xii PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 



animals and fine horsemen, I obtained experience, and greatly added 

 to my stock of knowledge, which I shall now try to utilise for the 

 benefit of my readers. As I proceeded through India, I felt the 

 necessity of rejecting some methods I had formerly prized, altering 

 others, and adopting new ones ; so that the course of instruction 

 which I was able to give to my more recent classes, was far more 

 extensive, and of better proved utility, than what I had to offer at 

 the beginning of my travels. The great want which I had at first 

 felt, was a method by which a person could secure and handle, with 

 perfect safety, any horse, no matter how vicious he might be. How- 

 ever, after many kicks, a few bites, and several lucky escapes, I was 

 able to perfect the required method, which is so simple, that the 

 only wonder is that I did not think of it before. I may explain that 

 the Australian horses met with in India, where they form a consider- 

 able proportion of the animals used for riding and driving, are far 

 more dangerous and difficult to handle and control than British 

 stock. Had I remained in England all my life, I should not have 

 acquired a quarter of the experience of vicious horses I was afforded, 

 during the time I lately spent in India. It goes almost without say- 

 ing, that the more difficult the pupil is to teach, the greater chance 

 has the instructor of becoming expert in his business. I need hardly 

 say, that I shall always be very grateful to any of my readers who 

 may favour me with special information on this or kindred subjects. 



I may mention, that, after returning from India, I held classes in 

 England, Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, Ceylon, Singapore, and China. 



I have much pleasure in giving, in the body of this work, the 

 sources from which I have taken various hints. 



The chief claim I, here, make to originality, is, that in bringing 

 together the results of experience in different countries, I have endea- 

 voured to reduce the art of breaking horses to a more or less com- 

 plete system, many of the principles of which, I venture to think, I 

 have been the first to expound, and that I have made several im- 

 provements in existing methods. The new things which I have in- 

 troduced need no special mention here. 



My best thanks are due to Mr. J. H. Oswald Brown for the faithful 

 and painstaking manner in which he has illustrated the letter-press of 

 this book. The drawings speak for themselves. 



JUNIOR ARMY AND NAVY CLUB, 

 ST. JAMES'S STREET, LONDON, S.W. 



October I, 1889. 



