In the 1590s, when Eastern blood horses were still rare in England, Arabians were infinitely superior to other horses, a breed apart.
My horse is very much a blood horse, he takes a lot of work.
And this self-representation is most profoundly figured as a partnership with intelligent, sensitive blood horses, who have initiative and ideas and will not be bullied into submission.
Importing Eastern blood horses through the Levant trade entailed ‘much trouble, expense and difficulty to procure, keep, and then to send them away’.