TURKS AND THEIR HORSES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4987, 17 March 1877, Page 3

TURKS AND THEIR HORSES.

First of all, a Turk is never_ wantonly cruel to any beast. He never strikes or spurs a horse in a rage, and all his movements are so quiet and collected that a horse soon forgets all fear of him, and to find a restive horse is rare indeed. Pullers are very common, and most • Turkish horses have bad mouths, owing to their being ridden with severe bits from the time they are first mounted. This will always be so, for it is “ the custom,” and it is as hard to get a Turk to change a custom as an Englishman ! A Turk never fast, and his favorite pace on a long journey is either a jog or a tripple. The latter is preferred, as it is faster and much easier to the rider. Whenever he passes water, winter or summer, he lets his horse drink as much as wants ; but when he. has done so, he rides it on fast at once—he never lets it stand still after drinking. If possible, he gives it its fill of w ( ater half an hour before the end of its journey. Directly-he dismounts he loosens the girths, and then leads the horse about till it is quite cool. It is then put in the stable with the saddle on, and this is not taken off for an hour or more. When this is done, and when it has had water on its way home, it never “breaks out,” and never refuses its feed of barley. Hay is unknown in Turkey ; except in the shape of green grass this is not often used. In its place, the horse gets chopped wheat straw, and I may say I have never seen horses in better condition, and in the thirteen years I was in . Turkey I never knew but one that was broken-winded, and that was one of my own that I had been feeding on hay for a month. The horses have no bed to lie on, except in grand stables, where the manure is all collected, dried to powder in

the sun, and then spread under the horse at night. This is not 1 done for the comfort of the horsoi but to make his ‘.’coat shine, which it does to. perfection. A Turk despises a mare, and nearly always rides a stallion,, The.latter are, such iheyerate, fighters that the ,groom never dares to leave the stable,. and always sleeps by the side of his horse., It is a British prejudice, and a very;cruel one, not to.let a; horse drink.when he is. thirsty, ; ( and if any of; my readers have a horse .that .doesn’t .feed when J he,comes in from a:day’s,hunting,, let.him try! the Turkish plan; or, if ha is selling hia hdrse; cheap for this fault,, let him drop me a line, aaj I think, we might “conclude a deal.”— “ Barkley's Bulgaria.” , i