OF HORSEMANSHIP. 3 



regions, and in the moil diftant ages, were fo far from 

 being ftrangers to the many fervices of which they are 

 capable, as to have left rules and precepts concerning 

 them, which are fo true and juft, that they have been 

 adopted by their fucceflbrs, who may reafonably be 

 thought to have built upon their foundation ; although 

 it is certain and apparent, that the llrudlure has re- 

 ceived infinite improvements and beauties from the 

 experience and refinement of latter times. 



It is very probable that the firft fervice in which 

 the horfe was employed, was to aflift mankind in 

 making war, or in the pleafures and occupations 

 of the chace*; and although he is faid to have 

 been firfl ufed in v/ar, and it is upon that occafion 

 he is firft mentioned in the Bible ; yet, we can 

 hardly conclude that mankind did not, in the begin- 

 ning of their acquaintance, put him to gentler and 

 more domeftic labours : till at length difcovering that 

 his courage, ftrength, agility, and fpeed, feemed to fit 

 him peculiarly for war, and the bufinefs of the chace, 

 they might fet him apart folely for thofe fervices, in 

 v/hich he is born fo eminently to excel, fupplying his 



*■ Xenophon fays, that Cyrus hunted on horfeback, when he had a 

 mind to exercife himfelf and his horfes. Lib. I. Herodotus, in 

 Thalia, or his third book, fpeaks of hunting on horfeback as an exer- 

 cife pradifed in the time of Darius, and it is probably of much earlier 

 date. The occafion of his mentioning this fport, was a fall which Da- 

 rius had from his horfe, as he was hunting, by which he diflocated his 

 heel. In Melpomene likewife, or book the fourth, he fays the Amazons 

 hunted on horfeback, with their hulbands, the Sarmatians. 



B 2 place, 



