Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Now let us see what England says of her thoroughbred: "He is no longer
to be relied upon for fulfilling his twofold functions as a racer and
reproducer of himself. He is degenerating in stoutness and speed. As a
sire he has acquired faults of constitution and temper which, while
leaving him the best we have, is not the best we should aspire to
have. His stoutness and speed are distinctly Arabian qualities, to
which we must resort for fresh and pure blood." We have shown that the
Englishman says "his thoroughbred is full of radical and growing
defects in wind, tendons, feet, and temper, and that his twofold
functions are to run races and reproduce himself, which are the end of
his purpose." Does our government want breeding farms upon which to
nurse these admitted "defects," including the "confirmed roarer," for
cavalry horses? I quote again: "Those who have had most to do with him
are ready to admit that he no longer possesses the soundness,
stoutness, speed, courage, and beauty he inherited from his Arabian
parentage. As a sire for half-bred stock, he may do for those who will
use him, but we must resort to the Arabian if we would revitalize and
sustain our thoroughbred race horse."
In the face of these statements, in print abroad, would Lieut.
Robertson make the base for our proposed national horse that of the
English thoroughbred, scattering the weeds from such imperfect
breedings among the farmers of our land?
I am writing as an old horseman and breeder, and not as a newspaper
man or young enthusiast, although the enthusiasm of youth is still in
me, for which I am thankful.
This question of horse breeding I have been deeply interested in for
forty years past. Let me quote to the reader from one of many letters
I have received from Sir Wilfrid Seawen Blunt during the past seven
years. His practical knowledge of the English thoroughbred race horse
and his blood cause, the Arabian, is the equal if not superior to any
other one man of this present age.
With his wife, Lady Anne, he dwelt with the different tribes of the
desert, studying the Arabs as a people, in their customs and habits,
also traditions with beliefs. In matter of their horses, Mr. Blunt
made a special study, while Lady Anne put her diaries in book form
after her return, and which book should be owned by every cultured and
educated lady in America. After spending a year in Arabia, traveling
both sides of the Euphrates and through Mesopotamia, as no other
Anglo-Saxons have been known to do, living with the different Bedouin
tribes of the desert as they lived, Mr. Blunt and his wife, Lady Anne,
came out with sixteen of the choicest bred mares to be found, also two
stallions, the mares mostly with foal. These were placed upon their
estates, "Crabbet Park," to continue inbreeding as upon the desert,
pure to its blood. As this question in itself will make a long and
interesting article, I will avoid it at present, quoting to the reader
from one of my old letters:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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