The origin and influence of the thoroughbred horse . y are called in India, are a primeval stockfrom which are derived not only the great proportion of piedhorses all over China, and even so far south as the IndianArchipelago, but even the steeds of the Centaurs, from whichsprung the Thessalian breed in Greece, and the Borghesepiebald breed of Italy. But the wild horses seen by FatherGeorgi, dHobsonville, Moorcroft, and others, were undoubtedlyeither feral or merely half-wild ponies turned out on themountains, whilst we have just seen that the pied ponies ofSumatra and Java are merely a modern
The origin and influence of the thoroughbred horse . y are called in India, are a primeval stockfrom which are derived not only the great proportion of piedhorses all over China, and even so far south as the IndianArchipelago, but even the steeds of the Centaurs, from whichsprung the Thessalian breed in Greece, and the Borghesepiebald breed of Italy. But the wild horses seen by FatherGeorgi, dHobsonville, Moorcroft, and others, were undoubtedlyeither feral or merely half-wild ponies turned out on themountains, whilst we have just seen that the pied ponies ofSumatra and Java are merely a modern outcome from blending 1 Hamilton Smith, The Horse, pp. 289-92. Ill] AND HISTOEIC TIMES 155 Arab with native blood, itself already largely of Arabian , piebalds and skewbalds are not at all uncommonamongst Indian country-breds, which, as we have seen, are theoutcome of crossing the Upper Asiatic horse with the Arab,and on such the trumpeters of tlie native cavalry regimentsare usually moiuited. As there is no question of the large. Fig. 50. Tanj^um of Tibet. amount of Arabian blood in such animals, just as in the poniesof Java, we are all the more justified in ascribing the existenceof piebalds amongst the tangums of Tibet to a similar blendingof the Mongolian and Arabian stocks. It has also to be bornein mind that the Arab stands the heat in India far better thanthe horses from the north, a circumstance which renders it allthe more likely that in country-bred Indian horses it is largelythe Arabian element which survives in a far greater degreethan the Upper Asiatic. 156 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. According to a recent traveller^ the best Tibetan poniesare creamy fawn-coloured, yellow-dun. Many of the fawncoloured Thibetan ponies are brindled, but none of the manyI have seen were marked so fully as an exceptionally fine ponybought in Bhotan from a Thibetan merchant. It had a blackstripe down the spine; the tips of the ears, nose, and tip of thetail we
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