THE KIRGHIZ HORSES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4020, 6 January 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE KIRGHIZ HORSES.

In his interesting volume, " Campaigning on the Oxus," Mr MacGahan speaks in high praise of the Kirghiz brood oi horses, whose qualities he put to the severest test in travelling over the KvxilKum desert. They all have, either by nature or training, the gait called the ambie. which they will sustain the whole day through, getting over the ground with astonishing rapidity. They will travel at the rate of 50 im!o3 a day for a month together, subsisting upon the scanty herbage growing in adesert country, with an occasional handful of barley. They are never groomed, nor are they stabled, save in the very coldest weather, and are rarely treated to grain. In winter, if their owners have hay* it is fed to them in a light measure ; If .there bo none, the snow is cleared from the ground, and they pick up what they e;m, along with the sheep mid cattle." In summer, their fare i.s thiit of the camels —the dry, sparse pasturage of she dese.t*. The result of this treatment" is a sjuhU, hardy race of horses, surpassing all others in the world in powera of endurance. They will live wherever a camel can, and will travel as far without water, but cannot do without it as many days. In speed and size they are inferior to the famous Turcoman horses, which are remarkably fleet and spirited.