Page 34 - The Sloughi Review - Issue 9

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 3 4

Hadrumetum, Tunisia, late 2nd / early 3rd century, mosaic of the wealthy breeder of
racehorses, Sorothus, free-roaming horses in the pasture and famous winners of horse races
© M. Ayeb, G. Mermet

These coat colours are also described by Which proves once again that the Berber
General Daumas for the Berber horse of the nomads were excellent breeders of horses
Sahara. Since the 19th century, there have and fast sighthounds long before Arab
been crossbreeds of Arabian horses and tribes came to North Africa.
English thoroughbreds for "refinement"

with the Berber horses, they would then The Berber horsemen of Numidia were
become more "fiery". The Carthusian integrated into the Roman armed forces as
horses - named after the horses of the mercenaries and were decisive in war due
Carthusian monks - were considered to their striking power.
particularly noble, and were bred for the

Spanish royal family. After the expulsion of Numidia is a historical landscape in North
the Muslim Berbers, they appeared quite Africa that encompasses large parts of the
abruptly in the 15th century, so that it can present-day countries of Algeria and
be assumed that they were originally Tunisia (18).
Berber thoroughbred horses. They were
bred without cross-breeding with foreign So we see that there has been a close
breeds. cultural link between Galgos españoles and
Sloughis, or rather their ancestors, since

These horses of the Numidians, as they ancient times. Today, this can be proven
were called by the Romans, were exported genetically, but I will come back to that
to Rome and other important cities for below.
horse racing. We remember the Hollywood
feature film "Ben Hur" from 1959; this,

however, suggests a proximity to the
Arabian horses.