The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-09-14
AsIATic BREEDS.
The Horse of the Arabian Plains and the
Himalayan Pony.

the early part of our Christian era,
cared for and bred the horse, so as to
markedly improve him, were the Arabs
of the Syrian and Libyan deserts. On
the GASES of these sterile plains the
horse lived in close amity with man
and throve and grew in beauty, intel
ligence and stamina of a peculiar kind.
1t cannot be said what his first pro-
genitor was; but it was this desert
horse which has been used to produce
the English thoroughbred. The pecu-
liar stamina this Arabian had was
shown in that he not only possessed
great speed, but that he could run at
the top of his speed for great dis
lance The native horse of other coun-
tries had much less speed; and, while
he could move all day at certain rate,
he could not run one or five or twenty
miles anything like so fast This pc
culiar trait of the Arabian became
known to the crusaders, and few OF
these horses drifted to England; but
they were far too light to carry a
knight in armor, and it was much later
before they were deliberately imported
as sires: and when they actually began
to impress their peculiar qualities on
the larger native English horse, the
thoroughbred came into being. All
thoroughbreds trace back to one of
half dozen Arabian or Barbary sires
1t is this thorough blood on which we
all rely to improve our stock. and 1t
has truly wonderful qualities
The Arabian Is a plains horse, and
from his desert habitat he has gone as
far west as the Pacific coast; east he
has not gone far. so soon as he runs
up against the foothills of the Himala-
vas he disappears, for he is not q good
mountain horse; he Is too leggy.
Mountain climbing calls for good
deal of boiler capacity, SO to speak. It
is not the speed of the plains you re-
quire, but an all-day capacity to .plod
mountain animals, man included, have
more body and shorter, stockier legs
than those of the plains When you
approach the Himalayas from India,
on whose plains you have seen the
short-bodied, long-legged Hindoo. you
naturally find broad, short, sturdy
chunk of man, of Mongol blood, and
with a pony for all the world of the
same build. either of whom can carry
up hill all day load which would
break the back of almost any plains
dweller. Not only can the man carry
loads, but the woman can Guido him.
She is the most extraordinary beast Of
burden the Lord has ever made, and
she is far from being ground down by
poverty or hard work; she Is bright and
cheerful, with a pleasant face and a
hearty greeting, and many of them
would pass for good-looking anywhere.
The prettiest Himalaya pony have
ever seen was one ridden by the king
of Nepaul, a young potentate, at the
time some ten years old and harmless
enough, but who, on attaining his
majority at eighteen, will have the
power of life and death over several
million subjects. A dapper little king
and royal little pony, well matched
they were!
This pony is the creature which does
all the work of the Himalaya water
shed, and down it's foothills out to the
plains for many hundreds of miles; and
it is it you see liz that part of China
which Europeans usually visit.
| The Tartars have another breed,
which 1 have never seen; probably a
steppes horse of the usual broncho
type. Wherever you find the Hima-
laya pony. however, he is the best
horse of his kind there is. They run
very small in Cochin-China and Ton
quin. bigger in China proper; but,
small or big, unless they get too far
away from their native mountains,
and, like salt, lose their SAVIOR, they are
incompatible for their inches
This same little fellow is known in
farther India as the Burmah or Pebu
pony. / have named him the Hima-
lava pony because he is the best in the
great range or not far from it. You
find him at uncommon attitudes Up
sixteen thousand feet and over. where
you may look at the everlasting SHOWS
of Mount Everest, or the superb range
of Kinchinjunga, he may be seen toll
ing up paths steep enough for
a mountain sheep, always cheer
full, never tagging, and bearing
his heavy load with sturdy patience
and good will which are a pattern
for any ones imitation. The English
have built mountain roads, and good
ones, through nearly all the passes
from India over into the Central
Asian plateaus; but the old country
roads remain as they were a score of
centuries ago, and the population
which travels over them has proba bly,
not altered much more than the roads
The men carry prayer wheels, which
they twirl as they pray; the women
hang silver prayer boxes on heavy
chains of turks and carnelian around
their necks; and no doubt the lamas
have blessed these same sacred objects
for thousands of years after the same
fashion and been we'll paid for doing
| so.
Very splendid is the home of the
Himalaya pony. l have seen the
Rockies, the Atlas mountains, the
Alps but / never had a conception of
how heights could be piled on heights
and yet never get in reach of the peaks
until / saw the Himalayas You may
ride up Longs or Pixies peak; you may
in days pull go through any of the
Alpine passes from valley to valley.
and stand on spots from which even
Mont Blanc seems accessible. But
from the Indian plains you may toll
upward into the Himalayas for two
good, long days, and then you get
where you can see Mount Everest, ap-
parently and actually further off than
Mont Blanc from ChamounIx. 1t is in
this splendid panorama of unequaled
masses of ice and snow that the true
Himalaya pony and his master pass
the davs.-Theodore A. Dodge, in St
| 1,,ic Papnb1io