i THE HISTORY AND ART 



very imperfecT: notions of other improvements and. 

 arts of life, and even at this day are unacquainted 

 with them, yet faw and underflood the generous pro- 

 perties of this creature in fo ftrong andjufl a light, as 

 to have treated him with a fondnefs and attention, 

 which fufficiently declare tliehigh opinion they enter- 

 tained of his merit and excellence. 



This is a truth fo well attefted, that to infiH upon it 

 farther would be but a fuperfluous labour, and tend 

 only to divert the reader from the more immediate de- 

 fign of this undertaking; which is an attempt to fhew, 

 as far as any light can be thrown upon a fubjeift fo 

 obfcure and intricate, in what nations, and at what 

 periods of time, the horfe firfl became the objeft of 

 man's notice, fo as to be made at once the inftrument 

 of his ufe and pleafure. 



All art is progreffive, and receives addition and im- 

 provement in its courfe, as the fagacity of man, at 

 different times, or chance, and other caufes, happen 

 to concur; yet, whoever lliall look into the few and im-» 

 perfeft accounts which has come down to us from- 

 ancient times, will find, with refpedt to the prefent 

 fubjecft, that the moderns have not fo much room to 

 boaft'of their fkill and management of horfes, as fome 

 may imagine ; but will fee that the ancients *, in various 



* Simon of Athens, Xenophon, and Pliny the Elder, who wrote 

 exprefs Treatifes upon Horfemanfhip. — The works of the firft, and laft, 

 are loft.— To thefe we may add, the Rei Ruftide Scriptores. Nor is it 

 abfurd to believe there muft have been many more, whofe works and 

 names are perilhed with them. 



regions. 



