The Horses of the Sahara 13

The Horses of the Sahara 13

Occasionally in war time the foal is killed immediately after its birth,

in order that the dam may be the sooner fit for service; but never do

they slay a filly. Such a one is weaned and left in the tent to shelter

it from the sun, and the women frequently succeed in saving its life by

giving it ewe's or camel's milk. If a filly be born on the road during a

journey or march undertaken for a commercial or a warlike object, in

order to save it every possible fatigue it is placed upon a camel, where

a soft nest is constructed for it; but it will only be allowed to

approach its dam during a halt or in the night time.

 

During the Taguedempt expedition in 1841 I saw a cavalier of Makhzen,

who had no means of transport, carry before him on his saddle for the

first four days after its birth a filly which his mare had given him at

the bivouac. At the end of that period it followed its dam, throughout

the campaign.

 

When the colts are not destroyed they are usually sold in the Tell, at

the season of buying grain, whereas the fillies are preserved as a

source of riches through their offspring.

 

The greater the value attached to the mare, the earlier is the time for

weaning, but it generally takes place in the sixth or seventh month. In

weaning the foal they remove it from its dam, first of all for one day,

then for two, and so on, gradually increasing the period of separation.

To render the transition less abrupt, they give it camel's milk

sweetened with date honey, and to keep it from wandering in search of

its mother they tether it by its fore or hind-legs with woollen cords

but in either case above the knees or the hocks; whence proceed the

whitish marks that are often observable. If at that age the animal were

fastened by the pasterns considerable injury might be done. The foal

never remaining still and puzzled by its novel situation, the processes

called by the Arabs _louzze_, or almonds, would speedily be formed.

Redoubled attention is paid to the foal while being weaned, for if it

succeeded in getting loose and approached its dam it would be liable to

fall ill through sucking a corrupt and sour milk.

 

In the day time while the mare is on the march or in the pasture, a sort

of halter (_kuemama_) is put on the foal, the noseband of which is

furnished with short porcupine's quills. The dam then refuses of herself

to let the foal touch her. As soon as it is fairly weaned, it is

necessary in order to prevent the accumulation of milk to draw it off

from the mare from time to time, and somewhat to lower her diet. After

being weaned, the foal is fed on ground barley in regularly increasing

quantities, taking care, however, not to cause satiety. They use a

wooden measure called _feutra_. This measure contains three double

handfuls, and is common to all the tribes of the desert, because its

origin dates from a religious tradition. At the _aïd-es-seghrir_, that

is, at the little festival which follows the Ramadan, the Prophet

recommends every Mussulman who is tolerably well off to give to the poor

a _feutra_ of food, wheat, barley, dates, rice, etc., according to the

productions of the country in which he may be residing.

 

As soon as the foal is weaned, the women take possession of it, saying:

"It belongs to us now; it is an orphan, but we will make its life as

pleasant as possible."

 

 

REMARKS BY THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER.

 

The foal follows the sire. The best stock is that which proceeds from a

sire and a dam of pure extraction. The produce of a foreign mare by an

Arab horse is less valued, and much less that of a blood mare by a

common horse. Lastly, a colt whose sire and dam are both of foreign race

has no good quality whatsoever.

 

The Arabs affirm that an entire horse has more vigour and speed than a

mare. As a rule stallions are scarce in the Sahara. They are seldom to

be met with except with the chiefs or with men of wealth, who can afford

to have them properly tended and looked after, as it would be dangerous

to turn them loose on to the grazing grounds. On the contrary, the mare

requires very little attention, and is therefore chiefly ridden by the

Saharenes.

 

Immediately after the foal is born it is made to swallow two or three

eggs. Then, while the foal is still on the ground they rub the sole and

crust of the hoof with salt dissolved in a preparation of

_bouna-faâ_,[34] which renders the horn hard and tough. After that, the

foal gets up, gropes about, and seeks its dam. Twelve hours later it

will follow her to the pasture. As soon as the foal is born the master

of the tent hastens to arrange his ears, the forelock, the mane, and the

neck, carefully collecting the hairs together from the root upwards. If

the weather is cold, both the dam and the foal are kept in the tent.

Seven days afterwards the mare is made to swallow a pound or a pound and

a half of rancid butter not salted.

 

The nobler the mare, the sooner is the foal weaned, and in any case it

is never permitted to suck longer than six months. In certain countries

the Arabs are under the impression that a protracted suckling almost

always produces a bad disposition and a hard mouth. Everywhere, where it

is possible, and according to the season of the year, they give the foal

camel's, or cow's, or ewe's milk, which is supposed to render the coat

more soft and sleek.

 

"The best treasure of a man is a fruitful mare."

 

"Allah bade them multiply, and they have multiplied."

 

 

 

 

REARING AND BREAKING-IN

 

 

Though weaned, the foal accompanies its dam to the pasture. This

exercise is found necessary to its health and to the development of its

faculties. In the evening it comes home to lie down beside the tent of

its owner. There, it is to every member of the family the object of the

greatest care. The women and the children sport with it, and give it

_Kouskoussou_,[35] bread, flour, milk, and dates. This daily contact

leads to that docility which is so much admired in Arab horses.

 

Sometimes tushes grow out even in one-year olds, and the animal falls

away in condition until they are extracted, when it recovers its health.

Should the colt at the age of fifteen to eighteen months fail to promise

a fine free action of the shoulder, they do not hesitate to apply the

cautery to the scapulo-humeral joint. It is generally applied in the

form of a cross, the four extreme points of which are joined by a

circle. Previous to the operation care is taken to trace the design with

pitch if the animal be of a light colour, or with plaster if it be dark.

If, again, a colt's knees are ill-shaped, or indicate a predisposition

to bony tumours or to thickening, fire is applied in three parallel

lines. Lastly, if any apprehension is felt of the colt becoming too

straight either in front or behind, they fire the fetlock joint but only

on the front part, which shows that the Arabs understand the tendons and

treat them carefully. The fire is usually applied with a sickle. In

performing this operation they avoid as much as possible the great heats

of summer. The most favourable season is the end of autumn or the

beginning of spring: there are fewer flies then, and the temperature is

cooler.

 

The education of a colt should commence when eighteen months old,

because it is the only way to make him thoroughly docile, and also

because the development of the spleen is thus checked—a very important

point in the opinion of the Arabs. If he is first of all mounted at a

later period, he may look stronger to the eye, but in reality he will be

inferior in patience and in speed.

 

"Every horse inured to fatigue brings good fortune."[36]

 

And Heaven knows how the Arab horse is inured to fatigue! So to speak,

he is always on the march. He travels with his master who is one of the

greatest travellers on horseback in the world. He travels to seek his

food. He traverses long distances to find water; and this sort of life

renders him abstinent, not easily tired, and ready for anything. It must

be admitted that that is a method of training horses not easily

surpassed.

 

I repeat, for I cannot too strongly insist on this capital point, the

opinion of the Arabs is unanimous in favour of the education of the colt

beginning at a very early age. In acting otherwise, there is a risk,

they imagine, of having an unmanageable horse, or one heavy and clumsy.

Exercise, on the contrary, accustoms the horse to submission, gives

strength to the joints while rendering them supple, imparts firmness to

the bones, develops the muscles, and brings out that power of enduring

fatigue without which the animal is nothing more than source of outlay

without any return for it.

 

At the age, then, of eighteen to twenty months the colt is mounted by a

child who takes him to water, goes in search of grass, or leads him to

the pasture. Not to hurt the bars he guides him with a longe, or a

tolerably soft mule's bit. This exercise is good for them both. The

child grows up a horseman, and the colt acquires the habit of carrying a

weight proportioned to his strength. He learns to walk, to fear nothing,

and it is in this manner, say the Arabs, that "we contrive never to have

restive horses." The first time the child mounts the colt, he should

say, while in the act of bestriding him: "Glory to Him who has subjected

the horse to us! Without Allah we should never have accomplished it."

 

It is at this age also they begin to shackle the colt. The clogs are at

first fastened very short, as without that precaution the young animal

might lose something of the steadiness of its balance and injure its

chest or shoulders either in lying down or getting up again. They ought

likewise to be attached loosely so as not to occasion the formation of

hard knots. This mode of shackling a horse is decidedly the best. With

it one never hears of a horse breaking loose, a misadventure that causes

such confusion in a bivouac, drives horsemen to despair, and is the

source of a thousand accidents. As the animal is forced to stoop and

lean forwards to graze, one would imagine that it could not fail after a

while to lose something of its uprightness. The fear is altogether

unfounded. The chest expands, the limbs acquire strength. All Barbs

stand well upon their legs and are admirably straight along the back and

loins. The Arabs are loud in their abuse of our mode of tying up horses

with a longe. They affirm that in addition to the vices and accidents it

may occasion, it has the great inconvenience of not allowing the animal

to lie down. Whereas with clogs a horse protrudes his head and neck and

when he wants to sleep places himself exactly in the position of a

greyhound basking in the sun. Besides, a great many stable vices

disappear when they are used. The animal can neither entangle itself in

the halter, nor slip it, nor get into the manger nor lie down beneath

it, nor scratch the earth with its foot, nor rub against the manger nor

contract any other bad habits of the kind: an indisputable advantage so

far.

 

The colt being thus shackled in front of the tent, a little negro with a

switch is placed near him to accustom him to remain still. It is the

duty of this young slave to correct him slightly if he attempts to lash

out at anything passing behind him, or if he bites at his neighbours. He

is watched in this manner until he is brought to the most perfect

gentleness. When he is sent to the pasture, the ligatures fasten

together a fore and hind foot at the same side, and the cord is

purposely made very short. It is observed that when the colt stoops to

graze, the shortness of the cord compels the vertebral column to remain

straight, and to become rather convex than concave. If, on the contrary,

the cord were too long, there would be nothing to support the vertebral column, and it would easily become distorted.