THE HORSE. (Equus caballus.)
The noblest conquest that man ever made over the brute creation was the taming of the Horse, and adapting him to his service. He lessens the labours of man and adds to his pleasures: shares, with equal docility and cheerfulness, the fatigues of hunting or the dangers of war; and draws with appropriate strength, rapidity, or grace, the heavy ploughs and carts of the husbandman, the light vehicles of the fashionable, and the stately carriages of the aristocratic.
The Horse is now bred in most parts of the world: those of Arabia, Turkey, and Persia are accounted better proportioned than many others; but the English Race-Horse may justly claim the precedence over all the other European breeds, and is not inferior to any in strength and symmetry.
The beautiful Horses produced in Arabia are in general of a brown colour; their mane and tail are very short, with the hair black and tufted. The Arabs, for the most part, use the Mares in their ordinary excursions; experience having taught them that they are less vicious than the males, and more capable of sustaining abstinence and fatigue. As the Arabs have no other residence than a tent, this also serves for a stable; the husband, the wife, the child, the mare, and the foal, lie together indiscriminately, and the younger branches of the family may be often seen embracing the neck, or reposing on the body of the Mare, without any idea of fear or danger.
Of the remarkable attachment which the Arabs have to these animals, St. Pierre has given an affecting instance in his Studies of Nature.—“The whole stock of a poor Arabian of the desert consisted of a beautiful Mare: this the French consul at Said offered to purchase, with an intention to send her to Louis XIV. The Arab, pressed by want, hesitated a long time, but at length consented, on condition of receiving a very considerable sum of money, which he named. The consul wrote to France for permission to close the bargain; and having obtained it, sent the information to the Arab. The man, so indigent as to possess only a miserable covering for his body, arrived with his magnificent courser: he dismounted, and first looking at the gold, then steadfastly at his Mare, heaved a sigh, ‘To whom is it,’ exclaimed he, ‘that I am going to yield thee up? To Europeans? who will tie thee close, who will beat thee, who will render thee miserable! Return with me, my beauty, my jewel! and rejoice the hearts of my children:’ as he pronounced the last words, he sprung upon her back, and was out of sight almost in a moment.”
The intelligence of the Horse is next to that of the elephant, and he obeys his rider with so much punctuality and understanding, that the Americans, who had never seen a man on horseback, thought, at first, that the Spaniards were a kind of centaurs, half men and half horses. The Horse, in a domestic state seldom lives longer than twenty years; but it is supposed that in a wild state he attains a much greater age. The Mare is as elegant in her shape as the Horse; and her young is called a foal. The age of the Horse is known from his teeth; and his colour, which varies from black to white, and from the darkest brown to a light hazel tint, has been reckoned a criterion by which to judge of his strength.
The Horse feeds upon grass, either fresh or dry, and corn: he is liable to many diseases, and often dies suddenly. In the state of nature, he is a gregarious animal, and even when domesticated, his debased situation of slavery has not entirely destroyed his love of society and friendship; for Horses have been known to pine at the loss of their masters, their stable fellows, and even at the death of a dog which had been bred near the manger. Virgil, in his beautiful description of this noble animal, seems to have imitated Job:
“The fiery courser, when he hears from far
The sprightly trumpets, and the shouts of war,
Pricks up his ears, and trembling with delight,
Shifts place, and paws, and hopes the promised fight.
On his right shoulder his thick mane reclined,
Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind.
His horny hoofs are jetty black and round,
His chine is double; starting with a bound,
He turns the turf and shakes the solid ground.
Fire from his eyes, clouds from his nostrils flow;
He bears his rider headlong on the foe.”