he states, "ridden without bridles," we
have the best authority in the frieze of the Parthenon for knowing that,
although they rode barebacked on their compact cobby ponies, they used
reins and handled them skilfully and elegantly.

To go still further back, the bas-reliefs in the British Museum,
discovered by Mr. Layard in the Assyrian Palace of Nimroud, contain
spirited representation of horses with bridles, ridden in hunting and in
pursuit of enemies, as well as driven in war-chariots. These horses are
Arabs, while those of the Elgin Marbles more resemble the cream-coloured
Hanoverians which draw the state carriage of our sovereigns. In one of
the Nimroud bas-reliefs, we have cavalry soldiers standing with the
bridles of their horses in their hands, "waiting," as Mr. Bonomi tells
us, "for the orders to mount;" but, as they stand on the left side, with
the bridles in their left hands, it is difficult to understand how they
could obey such an order with reasonable celerity.

The Arabian stories, as to the performances of Arab horses and their
owners, must be received with considerable hesitation, for the horse is
one of the subjects on which Orientals love to found their poetical
fireside stories. This is certain, that the Arab horse being highly
bred, is very intelligent, being reared from its birth in the family of
its master, extremely docile, and, being always in the open air and fed
on a moderate quantity of dry food, very hardy.

If we lived with our horses, as we do with our dogs, they would be
equally affectionate and tractable.

In Norway, in consequence of the severity of the climate, the ponies are
all housed during the winter, and thus become so familiar with their
owner that there is scarcely any difficulty in putting them into
harness, even the first time.

English thoroughbred horses, when once acclimatized and bred in the open
air on the dry pastures of Australia and South Africa, are found, if not
put to work too early, as enduring as the Arab. Experiments in the
Indian artillery have proved that the Australian horse and the
Cape[27-*] horse, which has also been improved by judicious crosses
with English blood, are superior for strength and endurance to the
Eastern horses bred in the stud establishments of the East India
Company.

The exaggerated idea that long prevailed of the value of the Arab horse,
as compared with the English thorough-bred, which is an Eastern horse
improved by long years