A treatise on the horse : its diseases, lameness, and improvement : in which is laid down the proper method of shoeing the different kinds of feet ... / by William Osmer.

Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the horse : its diseases, lameness, and improvement : in which is laid down the proper method of shoeing the different kinds of feet ... / by William Osmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Chop. //.] BREEDING IN ARABIA. their inability for racing ? Add to this, many of them are, perhaps, full-aged before they arrive in this kingdom ; whereas, it is generally understood, that a proper training from his youth upwards is necessary to form a good racer. [Thus, this objec- tion answers itself. But, be this as it may, let us consider how it happens, that these awkward, cross-shaped, dispro- portioned horses, seemingly contrary to the laws of nature, beget race-horses of much finer shapes than themselves, as we daily see produced in this king- dom. And here I acknowledge myself to have been long at a loss how to account for this seeming difficulty; though this was recently obviated by the arrival of a gentleman of undoubted veracity from the East, whose taste and judgement in horses is inferior to no man’s. He says, that having spent a considerable part of his life at Scanderoon and Aleppo, he frequently made excursions amongst the Arabs, who are sub- jects of the Grand Seignor’s, being excited by curiosity, as well as to gratify his pleasures. These Arabs (which are called the Bedouin) encamp on the deserts together in large numbers, and with them moves all their household. He says, that these people keep numbers of greyhounds, for the sake of coursing the game and procuring them sub- sistence : and, that he has often been with parties for the purpose of coursing amongst those people, and continued with them occasionally for a consi- derable space of time: that by them you are