The Horses of the Sahara 15

The Horses of the Sahara 15

Arab horses have always a good mouth. A proverb says:

 

The horseman makes the horse,

As the husband makes the wife.

 

But it is not enough to have softened and tamed the horse. Although by

means of kind treatment, daily intercourse, and punishment judiciously

applied, he has become docile, and a good action has been secured, his

education is still incomplete. It still remains to perfect him, and to

do so they train him to the following exercises:

 

_El Feuzzâa_, "setting off suddenly at full gallop." To accomplish this

they pursue nearly the same method as ourselves, with this difference

that they avail themselves of the aid of the _tekerbeâa_, which we have

already described, so that a horse must be altogether impracticable if

he does not act as he is required to do.

 

_El Kyama_, "going free." They rush the animal at a wall, or tree, or a

man, and pull him up short. By degrees he will learn to halt abruptly in

the middle of a rapid career, on the bank of a river or on the edge of a

ravine or precipice—a valuable accomplishment, oftentimes most

advantageous in war. If a young horse is not a free-goer, but capers

about and obstinately refuses to separate from the other horses, a fault

of the last consequence to an Arab, he is cured by the following

process. The owner's friends get on horseback and draw themselves up in

two lines, facing each other and two or three paces apart. The horse is

then ridden between these two hedges. If he stops, the horsemen beat him

with sticks, while his rider plies him vigourously with the spur. A

fortnight of this lesson is more than enough for the most obstinate.

 

_El Lotema_, "the wheeling round." This exercise consists in turning

suddenly to the right or left, but more frequently the latter, as soon

as the rider has fired off his piece. The principle is this, the trigger

being pulled, the horseman strikes his horse sharply with the left hand

behind the saddle, and at the same moment with his right hand on the

neck. The animal understands what is meant, and in a very short time

learns to obey merely the movement of his rider's body. This instruction

is inculcated with the greatest care, being of great importance to the

Arab, who is so often exposed to single combats.

 

_El Djery_, "the race." They first of all make the animal go at a swift

pace by itself over a level plain, stimulating it with whip and spur,

but only for a short distance. After a while they match the colt against

an old horse of some renown. The young one becomes excited, and does his

utmost to maintain the contest. These exercises being frequently

repeated serve likewise to give the owner an exact knowledge of his

horse's capabilities, and of what he may safely undertake with him in

the future. They are not unattended with danger, but "the angels have

two special missions in this world: to preside at the racing of horses

and at the union of man with woman." It is their duty to preserve

horsemen and horses from all accident, and to see that marriages are

fruitful.

 

_Teneguize_, "the leap." Moreover, the colt must be taught to leap. This

teaching is progressive and demands much patience. The lesson is not

repeated more than twice or thrice in the course of one day. At first

they begin with small obstacles, so as not to disgust the animal, nor is

he brought face to face with any of a serious nature until he is quite

docile and fully developed. Unquestionably, the Arabs regard the leap as

the necessary complement of a colt's education, but they are far from

attaching to it the same importance that Europeans do. Their country is

for the most part difficult, full of ravines, strewed with huge stones,

and covered with prickly bushes. They assert, therefore, that if they

were to jump over every obstacle they encounter either in war or in

hunting, they would be always jumping, which would fatigue their horses

terribly and in the long run ruin them. Consequently, they go round any

very rough ground, ride down almost perpendicular places, and go

straight up the steepest slopes, and practice renders their horses so

adroit that in a long journey they reach the end more quickly than if

they had jumped over everything that came in their way.

 

_El Nechacha_, "the exciting." The horse is taught to throw himself upon

that of the adversary, and bite either the rider or the animal. The

rider pulls up his horse, while he pushes him with his legs, and all the

time keeps on repeating the cry of _sheït_, and success is the more easy

because the animal is naturally excitable. The Arabs declare that horses

trained in this manner have often unseated an enemy in single combat.

Sometimes, too, in razzias, they quicken the pace of the camels that

have been captured. I myself have seen a Makhzen horseman thus hurry on

animals that had fallen behind. His horse rushed at them and bit at them

with apparent pleasure.

 

Horsemen of renown do not, however, confine the education of their

horses to these manœuvres so necessary in battle, but they also teach

them to shine at feasts and fantasias by the following accomplishments:

 

_El Entrabe_, "the caracol." The horse walks, so to speak, on his

hind-legs. Scarcely does he touch the ground with his forefeet, than he

again rises. One hand in concert with the legs, soon trains to this

exercise a horse of fair intelligence.

 

_El Gueteâa_, "the bucking." The horse springs up with all fours off the

ground, the horseman at the same time throwing up his gun into the air

and cleverly catching it. To obtain this action, the rider marks certain

intervals of rest and works with his legs. He gives with the animal as

he rises, in order to hold him up when he comes down again. Nothing can

be more picturesque than this exercise. The horses quit the earth, the

guns fly into the air, and the ample folds of the burnous float and

unroll themselves in the wind, thrown back by the vigourous arms of the

children of the desert. It is, in truth, the charm and crowning act of

the fantasia.

 

Lastly, _El-Berraka_, "the kneeling." The rider remaining on his saddle

causes his horse to kneel down. This is the _nec plus ultra_ of the man

and the animal. Not every horse is fit for this exercise. The colt is

trained to it by tickling him on the coronet, pinching him on the legs,

and forcing him to bend the knee. After a time the horseman will reap

the benefit of these preliminary steps. He need only clear his feet of

the stirrups, stretch his legs forward, turn out the points of his toes,

touch with his long spurs the animal's fore-arms, and then as his piece

is fired at marriage feasts and other rejoicings, his horse will kneel

down amid the applause of the young maidens, piercing the air with

joyful acclamations.

 

After the horse is completely "suppled" by all these exercises, the

following feats are attempted:

 

_Laâb el Hazame_, "the girdle feat." When the horse is thoroughly

trained, at a family festivals and religious solemnities, the horseman

going at full gallop will pick up a girdle lying on the ground: the most

skilful grasping it at three different places.

 

_Laâb Ennichan_, "firing at a mark." The target is usually a stone, or a

mutton shoulder-blade. The performers start from a distance in order to

get a good seat, and when fifty or sixty paces off they discharge their

pieces. The Saharene will recall these lessons to mind when out hunting,

and going at full speed, he brings down an ostrich or a gazelle. It is

not of an inhabitant of the Tell that you must expect these prodigies of

address, skilfulness, and equestrian science. Nor will you see on him

the light apparel, the fine and beautiful wool of a child of the desert,

whom, besides, you will always recognize by his slender, long-bodied

horse, the ease with which he handles his gun, and that graceful forward

movement by which he quickens his courser's pace. How many are there in

the Tell who would ride a whole stage without dropping a piece of money

placed between the sole of the foot and the spur?[39]

 

"And you Christians! you go at a trot. And so do we, but only when time

is of no consequence and to breathe our horses. In war time we know

nothing but the walk and the gallop. If we are not in a hurry, the trot

is enough for us, but if there be danger it is the gallop that saves our

heads."

 

An Arab chief would not keep a horse whose pace was not formed. The

above exercises are not adopted by all Arabs. Each selects what is best

suited to his position, his fortune, and his tastes. But all conform

themselves to the principles we have laid down for the education of the

colt. These consist in first of all reducing the young animal to the

last degree of wretchedness, in order to handle him gently when between

three and four years old. After these trials, his real value is known.

These principles are, moreover, summed up in a familiar proverb that

shows the amount of interest attached to beginning by times the task of

training.

 

Let the one-year old colt do nothing but eat,

And he will not strain himself:

Mount him from two to three years old,

Until he is quite tamed.

Feed him well from three to four.

Then mount him again,

And if he does not suit you,

Sell him without hesitation.

 

Let it not be supposed, however, that it is only the Arabs of our

African possessions who are so mad, if I may be allowed the use of the

__EXPRESSION__, about commencing the process of breaking-in at an early age.

The Arabs universally, no matter to what country they belong, profess

the same principles. If proof be wanted, read what has been said on the

subject by no inexperienced person, in fact by an inspector-general of

the Haras, M. Pétiniaud, who was commissioned by the French Government

to travel through Upper Asia to procure horses of pure Oriental blood.

He shall speak for himself:—

 

"After three years of wanderings among the tribes encamped from

Diarbekir and Aleppo to the confines of the Nedjed, I returned to Bagdad

last January. Among the papers that awaited me, I found a number of the

_Journal des Haras_, containing an article on the horses of the Sahara.

The perusal of this only too brief memoir which denoted such a perfect

knowledge of the Arab and his horse, inspired me with a desire to

possess the entire work. On my arrival in France, you were obliging

enough to send me a copy, for which I thank you. No one could take a

greater interest than myself in a work which you might safely have

entitled: "On the Arab horse of Asia and Africa;" for such is the spirit

of tradition among this peculiar people that at every line I recognized

in the customs of the Moghreb Arabs the customs of their ancestors of

the Koreish and the Nedjed, and that after a separation of many

centuries."

 

"In 1851 I descended the Tigris from Mosul to Bagdad, with a volume of

Herodotus in my hand. All his descriptions of men and things were still

strictly applicable. Thus, at a distance of two thousand three hundred

years he depicted the manners of the Arabs with the same truthfulness

with which you, General, have described in Africa the Arabs of Asia.

Time and space are impotent in the presence of the unchangeableness of

such habits: intestine feuds, the chace, _fantasias_, love of the horse,

etc., etc., I have witnessed in Asia exactly what you have written of

Africa."

 

"Your work which possesses the great merit of telling the whole truth

and nothing but the truth, is calculated, as I think, to exercise a

great influence on the education of the horse in France. This delightful

style of reading will develop an interest in the animal in those who

have never before given it a thought, while our breeders will derive

some useful hints from the numerous details you relate. They will learn

not to reserve their admiration for a horse that has no other merit than

that of being fat, and they will at last come to understand the

advantages that result from putting a colt to salutary work from his

earliest age. "The horse is a labourer"—let him, then, be accustomed to it in good time."