The Arabians, long renowned for their attachment to the horse, early showed the extent to which intelligent training could develop his finer qualities, and render him the most docile and obedient of animals. Something in that country or its climate is especially suited to the development of the horse, and, although introduced there long after his domestication in other eastern countries, he rapidly attained a degree of excellence which surpassed all others, until the horses of Arabia and the adjacent portions of Asia and Africa became the most celebrated for speed, courage, spirit, intelligence and docility of any of the equine race. Small in size, he has a beautiful, lean, bony head, with a very broad forehead, a tapering muzzle, and large, well-opened nostrils; his mane is very long, thin and silky. It is from the Arabian horse, crossed with the Barb, that the best stock of England and America has sprung. Although much of the superiority of these horses is attributable to peculiarly favorable conditions of the country where they originated, yet many of their excellent qualities may be traced to kindness and intelligent training by which those qualities were first developed, and through which they have been transmitted until they have become characteristics of the race.
The Arabian understands the value of his horse, appreciates the nobility of his nature, and treats him accordingly. They kiss and caress them; they adorn them with jewels, and amulets formed out of sentences of the Koran, as a preservative against evil and accidents. “In short,” says a modern author, “they treat them almost like rational beings, which are ready to sacrifice their lives for their master’s benefit.” In the desert he is the familiar comrade, tentmate and playmate of his master, as docile and intelligent as a dog. Rev. V. Monro relates an anecdote of an Arab, “the net value of whose dress and accoutrements might be calculated at something under seventeen pence half-penny,” who refused all offers made to purchase a beautiful mare on which he rode, declaring that he loved the animal better than his own life. The French author, Dr. St. Pierre, quotes a remarkable instance of the attachment an Arabian feels for his horse: “The whole stock of a poor Arabian of the desert consisted of a most beautiful mare. The French Consul at Said offered to purchase her, with an intention of sending her to his master, Louis XIV. The Arab, pressed by want, hesitated for a long time, but at length consented, on condition of receiving a very considerable sum, which he named. The Consul, not daring, without instructions, to give so high a price, wrote to Versailles for permission to close the bargain on the terms stipulated. Louis XIV gave orders to pay the money. The Consul immediately sent notice to the Arab, who soon after made his appearance mounted on his magnificent courser, and the gold he had demanded was paid down to him. The Arab, covered with a miserable rag, dismounts and looks at the money; then, turning his eyes to the mare, he thus accosts her: ‘To whom am I 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 darling, my jewel, and rejoice the hearts of my children!’ As he pronounced these words, he sprung upon her back and scampered off towards the desert.”
It is not surprising that such a high appreciation of and fondness for this noble animal, united to an intelligent training, has resulted in the production of a race of horses unrivaled in excellence. But among Europeans and Americans the treatment of the horse has been usually so harsh, and the mode of training so deficient in intelligence, as to greatly lessen his value, even where a brutal ignorance has not brought into activity every vice latent in his nature. Of the numerous faults ascribed to the horse a very small portion are chargeable to his natural disposition, the remainder being the direct result of vicious training, or rather of the absence of training, and the substitution of something which, under that name, first produces and then fosters the faults for which the animal is punished; while often the punishment is ineffectual, because the animal has no conception of why it is made to suffer.
Education is as essential to the horse as it is to man, and in each case it must proceed on the same general principles. Man, if uneducated and untrained would degenerate into barbarism, and the horse, unless brought under subjection to an intelligent will, will remain wild and ungovernable. In each case education is the process by which the higher and better qualities are developed and the lower and evil are restrained. The first grand lesson to be learned by each is that of subjection to authority; the child is taught that by his parent; the horse must learn it from his trainer. But, after that, knowledge is required, and this must be imparted by methods adapted to the nature that is to be cultivated. The object of the practical portion of this book is to show in what that knowledge consists and how it may be communicated to the horse, and so impressed upon his memory that it will never be forgotten. The author has the fullest confidence that the methods of breaking and training the horse, herein taught, will, if early applied, prevent his acquiring any of the faults which, under former systems, have proved so numerous; while the treatment recommended for correcting bad habits, already formed, will prove effectual in even the most stubborn cases, and with the most intractable dispositions. The reader will not be asked to accept any unproved theory, but will be instructed in a system which, although subjected to the severest tests, has never failed to accomplish the desired results. And that it never will fail, the author feels assured, it being firmly based on reason and experience. That it may require patience and self-control on the part of the instructor the author does not deny; but so does the instruction of a child, the breaking of a dog to the gun, or even the training of a vine to its trellis; but the satisfactory results which are certain to be attained will furnish an ample reward.
DIRECTIONS FOR FEEDING AND FITTING A HORSE.
1. To Raise a Trotter so that He will Last a Long Time.—A horse that is going to display great excellence as a trotter will not attain his speed at four years, nor at five, but will reach his highest excellence when the well-bred horse of seven years has been long gone from the turf. Nothing in nature, soon matured, lasts long.
In fitting a running horse, the case is different, as his constitution is not the same; the colts of blooded horses are inclined to mature earlier than any others, and, being of leaner and wiry build, they can stand more feed at an early period than a lower-bred horse.
There are good reasons, which I fully endorse, for not feeding growing colts much grain. If the colt is weaned, I would recommend from one to two quarts per day, varying the quantity according to his size, as one with a large, loose frame will require more than a close-built colt, which keeps in good order and fills out as he grows up. Good pasturage, however, is the main requisite. Give no corn to colts while they are young. Late in the fall give your colt all the hay he can eat, and be careful to have his oats clean and of good quality. When his first winter comes, let the colt have a good place to run, and be well-housed at night. Never turn such colts out with old horses, calves and heifers; should you do so, you may expect a shivering, scrawny colt, scarcely able to put one leg before the other; while, by avoiding this error, your colt will be as gay and frisky as when standing by its mother.