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.

    65/624 page 49
    THE RUSSIAN HORSE. It may be well supposed that this animal will be of a very different character in various parts of this immense empire. The heavy cavalry and the greater part of the horses for pleasure are descended originally from Cossack blood, but improved by stallions from Poland, Prussia, Holstein, and England; and the studs are now found on an immense scale in various parts of Russia. The lighter cavalry, and the commoner horses, are, as these have ever been, Cossacks, without any attempted improvement, and are hardy and better suited to the duties required from them. It has been supposed that no horse, except the Arab, could endure privation like the Cossack, or had combined speed and endurance equal to him. The Cossack, however, was beaten, and that not by horses of the first-rate English blood, in a race which fairly put to the test both qualities. It was a cruel affair; yet nothing short of such a contest would have settled the question. On the 4th of August, 1825, a race of forty-seven miles was run between two Cossack and two English horses. The English horses were Sharper and Mina, well known, yet not ranking with the first of their class. The Cossacks were selected from the best horses of the Don, the Black Sea, and the Ural. On starting, the Cossacks took the lead at a moderate pace ; but before they had gone half a mile, the stirrup-leather of Sharper broke, and he ran away with his rider, followed by Mina, and they went more than a mile, and up a steep hill, before they could be held in. Half the distance was run in an hour and fourteen minutes. Both the English hoises were then fresh, and one of the Cossacks. On their return, Mina fell lame, and was taken away, and Sharper began to show the effects of the pace at which he had gone in running away, and was much distressed. The Calmuck was completely knocked up, his rider was dismounted, a mere child was put on his back, and a Cossack on horseback on either side dragged him on by ropes attached to his bridle, while others at the side supported him from falling. Ultimately Sharper performed the whole distance in two hours and forty-eight minutes sixteen miles an hour for three successive hours — and the Cossack horse was brought in eight minutes after him. At starting, the English horses carried full three stone more than the Cossacks; and during the latter part of the race a mere child had ridden the Cossack The Emperor Nicholas has established races in different parts of his vast empire, for the improvement of the Cossack and other horses. On the 20th of September, 1836, the races at Ouralsk took place. The dis- tance to be run was 18 wersts, or about 4^ French leagues—rather more than 10 miles. Twenty-one horses of the military stud of the Cossacks of Oural started for the first heat, and which was won in 25 minutes and 19 seconds by a horse belonging to the Cossack Bourtche-Tchourunief. The second race was disputed by twenty-three horses of the Kero-heese Cossacks, and which was won in 25 minutes and 5 seconds by the horse of the Cossack Siboka-Isterlaie. On the following day the winners of the two first heats strove for the point of honour. The course was now 12 wersts—3 French leagues, or about 6J miles. It was won in 15 minutes by thfc horse of the Cossack Bourtche-Tchourunief. The Russian noble- men who were present, admiring the speed and stoutness of the horse were anxious to purchase him; but the Cossack replied that “All the gold in the world should not separate him from his friend, his brother.” In Southern and Western Russia, and also in Poland, the breeding of
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