palace guards of the Caliph of Baghdad, and that it was these stallions which the Caliph used for breeding with his Arabian mares. It may have been from these horses that the Muniq'i strain of Arabian arose, a strain with known crosses to Turkoman horses some time during the 17th century. "Turks" and the English Thoroughbred The Turkoman horse may have influenced the English Thoroughbred, most notably via the Byerley Turk. However, it has also been argued—mainly by Arabian breeder Lady Wentworth—that all the "Turks" listed in Weatherby's General Stud Book are actually "Arabians of the highest class" who are only called Turks because they were bought or taken as prizes of war in Turkey and the Crimea. There is, however, evidence that the "Turks" were actually Turkomans and not mislabelled Arabians. The confusion was probably due to several contributing factors. One of them was that when the first Oriental horses were imported to England, it simply did not matter what kind of horse it was, as long it was elegant, fast and could race. In England, as Sidney tells us, "Every Oriental horse -- Turk, Barb or Egyptian bred -- is called an Arab in this country." The first Turkoman recorded in England is said by Marvin to have been a stallion brought over by Colonel Valentine Baker, who wished to see it used to breed with the English Thoroughbred. However, there is no evidence that this happened. Turkomans were brought to England by soldiers stationed in various parts of the East, the most famous of them was the stallion called Merv, who was brought to England by Baker Pasha in the 19th century. What was so astonishing about Merv was the incredibly high stud fee which was charged for his services, £85, which at that time was considered exorbitant for any stallion. Unfortunately, other Englishmen did not esteem Merv the way Baker Pacha did. Sidney quotes a correspondent who had seen Merv and stated: "He looked to me about 16 hands high, fine shoulders, good head and neck, fine skin, good wearing legs, bad feet and leggy. I thought him unsuited to breed hunters ... he looked to me about an 11 stone horse, and did not like going through dirt." In this context, "11 stone" referenced rider weight, thus such a horse would be one expected to be able to carry about . Merv covered no mares