SOMETHING ABOUT THE HORSE.
755
deem me rather boastful of my
horsemanship, when I tell you that the two Arab horses which threw their
cavaliers did not throw me. The cause of the exception was not in me or my
skill. It was the very remarkable predilection these intelligent animals
feel toward individuals of the weaker sex. Let the wildest and fiercest
Arabian be mounted by a woman, and you will see him suddenly grow mild and
gentle as a lamb. I have had plenty of opportunities to make the
experiment, and in my own stables there is a beautiful gray Arab which
nobody but myself dares to ride. He knows me, anticipates my wishes,
and judiciously calculates the degree of fatigue I can bear without
incon-venience. It is curious to sec how he manages to quicken his pace
without shaking me, and the different sorts of steps he has invented to
realize those contradictory purposes. Horses being as liable to
forgetfulness as other organized beings, my incomparable gray would
allow his natural ambition to overcome his gallantry, and, if another
horse threatened to pass him, would start off with the speed of the
whirlwind. Woe to me if, under such circumstances, I were to trust to the
strength of my arm or the power of the bridle! I knew my gallant charger
better. Leaving my hand quite loose, and abandoning all thoughts
of compulsion, I would take to persuasion; pat him on the neck; call him
by his name; beg him to be quiet and deserve the piece of sugar waiting
for him at home. Never did these gentle means fail. Instantly he would
slacken his pace, prick up his ears as if fully comprehending his error,
and come back to a soft amble, gently neighing as if to crave pardon for
his momentary offense.
Such instances of the tender
attachment of the Arab horse for the gentler sex are quite common and
easily explained. Among the sons of Ishmael women are the natural and only
grooms of their lord's stables. When the horse is still a colt he is
reared in the back part of the tent, the movable harem of the Arab. In the
third year of his life he has the honor of carrying his master, and when
he returns home from a journey, the horse is instantly delivered into the
women's hands, who wash his eyes with cold water, and walk
him gently to and fro until the foam has disappeared from his mouth and
the perspiration from his limbs. It is the master's wife that disencumbers
him from the heavy saddle, the complicated and adorned bridle, the
embroidered and gilded covering. She fastens a cord to his foot, and
taking him first to drink, then leads him where the best bits of grass are
to found in that barren country.”
Deservedly high as may stand the
Arab horse for docility and sagacity, it should not be forgotten
that, in absence of all other amusements, the education of the foal
becomes a pleasure as well as a business; it thus soon becomes
attached to his biped companions, and takes a pride in enacting all
that is required of him. If the Arab rider falls, his horse will stand by
and neigh for assistance; if he lies down to sleep,
the horse will watch over him and
give notice of the approach of man and beast. Similar anecdotes are
related of all horses kindly treated, no matter where may be their
homes. We knew one that had a drunken master, that without any
particularly kind treatment surpassed the Arab example even in
intelligence; for he would modify his gait so as to keep his reeling rider
from falling off; and if this did happen, the horse would stand by for
hours together, regardless of food and drink, and with great anger and
determination attack man or beast if either approached too near. What
farmer's boy is without his tale of the affectionate intelligence of
his pony hack ? In England, where the higher classes sometimes in their
habits approach the nomadic, the horse is the appanage of the
aristocracy, and is treated with an intimacy that is never attained
by the humbler representatives of their own race. But recently. Lord
Raglan's white pony, which that commander rode before Sebastopol, was
seen to mount the steps of a palatial residence, and enter through the
open door into the hall, and was then embraced and lavished with kisses
from no less a personage than Lady Fitzroy Somerset, the daughter of the
noble earl. Among people of the highest enlightenment it is only reserved
to be simple and natural, qualities common alike to all the children
of the desert. Thus, in human expression of sympathy for the horse,
the extremes of civilization meet.
The introduction of the Asiatic
horse into Europe is involved in mystery. The Persian wars with the Greeks
must have materially influenced their character, as Xerxes had eighty
thousand in his army, most of which never returned to Persia. The
Carthaginians introduced the Barbary horse into Spain and Sicily.
From these two points the breed would naturally be dispersed over
Western Europe. In the fourth century, the Greeks who entered Europe by
the north, and overran it as far as the Peninsula, dispersed the
Asiatic horse in their track. In the eighth century, a.d. 782, the Saracens, with two
hundred thousand horses, penetrated into France as far as Poictiers, where
they were routed by Charles Martel. The horses thus captured were
numerous enough to have changed the whole character of their own breeds,
and from the Gallic horse thus produced came, no doubt, the early English
horses. The introduction of horses upon the Western Continent dates back
to the second voyage of Columbus, in 1403. The first brought into any
territory belonging to the United States were landed in Florida, in 1527,
by Cabaea de Vaca. These importations, from the dissensions which followed
among the masters, escaped all control, and finding a home in the
wilderness, multiplied to an almost incredible extent, which, with
the descendants of the horses introduced into Mexico by Cortez, and into
Peru by Pizarro, have filled the prairies of the north, and extended
in countless numbers upon the pampas of the south.
Upon