PREFACE. 



THE study of the Horse, from the first glimmerings of history, 

 sacred and profane, and tracing him from his original home through 

 his migrations until all the peoples of the globe had received their 

 initial supply, may not be a new idea, but it is certainly a new 

 undertaking. Horse Books without number have been written, 

 mostly in the century just closing, but in the history of the horse 

 they are all alike merely reproductions of what had been printed 

 before. So far as my knowledge goes, therefore, this volume is the 

 first attempt, in any language, to determine the original habitat of 

 the horse and to trace him, historically, in his distribution. 



The facts presented touching the introduction of the horse into 

 Egypt, and two thousand years later into Arabia, as well as the 

 plebeian blood from which the English race horse has derived his 

 great speed, will be a shock to the nerves of the romanticists of the 

 old world as well as the new. Taking the facts of history and 

 well-known experiences together, my readers can determine for 

 themselves whether the claims for the superiority of Arabian blood 

 is not pure fiction. For my own part I cannot recognize any blood 

 in all horsedom as "royal blood " except that which is found in 

 the veins of the horse that " has gone out and done it," either 

 himself or in his progeny. 



In our own country there has always remained a blank in horse 

 history that nobody has attempted to supply. This blank embraced 

 a century of racing of which we of the present generation have 

 been entirely ignorant. Believing that a correct knowledge of the 

 horse of the Colonial period, in his size, gait, qualities and capaci- 

 ties was absolutely essential to an intelligent comprehension of the 



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