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The Maghreb Cavalier
- The "Zenetes mount," prevalent throughout the Maghreb Desert in Tunisia, belongs to the fantasia riders. In the midst of such a harsh land, there rises a joy of life, a sense of beauty, even of the lavish, which has always inspired the Maghreb imagination. For the Berber, the horse is an indispensable companion, noble and blessed by God, in this very heart of the rural regions of North Africa. He wants a fast and strong horse, a tough horse, a warhorse; a Barb horse.
Emir Abd El~Kader, who headed the resistance movement against the Algerian Conquest, from 1832 to 1847, wrote: |
Ask the night how many
times I tore it's veil,
Rode a horse with thinned
sides and of stature.
Ask the desett, the hills, the
valleys and the plains
The distance I have covered.
I wish only to fight the enemies
And to conquer their
courageous cavaliers with mine.
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