A Dissertation on Horses | Page 8

colts are so little regarded, that it is difficult to
find a Horse of any tolerable size and shape amongst them.
If this then is the case, shall we be any longer at a loss to account for
the deformity of an animal, who, from his infancy, is neglected, starved,
and dried up, for want of juices? or shall we wonder that his offspring,
produced in a land of plenty, of whom the greatest care is taken, who is
defended from the extremity of heat and cold, whose food is never
limited, and whose vessels are filled with the juices of the sweetest
herbage, shall we wonder, I say, that his offspring, so brought up,
should acquire a more perfect shape and size than his progenitor? or if
the Sire is not able to race, shall we wonder that the Son, whose shape
is more perfect, should excel his Sire in all performances?
But there is another reason why many of the very finest of these foreign
Horses cannot race: our observations of them will shew us, that though
their shoulders in general exceedingly incline backwards, yet their
fore-legs stand very much under them; but in different Horses this
position is more or less observable. This, (when I considered the laws
of nature) appeared to me the greatest imperfection a Stallion could
possibly have: but when this gentleman informed me it was the custom
of the Turks always to keep each fore-leg of the Horse chained to the
hinder one, of each side, when not in action, I no longer considered it as
a natural, but an acquired imperfection. Shall we now wonder that such
an one, though ever so well made in other respects, cannot race in spite
of all his blood? But the custom of the Arabs in this respect, he says,
his memory does not extend to. I well remember this to be the case of
the Godolphin Arabian when I saw him, who stood bent at knees, and
with his fore-legs trembling under him: such is the case of Mosco's

grey Horse in some degree. In our country we frequently see Horses
stand pawing their litter under them with their fore-feet; our custom to
prevent it is to put hobbles on their fore-legs, and this will produce the
same position in a greater or less degree, though not so conspicuous as
in some of those foreign Horses, who have been habituated from their
youth to this confined method of standing. His royal highness the duke
of Cumberland has a very remarkable instance of this, in a Horse called
Muley Ishmael, which is otherwise, the most elegant Horse I ever yet
beheld. Whether this positiion is natural or acquired, will be best
determined by his produce. Suppose now this Horse should be tried,
and found no racer, shall he be condemned as a Stalliion, and the fault
imputed to his blood; or on the other hand, if his colts are strait** upon
their legs, and found to be good racers, shall the perfection of such colt
be imputed to the blood of the father, when we can account for speed in
the one, and the want of it in the other, from the different attitude of
each Horse? We are further acquainted, that the Horses we call Turks,
are in reality Arabs; that the true Turkish Horse, is a large, heavy,
majestic animal, of no speed, designed to ride on for state and grandeur;
that it is the custom of the bashaws in Arabia occasionally to choose,
from their provinces, such colts as they like, and send them to the grand
seignior's stables which they do at their own price, and which the Arabs,
who breed them, look upon as a very great hardship. These colts are
again picked and culled, after having been some time in the grand
seignior's stables, and the refuse disposed of at his pleasure, so that the
fine Horses found in the possession of the Turks, are either some of
these which are cast from the grand seignior's stables, or which the
Turks buy from the Arabs whilst they are young. And he farther
acquaints us with the reason why the Turks choose these Arabian
Horses when young, because, if continued long in the hands of the
Arabs, they are small, stunted, and deformed in shape; whereas, when
brought into Turkey, a land of greater plenty than the deserts of Arabia,
they acquire a greater perfection both of size and shape. Now, whether
these Turks and Arabs are of the same or different extraction, may
perhaps be very little to our pourpose; but it is absurd to suppose that
providence has bestowed a virtue on a part only of this species
produced in any one country, (which species was undoubtedly designed
for the