76 THE .

THE ARABIAN HORSE.

By HOMER DAVENPORT, Morris Plains, N. J.

MISTAKEN NOTIONS. To discuss the value of the Arabian blood is to simply refer to the various breeds of superior horses produced by the European Downloaded from governments. It is a deplorable fact that the critics of the Arabian horse are men who, in most cases, never saw an Arab horse, and never evenheard that Darley'sArabiansired , or that from him came the speed at run, trot and pace that we see to-day. Some of the critics even believe that the Arabian is the spotted horse; others

confuse him with the circus horse, with pink skin, and blue eyes; http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/ whereas, in reality, the Arabian is a horse of the most useful qualities, unequaled in beauty, intelligence, and perfection of form.

DESCRIPTION AND CHARACTER OF THE ARABIAN HORSE. In color the Arabian horse is about 55 per cent bays, the rest sorrels, chestnuts, and grays, from the darkest to the lightest shades. Brown is a very favorite color, as is white, but these are colors rarely seen, though very highly prized; and the lighter colored horses have

invariably dark skins, especially around the eyes and nostrils; at New York University on June 8, 2015 and the simple fact that Arabia is the only horse country in the world that in its history never produced a spotted horse, is a hint to the fact of the purity of blood distributed among its horses. His blood being unmixed with any other, the Arabian is the only strictly horse in existence, and it is on that account that his blood values are so valuable to use in stimulating our var- ious kinds of native types; but he will be called small and unfit to pull. In his purity, that might be found true, but the late Count Orloff said: "His blood acted, when mixed with coarser breeds, as yeast cake would when mixed with wheat flour." From a judicious combination of such, a good cook could produce any kind of bread, the same as the skillful breeder, by the intelligent use of Arab blood, could help any of our present breeds of horses. And the Rev. F. F. Vidal, of England, defied anyone to show him a horse in which he couldn't show that the best trait was derived from the Arabublood -in his veins. The height of the Arab horse is from 14 to 15 hands. You must consider he has been bred for centuries by people that fed him only once a day, and watered him only once in twenty-four hours. And, as I thought when we reached the great Aneza tribe, and saw their horses standing hobbled all their lives by their feet, when not under saddle, instead of their being small horses, in reality, they were large horses, " little giants," compared with which our own largest types, under similar, conditions, would be mere ponies in a century, let alone centuries. AMERICAN BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION. 77

ARAB BLOOD IN THE MORGAN HORSE AND THE OKLOFF HORSE. Justin's Morgan was a small horse, yet a great puller, indeed out- pulling any horse of his time; still he was more of Arab blood than any other, and I should say from what I have seen of the Arab and the Morgan that they are more alike than any two classes we have; the Arab is the superior in beauty, intelligence, and in conformation, though both strains show much of the same enduring powers. The late Count Orloff has produced the greatest type for an all- purpose horse in the Orloff horse, from Arab blood; and, before he Downloaded from found it would reproduce itself without deterioration, he used many Arab crosses. That the breed was nothing until Arab blood was used, is a matter of history. »

ARAB BLOOD IN ENGLAND. http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/ The same can be said in England. Their race horses were inferior till the advent of Darley's Arabian, in 1704. His first son, Flying Childers, was never beaten, and outran everything so far that he was barred from the turf. His worth was so valued by the Duke of Devonshire that that sportsman refused the horse's weight in Eng- lish crownsforhim,notasaracehorse,for he was barred from the track, but as a sire was he so valued that the highest price ever offered for a horse was refused. From Flying Childers came the blood that produced trotters, as well as runners in England, and in a recent

issue of the Horse Breeder of Boston, that paper ably shows that at New York University on June 8, 2015 the descendants of Flying Childers trotted in England before we had trotters in America, and that Abdalla the sire of Rysdik's Ham- bletonian traced direct to that great family of trotters, sired by the great Childers. But extreme speed is so little of the value of our greatest horses that it is unnecessary to dwell longer than to say that the greatest race horse in the world's history, , was got by the crossing of the Darley's Arabian blood with that of the Godolphin's Arabian. This horse, foaled in 1674, has the most wonderful record as a race horse that history has ever recorded.

ARAB BLOOD IN FRENCH AND GERMAN HORSES. I will branch to another side of the Arab horse. We have, I think, mpre useful types represented by the Percheron horse, the Hanoverian horse, the saddler, and many types of cavalry horses. The French Government, by judicious crossing, created the better qualities of the Percheron horse from Arabian blood, as did the Ger- mans, when they built the Hanoverian breed.

ARAB BLOOD IN AMERICA And if our breeders of horses, to-day, will look around them, they will find the best types of horses that their communities knew 78 THE ARABIAN HORSE. were horses of a generation back, that had rounder barrels, and wider opening to their jawbones. These horses were, as a rule, not larger horses, but they were wiry horses, and they plowed and trotted, and carried you on their backs more satisfactorily than any of to-day. Col. NaU, the founder of the Kentucky Saddle Horse Breeders' Association, told me recently that the Kentucky saddle horse traces to the Arab horses of the late A. Keen Richards, that came to Kentucky in the early 50's.

In America, Mr. Peter B. Bradley, of Hingham, Mass., has done Downloaded from more with the Arab horse than possibly anyone in America. Cross- ing them on the coarser types of trotters, he has produced the finest types of harness horses, a horse with infinitely more beauty and intelligence. From two removes from Arab blood, one of his trotters made a record of 2:30 in his first race, and in the sixth heat,

last year. In a letter recently received from Lord Roberts, of http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/ England, speaking of his Arab charger, he said: "I rode him for twenty-two consecutive years, through the campaigns of Afghan- istan, India, and South Africa. He never knew a sick or sorry day, though many horses died at each side of me. He was exactly 14 hands and two inches high, and I estimate that we must have trav- eled together 50,000 miles. When he died at the age of twenty- seven, he was without a blemish." I sold a small Arab horse to Mr. Henry W. Shoemacker, of the bank- ing firm of Shoemacker & Bates, of New York City. This horse

was eighteen years of age, when Mr. Shoemacker got him; the at New York University on June 8, 2015 year afterwards, the horse being in his nineteenth year, Mr. Shoe- macker writes me that he rode him 70 miles, in a day, carrying 210 pounds, over the mountainous district of the mining regions of Pennsylvania, and the next day he found him high-lifed for a sleigh horse. In my efforts at breeding the Arabian horse in America, all I ask of the horsemen is that they treat me fairly. I have been much mis- quoted by the press, so that I have possibly appeared in their eyes at a disadvantage; but whatever I may do or try to do with the Arab horses in the next few years, such tests will be made to satisfy me, not to flaunt his powers before the public. I want them to always judge me at all times as a horseman who has gone through as many hardships to procure Arab horses as anyone ever went through, and I know that if the blood that I have at present can't come up to my expectations, then I shall know that the Arab horse, in his greatest purity, is unworthy of the consideration that I would give him.