OF HORSEMANSHIP. ii 



J 



form any precife opinion concerning it, as it would 

 be for a Jeweller to know what to think, if a common 

 Sailor were to give an account of the Dia?no/ids which he 

 had feen in the mines of India or Brazil ; the luftre, the 

 hardnefs, and other particulars, which folely conftitute 

 their merit, are unknown to him ; and the Jeweller 

 would probably be in danger of being mifled, if he 

 fliould truft to the ignorance of fuch a reporter. 



Hence the random accounts of Jralianhor[cvnd.n{h{p, 

 fo much boafled and extolled, but related too fuperfci- 

 ajly to enable us to form any clear judgment, or know 

 by what means they teach and drefs their horfes to 

 perform the feats afcribed to them, or what their no- 

 tions and principles of riding are ; no writer or tra- 

 veller that I could ever confult, being an horfeman, 

 and none but an horfeman can give a clear and fatif- 

 faclory account of Horfemanjljip ; it is to be fufpecTted, 

 therefore, from this want of lawful ei-idemes, that in the 

 feats of Arabian horfemanfhip fo much boalled by wri- 

 ters and travellers, more is to be afcribed to the acti- 

 vity and powers of the horfes, than to the knowledge 

 and judgment of the riders ; who yet are confefTedly 

 very bold and dextrous in the faddle ; but who, by 

 working upon falfe rules, or perhaps without any, 

 never attain that grace, exaftnefs, and certainty, which 

 the principles of the Art, if known, would infure to 

 them ; principles which have their foundation in na - 

 ture, and are juftified by truth and experience. 



Vol. I. Q^ They 



