success of the horse in Arabia
is the more remarkable from the fact that it has been attained under
conditions which, from an _a priori_ point of view, must be deemed
most unfavorable. This variety has been bred in a land of scant
herbage and deficient water-supply, where the creature has had from
time to time, indeed we may say generally, to endure something of the
dearth of food which stunts the Indian ponies and the other horses of
the Cordilleran district. The ancestors of the horse appear to have
attained their development in well-watered and fertile regions. All
the varieties bred within the limits of civilization do best on rich
pasturages such as Arabia does not afford. The success of the horse in
that land shows how devoted must have been the care which has been
given to its nurture. Fitting, as the Arabian horse does, exactly to
the needs of nomadic people engaged in almost constant warfare, it
has naturally been a far more important helper to the wild folk of
the desert lands about the eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea than
to any other race. In those lands horses fell into the keeping of a
very able folk. The contrast between the care devoted to the animals
by them, and that which our Indians give to their ponies, is a fair
measure of the difference in the ability of these very diverse races.

As a whole, the horse demands for his best nurture and keeping an
amount of care required by no other animal which has been won to the
uses of man, unless perhaps it be the silkworm. Kept in its best
state, the horse has to be sedulously groomed. To be maintained in
its very best condition some hours of human labor must each day be
given to keeping his skin in order. The effect arising from a
friction on the horse's hide is not confined to the beauty that comes
from cleanliness, but in a curious way reacts upon the general
nervous tone of the animal. All those who are familiar with horses
will, I think, agree with me that much grooming distinctly increases
the endurance and elasticity of their bodies. The influence of the
grooming process appears to be somewhat like that obtained by massage
and friction of the skin in the training of an athlete. More than
once I have had occasion to observe the effect of this process on
some ancient horse of good blood, which for years had been allowed in
its old age to go uncared for as an idle tenant of the pastures. Two
or three days of assiduous grooming will bring back the st