24
conditions prevailed throughout the entire district and a very considerable por-
tion of my time was occupied in the various cattle camps.
91. The following studs were visited during the year in Káthiáwár, viz.,
Vánkáner, Rájkot, Pálitána, Bhávnagar, Gondal, and 8 head of young stock and
one mule purchased.
Káthiáwár.
92. As the horse-breeding resources of this Province had been allowed to
lapse for a lengthened period, I determined in the year
1894 to visit the various studs and make some attempt
to revise the then existing ones and to establish others where suitable conditions
existed. The Province now contains 9 studs; the Chiefs were asked to sell their
young stock to Government, to introduce good Arabs and thorough-bred English
sires, to draft all old and unsuitable mares and to attempt mule breeding. This
policy of improvement has been maintained and is most noticeable in the
Vankáaner paddocks, where the 2 and 3-year-old fillies by the thorough-bred
Government horse "Young Chieftain" out of mares with one or two strains of
Arab blood are for size, shape, bone and substance difficult to equal. These
fillies are intended to replace old, worn out mares, drafts, &c. They are true
types of a successful breed, of which the Deccan and Káthiáwár contain very
many notable examples: roomy, compact mares, with the best of legs and feet,
very sure breeders and excellent mothers. You can depend upon them to throw
true to type, generation after generation, and no fear need be entertained that
they will ever throw back to a strain that would unfit their offspring to
become cavalry remounts, as they are descendants of three strains only, all of
which are pure, viz., Káthi, Arab and English thoroughbred.
93. I have gone carefully through the horse-breeding records of this
Province for the last 60 years and know no other part of India where prejudice
against what is termed foreign blood, viz., Arab and English thoroughbred, exists
to the extent that it does in Káthiáwár. The Garásia of the present day much
prefers his own undersized, unsound Káthi sire, whose sole recommendation is
that his head is small, that the tips of his ears meet when pointed forward and
that he has the requisite number of lucky marks, to the best Arab or thorough-
bred that you could produce. This state of affairs, in spite of the efforts of
Civil officers and officers of this Department for the last 60 years, still exists, and
a very large percentage of the owners of mares in this Province would unhesita-
tingly utilize the service of a bad Kathi stallion in preference to a good Arab
or thoroughbred. Prejudices, so deep rooted, are difficult to break down and it
is for this reason that many of the Chiefs who have realized the value of Arabs
and thorough-breds and the immense superiority of their stock over the indi-
genous Káthi may eventually, through the medium of their studs, overcome the
prejudices of the small owner.
94. That a complete change has taken place in this Province, the following
facts go far to prove. For the sake of comparison I will take the 6 years com-
mencing 1850 and the 6 years commencing 1894. During the former period
Government purchased in this Province and Cutch 415 remounts for Light
Cavalry at an average of Rs. 385. History does not relate what size these horses
were, but I have great doubts whether many of them would be bought at the
present day for cavalry remounts, as the standard required for the Army
Remount Department far exceeds anything that the Káthi could, as far as I
have been able to ascertain, ever have approached. There is no doubt, however,
that these 415 horses were bought from Garásias, were pure Káthis and that the
private studs in that day did not contribute a single remount. Take the latter
period, viz., from 1894. Government have purchased 83 head of young stock
and 5 mules. They have without a single exception been bought from private
studs, the property of Chiefs, and are the produce of Arabs and thoroughbreds.
Not a single pure Káthi has been bought or has a single head of young stock
been purchased from a Garásia.
95. These simple facts are difficult to explain, but there can be no doubt
that Káthiáwár as a horse-breeding country has completely changed within the
last 60 years, and the same causes have affected this country and brought about
this change as they have in other parts of India.