Words on the Arabian horse to enjoy and ponder.

Lithograph by Heinrich Rudolf Schinz. From: “Die Pferde-Racen”. (The horse breeds) Zuerich, 1842

If you’re fortunate enough to own or breed Arabian horses you quickly learn why so much is written about the great love the Arab had for their horse. I adore the poetic words along with the words of wisdom written by people who were often first hand witnesses to the Arabian horse in it’s desert environment.  What could be nicer than to begin the week  sharing the words of Rousseau, Seetzen, Arvieux and others …

Rousseau writes: “One might say the Arabs love their horses as much as they love their wives, and probably there is not one of them who would not allow his mare to sleep in his tent among his family who care for her in just the same manner as they would for a very much beloved child.”

Also Arvieux said: “The Arabs never hit their horses, but treat them with gentleness, pet and caress them, talk to them and care for them in the most extraordinary way. Any of them talks to his horse as if the horse could understand his speech, and the horse listens to him attentively as to express real attachment and gratitude.”

Ammon continues: “This love for their horses is not only based on their usefulness to the Arabs, as they are absolutely indispensable and of the greatest importance, given the unsteady and war-minded lives these people lead, but is rather a consequence of the old tradition of looking upon a horse as an animal endowed with a noble and magnanimous mind and an intelligence superior to that of other animals.

This is why the Arabs say: ‘Next to man the horse is the most magnificent creature; the most honourable occupation in the kind education of a horse; the most graceful is that of a rider on horseback: the most meritorious action is to feed a horse.”

Extracts from – Asil Arabians II – The Noble Arabian Horses