BRITISH TURF. 



early history of the subjugation of the horse to 

 the uses of man. 



Created, as the sacred volume informs us, 

 before man, we have httle doubt he inhabited, 

 with his future master, the fertile nursery as- 

 signed him by the Almighty in the East ; where, 

 being brought in almost constant contact with 

 each other, it is highly probable that but a brief 

 period elapsed before man availed himself of the 

 services of an animal so obviously fitted by na- 

 ture to his use. 



The earliest mention of horsemanship on 

 record, we find in the Bible, where, in the 50th 

 chapter of Genesis, verse 9, horsemen are 

 named as forming part of the funeral procession 

 of Jacob; and again, in the 14th chapter of 

 Exodus, verse 9, horsemen are enumerated 

 among the troops with which Pharoah chased 

 the Israehtes on their departure from Egypt. 



Homer, who is generally supposed to have 

 been cotemporary with Joshua, frequently dwells 

 on the beauty of the horses which drew the cha- 

 riots of his heroes, although it may be remark- 

 ed, as a singular fact, that he makes but two 

 references to horse riding in his great poem the 

 lUad, and but one in the Odyssey. The first in 

 the Iliad (K 513) is where Ulysses andDiomede, 

 having stolen the horses of Rhesus without the 



