Re: RC: History: Was Harris; Now Borden

[CMNewell <reshan@deyr.ultranet.com>]

At 07:49 PM 3/29/01 -0500, you wrote:

>Very interesting.  My first endurance horse was raised by an elderly
>couple ...  I finally visited her and she had
>a book that sounds like this one...I think "Cavalry" was in the title
>somehow.  When I mentioned that my horse's speed had pretty much topped
>out at 7.5 mph she was thrilled and said that the Cavalry considered that
>the ideal pace.


Could have ben Harris' book. Could also have been Spencer Borden's "What 
Horse For the Cavalry?", another interesting  (well, to me anyhow) little 
volume, published in 1912, before the  World War  mentioned by Harris.

It is an account by Borden (another early Arab importer and breeder) of his 
visits to various European studs, with musings about the  military 
preparedness  (or lack thereof) the US (and other nations) in regards 
to  cavalry horses.

      Regarding the English:
         "...the horses taken to Egypt proved utterly worthless. Stevens, 
in his book--With Kitchener to Khartoum--tells us 'the big English cavalry 
horses had to be left in Cairo,' while the Egyptian cavalry, mounted on 
Arabs and Arab crosses, were always ready for service...Col. 
Biddulph...give a full account...His men after leaving their worthless 
long-legged English thoroughbreds, were mounted on Syrian Arabs not more 
than 14.2 in height, and though these little horses carried full weights of 
18 to 20 stone (252 to 280 pounds), they went through a nine months 
campaign with a loss of only  about 12%.
         "...asked what he did want, Lord Kitchener wired the Queensland 
government: 'English horses are still too heavy. A well bred polo pony is 
the ideal required...'
         "To quote Stevens  again, remarking on the little horses used in 
the Khartoum expedition: 'It is really wonderful what the Arab pony will do.'
         "...When, at last, the War Office listened to Lord Kitchener, the 
horses that finally proved  of value to his army, were the 100,000 cow 
ponies, bought by men sent from England to the plains and ranches of the 
western United States."
                                           --CMNewell