The horse : with a treatise on draught / by William Youatt.

  • William Youatt
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The horse : with a treatise on draught / by William Youatt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    stantinople in the seventeenth century, gives the following account of the Turkish horses. Our grooms, and their masters too, may learn a lesson of wisdom and humanity from his words. “ There is no creature so gentle as a Turkish horse, nor more respectful to his master, or the groom that dresses him. The reason is, because they treat their horses with great lenity. I myself saw, when I was in Pontus, passing through a part of Bithynia called Axilos, towards Cap- padocia, how indulgent the countrymen were to young colts, and how kindly they used them soon alter they were foaled. They would stroke them, bring them into their houses, and almost to their tables, and use them even like children. They hung something like a jewel about their necks, and a garter which was full of amulets against poison, which they are most afraid of. The grooms that dress them are as indulgent as their masters ; they frequently sleek them down with their hands, and never use a cudgel to bang their sides, but in cases of necessity. This makes their horses great lovers of mankind; and they are so far from kicking, wincing, or growing untractable by this gentle usage, that you will hardly find an ill-tempered horse amongst them. “ But, alas! our Christian grooms’ horses go on at another rate. They never think them rightly curried till they thunder at them with their voices, and let their clubs or horse-whips, as it were, dwell on their sides. This makes some horses even tremble when their keepers come into their stable; so that they hate and fear them too. But the Turks love to have their horses so gentle, that at the word of command they may fall on their knees, and in this position receive their riders. “ They will take up a staff or club upon the road with their teeth, which their rider has let fall, and hold it up to him again; and when they are perfect in this lesson, then, as a reward, they have rings of silver huno- on their nostrils as a badge of honour and good discipline. I saw some horses, when their master was fallen from the saddle, stand stock still without wagging a foot till he got up again. Another time I saw a groom standing at a distance in the midst of a whole ring of horses, and at the word of command they would either go round or stand still. Once I saw some horses, when their master was at dinner with me in an upper room, prick up their ears to hear his voice, and when they did so they neighed for joy.” THE AMERICAN HORSES. Before we can advance eastward into Europe, it will be convenient to dispose of the horses of the American continents. In South America, although constant warfare is carried on against them, there are innu- merable herds of wild horses; and in the back settlements of the south- western States of North America there is a horse resembling the wild horse of the Pampas; but both are evidently the descendants of those who have escaped from the slavery of man. THE WILD HORSE OF SOUTH AMERICA. All travellers who have crossed the plains extending from the shores of La Plata to Patagonia have spoken of numerous droves of wild horses. Some aflirm that they have seen ten thousand in one troop. They appear to be under the command of a leader, the strongest and boldest of the herd, and whom they implicitly obey. A secret instinct teaches them that their safety consists in their union, and in a principle of subordina- tion. The lion, the tiger, and the leopard are their principal enemies. At some signal, intelligible to them all, they either close into a dense mass and trample their enemy to death, or, placing the mares and foals in
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