Signs of purity in Arabians
A lot has been said about “secret” signs, which Bedouins used to recognize and evaluate the purity of a horse. Rszewuski mentioned them, claiming that he possessed an empirical knowledge of these signs, shared by his Bedouin friends. Nothing about these was found in his personal archives after his death.
Was he boasting ? Is this all a matter of tradition and superstition without any scientific basis? Or do we have lost an irreplaceable treasure thousands years old? Can we find and collect some of this knowledge, if not all of it , and use it to select and improve the asil Arabian and perhaps other horse breeds ?
There is very little I can bring to that topic, and most of it is about the sloughi, the North African sighthound. A lot of signs exist in this breed, constituting a real and valid standard. For example, the prominent occipital bulge, the terminal ring of the tail, the marks on the metatarsal bones, the amount of fur in some places of the face … Some of these signs are very useful clues aboupt stamina, speed and the general quality of the sighthound.
Back to horses, I met a renowned horseman in Goundam (Mali), who knew a lot about horses. He was able to say if a horse was a sprinter or a long distance runner after a quick examination. He was able to determine the arrival order of a pack of horses in a 15 km race . Now what does remain of such knowledge? Did Lady Stanhope or Carl Raswan or other pioneers collect it from oral to written? And what can we do to save this treasure ?
Many years ago i knew a elder horseman of the race horses. He said this-the long forearm and short cannon,the large round hoof and the slope-shoulder the high neck comes smooth from the wither and the unseen heart of the horse that you can see in his eyes and high nostril. And lastly the tail carried away from the body at the walk. I believe he was correct. He knew alot abut the speed of horses.
all signs of purity
Of course forearm, cannon, croup length ect … are good clues to evaluate a horse ability. They are direct and scientifically proven signs.
But there are other signs not so understandable such as the size of the atlas (first cervical vertebrae) which, at first sight has no relation with speed or stamina. And those are the most intriguing.
Check Abu Ubayda’s kitab al-khayl for these. One section is on the “description of what indicates purity in a horse”. You gave me an idea for a new subject!
I have kept a memory from some readings (cannot remember which one sorry) to test the “Shakir” and I have been using this from time to time: feeling with my fingers the softness of the mane’s hair under the forelock. Asil Arabians have a very soft “shakir”, very good test to judge the quality of hair and tissues (whatever season) and also disposition (since it is pretty close to ears).
One of my mares, not arab had a mane silky but almost impossible to cut. I remember myself wondering if there was some relation between the mane’s quality and tendons/ligaments quality. Maybe there is. Maybe the embryologic origine of hair and tendons and ligaments is the same.