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.
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