The Arab Horse - Spencer Borden

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV How Some Arab Horses Have Been Obtained A S ALREADY noted, the journeys and subsequent writings of the Blunts and Major Upton have done much to enlighten the world at large concerning Arab history and the breeding methods of the Bedouins. Through their agency, also, came to England many pure Arabs, indeed nearly all the pure bred mares that were acquired from the desert by reason of the civil wars in Arabia just preceding and following the Russo-Turkish conflict of the late seventies. One other channel only through which mares were obtained was the purchases and breedings of Abbas Pasha, Khedive of Egypt. He realised the value of pure Arab blood in horses, and spent money like water in getting the best that could be had, both from the Anazah in the upper desert, and also from Nejd. In one instance, having bought a mare of rare strain in Nejd, and thinking her too old to make the journey to the seacoast by using her own legs, Abbas sent a bullock cart for her, bringing her one thousand five hundred miles on wheels. All of these, Upton, the Blunts, and Abbas Pasha, got stallions also, as did Hon. Miss Ethelred Dillon and others, while a number of valuable animals were taken to India by the Arab horse dealers of Bombay, Abdur Rhaman, Eyssa bin Curtis and Eyd et Tenimi, who sold them to British officers and Indian Rajahs for racing purposes. We owe the mares, however, to Upton, the Blunts, and Abbas. When the last named was deposed, his breeding stud was continued for some time by Ali Pasha Sherif, and on the breaking up of the stud the choicest animals were purchased by the Blunts, who, in addition to the Crabbet Park stud in England, continue the breeding of Arab horses at Heliopolis, near Cairo, Egypt, under the...