The St. Johns herald., 1892-11-17
SOLOMON AS A HoRsEMAN.
He Was Che of the Earliest Breeders of
 the Noble Animal.

 He Vas Che of the Earliest Breeders of
 the Noble Animal.
 By a great many people Arabia is supposed to be the home of the horse. From ancient Roman, Grecian and Jew ish history we readily learn, says a writer in the Western Sportsman, that the horse was not known in Arabia long after he was common factor in the life of southern Europe. The horse was scarcely known to the Hebrews prior to the days of Solomon, that worthy and illustrious sovereign having been brought into closer contact with the horse by his marriage to daugh- ter of Pharoah, the reigning king of Egypt, whose gorgeous wedding outfit was supplemented by large number of elegant horses, adapted alike to the serv- ice of war and the chase.
 The appearance of those beautiful an- iInals, as they sped swiftly along the streets of Jerusalem, excited tEe envy Of few jealous princes, but added to Solomon's popularity with the masses. After his marriage with the Egyptian princess, Solomon began buying horses from his father-in-law, and So rapidly did he multiply them by purchase and breeding that those kept for his own use required, as it is written: -Four thousand stables and forty thousand stalls" Hence, when honored by a visit from the beautiful Queen of Sheba, bringing with her ''camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones" it was doubtless in contempla- tion of his magnificent stud of horses and chariots, kept for the amusement of his wives, as well as for display of power and nagnifcence, that her majesty ex- claimed in the fullness of admiration: 'sHowbeit I believed not the words un- til I came and mine eyes had seen it; and, behold, the half was not told me-
 We find the best of cavalry in ancient times. The Greeks ran against a se- rious problem in the Persian light horse when they first trod the soil of Asia Minor They were nothing like so good horsemen as the Asiatics until Alexander's companion showed them what drill could do, and the Roman was still less apt. Philip, of Macedon, first utilized the excellent material of the Thessalian plains and organized cav airy which, from it's maneuvers and fighting, must have consisted of ad- mirable horsemen. The ancients rode without saddles or stirrups on blanket or pad, or bareback, and in spite of this fact, or perhaps by reason of it, rode ex- tremely well. It is wonderful what feats of military horsemanship the bare back rider could perform in the age of what we might call gymnastic eques- trianism.
 Nothing but the knowledge of our old-time Indian enables us to credit the historical accounts of his agility and skill. When centuries later saddles came into use, there grew up two schools of riding-that of the mailed warrior, whose iron armor well chi,ned in with his tongues Cn the wall'-seated in his packed saddle, and that Of the Oriental whose nose and knees ell but touched. Why the eastern rider clings to his ex- tremely short feathers is hard to say, unless it be to place him the higher above his horse, and therefore to make him the more imposing when he stands rp in his stirrUps to brandish sciInitar or matchlock. Yet he is a wonderful rider, this same Oriental, as, indeed, is every man who from youth up is the companion of the horse.