immediately had bets to a large amount. Being called on to declare, he
replied—“Eclipse first, and the rest nowhere!” The event justified his
prediction; for all the others were _distanced_ by Eclipse with the
greatest ease (that is, he was at the winning post before they had
reached another 240 yards behind it, called the distancing post), and
thus, in the language of the turf, they had no place.
The pecuniary value of Eclipse and his progeny must have been something
enormous. He was the sire of 354 winners, and these netted to their
owners more than £160,000, exclusive of plates and cups. Ten years after
he was withdrawn from the turf; O’Kelly was asked at what price he would
sell him. At first he peremptorily refused to accept any price; but
after some reflection, he said he would take £25,000, with an annuity of
£500, besides certain privileges. The seeming extravagance of this sum
excited considerable remark, but O’Kelly declared he had already cleared
more than £25,000 by Eclipse, and that the animal was still young enough
to earn double that sum.
From what we have said above, it appears that there are various
standards of perfection for the horse’s form, and that there must be a
certain vagueness in any general description which shall include them
all. It is not a little remarkable that we are indebted to Terentius
Varro, who wrote about the year 70 B.C., for a description of the horse
which, in the opinion of so excellent a judge as Mr. Youatt, has
scarcely been surpassed in modern times:—“We may prognosticate great
things of a colt,” he says, “if, when running in the pastures, he is
ambitious to get before his companions, and if, on coming to a river, he
strives to be the first to plunge into it. His head should be small, his
limbs clean and compact, his eyes bright and sparkling, his nostrils
open and large, his ears placed near each other, his mane strong and
full, his chest broad, his shoulders flat and sloping backwards, his
loins broad and strong, his tail full and bushy, his legs straight and
even, his knees broad and well knit, his hoofs hard and tough, and his
veins large and swelling over all his body.”
The English thoroughbred horse, perhaps the finest animal of his kind in
the world, derives his descent almost wholly from the Arab and the Barb.
Instead of giving a prosaic description of his _points_, which those who
desire it may find in books of a more technical character than ours: we
will put him bodily before the reader in Barry Cornwall’s vigorous
lines:—
THE BLOOD HORSE.
“Gamarra is a noble steed;
Strong, black, and of the desert breed;
Full of fire, and full of bone;
All his line of fathers known;
Fine his nose, his nostrils thin,
But blown abroad by the pride within!
His mane, a stormy river flowing;
And his eyes like embers glowing
In the darkness of the night;
And his pace as swift as light.
Look,—around his straining throat
Grace and shifting beauty float!
Sinewy strength is on his reins,
And the red blood gallops through his veins;
Richer, redder, never ran
Through the boasting heart of man!
He can trace his lineage higher
Than the Bourbon dare aspire,
Douglas, Guzman, or the Guelph,
Or O’Brien’s blood itself.
He, who hath no peer, was born
Here, upon a red March morn:
But his famous fathers dead
Were Arabs all, and Arab bred;
And the last of that great line
Trod like one of race divine!
And yet,—he was but friend to one
Who fed him at the set of sun,
By some lone fountain fringed with green:
With _him_,—a roving Bedouin,
He lived (none else would he obey
Through all the hot Arabian day),
And died, untamed, upon the sands
Where Balkh amidst the desert stands!”
Nature has assigned to many races of animals certain geographical
limits, beyond which they cannot thrive. Others, on the contrary, are so
framed as to be capable of maintaining life and health in countries very
widely diffused, and essentially differing in temperature, climate, and
food, from those to which they appear indigenous. Fortunately for man,
among this number are some of those animals that render him the most
essential services,—as the dog, the ox, the sheep, the hog, and the
horse. The constitution of these useful allies is endowed with a
capacity for adapting itself, more or less, to external circumstances;
above all, their respective bulk undergoes notable variations
proportioned to the ordinary supply of food within their reach. In the
rich pastures of Flanders and of Lincolnshire the horse expands to its
largest dimensions, whilst in mountainous regions and in northern
islands it becomes a pony.
There is an East Indian pony called the Tattoo, commonly from ten to
twelve hands high (a hand is four inches); they are sometimes much
smaller. Tavernier describes one which he saw ridden by a young Mogul
prince, which was not much larger than a greyhound. In 1765, one not
more than seven hands, or twenty-eight inches high, was sent to England
as a present to the Queen of George III. It was taken from the ship to
the palace in a hackney-coach. It was of a dun colour, and its hair
resembled that of a young fawn. It was four years old, well
proportioned, had fine ears, a quick eye, with a handsome long tail, and
was thoroughly good-natured and manageable.
Hurdwar, in Upper India, is the site of a great cattle fair; Colonel
Davidson, describing his visit to this busy scene, says, that among the
greatest curiosities he witnessed were half-a-dozen powerful ponies from
Usbeck Tartary, called _phooldars_, which means _flower-marked_. They
were under thirteen hands high, and of the most curious compound colours
or marks that can be imagined. A description cannot easily be given, but
it may be attempted. Suppose, in the first place, that the animal is of
a fine snow white; cover the white with large, irregular, bright bay
spots; in the middle of these light bay let there be dark bay marbled
spots; at every six or eight inches plant lozenge-shaped patches of a
very dark iron grey; then sprinkle the whole with dark flea-bites. There
is a phooldar! What a sensation one of these animals would excite in the
London Parks!
The horses of the Feroe Islands are of small growth, but strong, swift,
and sure of foot, going over the roughest places, so that a man may more
surely rely on them than trust to his own feet. In Suderoe, one of these
islands, they have a lighter and swifter breed than in any of the rest.
On their backs the inhabitants pursue the sheep, which are wild in this
island; the pony carries the man over places which would be otherwise
inaccessible to him—follows his rider over others—enters into the full
sport of the chase, and even knocks down and holds the prey under his
feet until the rider can take possession of it.
The British islands produce several interesting breeds of ponies. The
largest of these, the Scotch Galloway, is unfortunately almost extinct.
It was from thirteen to fourteen hands high, of a bright bay or brown,
with black legs, small head and neck, and peculiarly deep and clean
legs. Its qualities were speed, stoutness, and surefootedness over a
very rugged and mountainous country. Dandie Dinmont’s famous Dumple was
of this breed. Dr. Anderson thus describes a galloway belonging to
himself:—“In point of elegance of shape it was a perfect picture, and in
disposition it was gentle and compliant. It moved almost with a wish,
and never tired. I rode this little creature for twenty-five years, and
twice in that time I rode a hundred and fifty miles at a stretch,
without stopping, except to bait, and that not for above an hour at a
time. It came in at the last stage with as much ease and alacrity as it
travelled the first. I could have undertaken to perform on this beast,
when it was in its prime, sixty miles a day for a twelvemonth, without
any extraordinary exertion.”
The Exmoor ponies, though generally ugly enough, are hardy and useful:
one of them has been known to clear a gate eight inches higher than his
back. Those of Dartmoor are larger, and, if possible, uglier. Being
admirably fitted for scrambling over the rough roads and dreary wilds of
that mountainous country, they are in great demand there. They exist
almost in a state of nature. The late Captain Colgrave, governor of the
prison, had a great desire to possess one of them somewhat superior in
figure to his fellows; and having several men to assist him, they
separated it from the herd. They drove it on some rocks by the side of a
_tor_ (an upright pointed hill). A man followed on horseback, while the
captain stood below watching the chase. The little animal, being driven
into a corner, leaped completely over the man and horse, and escaped.
The _sheltie_, or pony of the Shetland isles, is a very diminutive
animal, sometimes not more than thirty inches high, and rarely exceeding
thirty-eight. He is often exceedingly beautiful, with a small head, good
tempered countenance, a short neck, fine towards the throttle, shoulders
low and thick—in so little a creature far from being a blemish—back
short, quarters expanded and powerful, legs flat and fine, and pretty
round feet. These ponies possess immense strength for their size; will
fatten upon almost any thing, and are perfectly docile. Mr. Youatt says
that one of them, three feet in height, carried a man of twelve stone
forty miles in one day.
Pony hunting used to be one of the favourite amusements of the Welsh
farmers and peasantry a century and a half ago, and it has not even now
fallen altogether into disuse. The following story of one of these
expeditions is related in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine:—
“A farmer, named Hugo Garonwy, lived in the neighbourhood of Llewyn
Georie. Although he handled the small tilt plough, and other farming
tools in their due season, yet the catching of the merlin, the fox, and
the hare, were pursuits more congenial to his tastes; and the tumbles
and thumps which he received, and from which no pony hunter was exempt,
served but to attach him to the sport. Rugged, however, as were the
Merioneddshire coast and its environs, and abounding with precipices and
morasses, the hunter sometimes experienced worse mishaps, and so it
happened with Garonwy.
“He set out one morning with his lasso coiled round his waist, and
attended by two hardy dependents and their greyhounds. The lasso was
then familiar to the Welshman, and as adroitly managed by him as by any
Gaucho on the plains of South America. As the hunters climbed the
mountain’s brow, the distant herd of ponies took alarm—sometimes
galloping onwards, and then suddenly halting and wheeling round,
snorting as if in defiance of the intruders, and furiously pawing the
ground. Garonwy, with the assistance of his servants and the greyhounds,
contrived to coop them up in a corner of the hills, where perpendicular
rocks prevented their escape.
“Already had he captured three of the most beautiful little fellows in
the world, which he expected to sell for £4 or £5 each at the next Bala
fair, to him a considerable sum, and amounting to a fourth of the annual
rent which he paid for his sheep walk. There remained, however, one most
untamable creature, whose crested mane, and flowing tail, and wild eye,
and distended nostril showed that he was a perfect Bucephalus of the
hills; nor, indeed, was it safe to attack him in the ordinary way. Many
of the three year olds had been known to break the legs of their
pursuers, and some had been dismounted and trampled to death.
“Garonwy was determined to give the noble fellow a chase over the hills,
and so overcome him by fatigue before the lasso was flung. The dogs were
unslipped, and off they went swift as the winds, Garonwy following, and
the two assistants posted in a neighbouring eminence. Vain was the
effort to tire the merlin. Hugo, naturally impatient, and without
waiting to ascertain that the coils were all clear, flung the lasso over
the head of the wild horse. The extremity of the cord was twisted round
his own body, and tightening as the animal struggled, the compression
became insupportable, and at length, in spite of every effort to
disengage himself, Garonwy was dragged from his horse.
“The affrighted merlin, finding himself manacled by the rope, darted off
with all the speed of which he was capable, dragging poor Garonwy over
the rocky ground and stunted brushwood. This occurred at some distance
from the men. They called in their dogs that the speed of the merlin
might not be increased: but ere they could arrive at the spot at which
the accident happened, the horse and the man had vanished. Whether the
sufferings of the hunter were protracted, or he was dashed against a
rock at the commencement of the horrible race, was never known; but the
wild animal, frenzied and blinded by terror, rushed over a beetling
cliff, at a considerable distance, overhanging the sea-shore, and the
hunter and the horse were found at the bottom, a misshapen semblance of
what they had been when living.”
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