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WEIGHT CARRYING ARABIANS Anatomical Reasons Why the Breed Has Great Endurance That the conspicuous success of Arabian horses in the cavalry endurance tests of the last three years was largely due to their anatomical differ ¬ ence from other breeds is the opinion of II K BushBrown formerly secretary of the Arabian Horse Club of America Writing in the Journal of Heredity he says it is now recognized by leading anatomists that the horse of the desert has only twentythroe vertebral in his back while every other type of horse has twentyfour This gives the Arab a shorter back than the rest the famous sculptor and horseman assert which explains why he is such a good weight carrier carrierThe The wonderful weight carrying ability of the Arabians was demonstrate in last years endurance test when W R Browns little chestnut mare Noam scant fifteen hands high and weighing only 820 pounds traveled 300 miles over hilly New England roads with 245 pounds on her back She weighed only 770 pounds at the finish of the long journey and thus canu in carrying more than 30 per cent of her own weight rabbet Ramia and other small Arabs made equally remarkable performancess performancessThe The skeleton of the registered Arab stallion Nime in the American Museum of Natural History in New York bears out Mr BushBrowns asser ¬ tion about the desert coursers short back His bones are in a case next to those of the famous race horse Sysonby and anybody can see that while the thoroughbred has twentyfour vertebral the Arabian has only twentythree The differ ¬ ence Is in the lumbar region just behind the last ribs Sysonhy having six vertebrae from theru to the coupling as compared with five for Nime The skeletons of the trotting stallion MclCiuley 21H in the Xcw York Museum anI of Lexington and other horses of Asia in the Museum of Natural History shows the simo number of lumbar verte ¬ brae as the Arabian but has nineteen dorsal verte ¬ brae linking twentyfour in all
