Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

OK, Maryanne sent me a private comment on mares vs stallions, which I thought 
came through RC so I typed this whole page...only to see it was a private 
post...however, if I'm gonna type this much I'm going to send it to the list. 
:-)


from the book:

"What the stallion desires most is combat and racing. He is also to be 
preferred in war because he is swifter and hardier than the mare, and because 
he participates in the sentiments of love or hate of his rider.
"Not so with the mare. If a stallion and a mare are mortally wounded, the 
stallion will continue as long as he can to carry his rider far from the 
battlefield; but the mare, on the contrary will immediately fall on the spot 
without being able to hold out. There is no doubt about it. It is a fact proved 
by the Arabs; I have seen such thing on various occasions in battle and I 
myself have undergone such experience.

> snip<
My comment: they use "hardy" differently than we I think because the later 
quotes about mares make them sound hardier in my opinion:

> snip<
(I'm skipping around leaving things out so this isn't 100% copy of the book)

According to the Emir Abd-el-Kader: "It is true that the Arabs prefer mares to 
stallions, but only for the follwing three reasons: The first one is that they 
take into account what the mare can produce, which is one of the weightiest. 
"The fountainhead of all wealth is a mare who foals a filly" Riding a mare is 
more agreeable and easier"  It is even supposed that because of the smoothness 
of her paces she can eventually cause her rider to become flabby and out of 
condition.

The second reason is that mares do not whinny in combat. They are less 
sensitive than the stallion to hunger, thirst, or heat; and there fore they 
render more services to a people whose wealthy consists principally of herds of 
camesl and flocks of sheep. The mare is like the snake. Her strength increases 
in ties of heat and torrid localities This is contrary to the stallion who does 
not endure heat as well as the mare-whose energy undoubtedly due to her 
constitution, redoubles the hotter it becomes.

The third reason is the very little care that a mare requires; she can be fed 
on very little, and her owner can send her out to graze with the sheep and 
camels without having to keep constant watch over her. The stallion however 
must be better fed and his master cannot send him out to pasture without a 
groom for if he saw a mare he would follow her.

from "Horses of the Sahara"



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