Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-10-11
The Arab Steed.
Boston Transcript.

Among the distinguished foreigners
landed at New York this week was the
Arab mare Naomi, said to be the only
pure mare now in the United States.
Naomi was born in England, her parents
being Yataghan and Haidee, which ami
mails were purchased by the late Capt
Roger Upton, a noted English horse
breeder. of the Gomussa tribe of the
Euphrates Valley. Naomi's present own
e., Mr.. Randolph Huntington, of Roches
ter, N. Y, says she is the only pure Arab
mare on this continent, and accounts for
the difficulty of importing Arab mares by
pointing to the unwillingness of the
Turkish Government to ALLOW their ex-
pOrtation. When Sunset Cox was United
States Minister to Turkey he applied for
permission to purchase a pure blooded
Arab mare to be sent to this country. AL
though the application was made as an
act of international comfy, the request
was refused by the Sultan, a circumstance
that i'm pels one to believe that Sunset Cox
must have tried to be funny when he
asked the Ports permission. English
horse breeders have succeeded in procur-
ing perhaps dozen pure bloOded Arab
mares, and have sought to keep them in
England. When it was learned that ne
gotlations were IN progress for the pur-
chase Of Noami by an American, English
turfmen and English sporting papers
raised vigorous protest, but the sale
was made, despite the pressure which the
Duke of Westminster brought to bear to
prevent it.
The English DO not want to see any re-
enforcement of the strong infusion of the
Arab blood already III American horse
flesh. The Morgan breed of horses,
though now practically no more, has left
its stamp on the horses of the Northern
States, and the Morgan was a modified
Arab. The race horses Of the South and
West are strongly tinotured with the
Arabian blood, which some hOrse-bree
ers trace back to the dozen steeds that
Cortez carried into Mexico. The Cortez
horse probably were of mixed blood,
with an infusion of the Arab, as the
Saracens who had been SO lately driven
out of Granada must have left behind
them goodly stock Of Arabians, whose
strain they carefully kept pure. Besides
the Cortez strain in the Southwest, re-en
forced by late importations from Spain,
there is a second infusion traceable to the
defendants of the Southern States of the
famed Godolphin Arabians and barley
stock noted in England in the last cen
fury. The Kentucky race horse is pro-
badly the finest of the gratifying of the
Arab strain on the domestic stock.
Although the Arab horse is celebrated
for his feats of endurance and courage
the impression prevails in army circles
in this country that the Arab blood so
common IL American horses must be
modified by a re-intusion of the strain.
1t is becoming difficult in this country,
where horses are so plentiful, to mount
our 10000 cavalry, as the desideration of
an animal which unites great speed with
weight, carrying power and endurance,
is hard to pick out from the animals
brought before the purchasing army.
The formation of a Government stud,
modified on the horse of France, Ger
many and Austria, has been suggested by
by cavalry officers, who fpd plenty of
heavy horses and plenty ofspeedy horses,
but few that are both heavy and speedy.
The same trouble is experienced in Eng
| land, where, it is said, that the horses Of
fered to the purchasing officers are alto
gether too "fne" for the service. Austria
| seems to have some pearness to solving
the problem of producing the model
| cavalry horse in Hungary. Proud as
Turkey is of it's possession of the Arab
| stock, it buys largely in Austria when it
can raise the money to produce cavalry
| remounts.