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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    they arc extremely beautiful, and the most proper of all to be drawn by a curious pencil or to be mounted by a king, when he intends to show himself in his majestic glory to the people.” The common breed of Spanish horses have nothing extraordinary about them. The legs and feet are good, but the head is rather large, the fore- liaud heavy, and yet the posterior part of the chest deficient, the crupper also having too much the appearance of a mule. The horses of Estrema- dura and Granada, and particularly of Andalusia, are most valued. Berenger, whose judgment can be fully depended on, thus enumerates their excellences and their defects:—“The neck is long and arched, perhaps somewhat thick, but clothed with a full and flowing mane ; the head may be a little too coarse ; the ears long, but well placed; the eyes large, bold, and full of fire. Their carriage lofty, proud, and noble. The breast large ; the shoulders sometimes thick ; the belly frequently too full, and swelling ; and the loin a little too low ; but the ribs round, and the croup round and full, and the legs well formed and clear of hair, and the sinews at a distance from the bone — active and ready in their paces — of quick apprehension; a memory singularly faithful ; obedient to the utmost proof; docile and affectionate to man, yet full of spirit and courage.” The Parfait Mareschal shall take up the story again: — “ There will not be found any kind of horses more noble than they, and of their courage ! why I have seen their entrails hanging from them, through the number of wounds that they have received ; yet they have carried off their rider safe and sound with the same pride with which they brought him to the field, and after that they have died, having less life than courage.” It is delightful to read accounts like these, and we know not which to admire most, the noble horse or the man who could so well appreciate his excellence. The modern Spanish horses are fed upon chopped straw and a little barley. When the French and English cavalry were there, during the Peninsular war, and were without preparation put upon this mode of living, so different from that to which they had been accustomed, they began to be much debilitated, and a considerable mortality broke out among them; but, after a while, they who were left regained their strength and spirits, and the mortality entirely ceased. THE PORTUGUESE HORSE. There was a time when the Lusitanian or Portuguese horses were highly celebrated. The Roman historian Justin compares their swiftness to that of the winds, and adds, that many of them might be said to be born of the winds; while, on the other hand, Berenger, who lived at a time when the glory of the Spanish horse had not quite faded away, says, that “ the Portugal horses are in no repute, and differ as much from their neighbours, the Spaniards, as crabs from apples, or sloes from grapes.” He thus accounts for it. When Portugal was annexed to Spain, the latter country was preferred for the establishment of the studs for breeding, and the few districts in Portugal which were sufficiently sup- plied with herbage and water to fit them for a breeding country were devoted to the rearing of horned cattle for the shambles and the plough, and mules and asses for draught. Hence, the natives regarded the horse as connected more with pomp and pleasure than with utility, and drew the comparatively few horses that they wanted from Spain. The present government, however, seems disposed to effect a reform in this, and there are still a sufficient number of Andalusian horses in Portugal, and Barbs in Africa, fully to accomplish the purpose.
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