II 



XENOPHON,. whose work on horsemanship is the earliest 

 which has been preserved to us, gives to some of our eques- 

 trians a commendable example by praising Simo, who had 

 preceded him, and perhaps cut him out, in writing a horse- 

 book. " We shall expect," says he, " to acquire additional 

 credit, since he who was skilled in horses has the same 

 notions with us." It is everywhere a good deal the fash- 

 ion, and in some places a matter of faith, to claim that 

 some particular brand of horsemen, as of cigars or whis- 

 key, is the best; or, rather, that there can be no other 

 really perfect brand. But this is- a provincial trick. Whoso, 

 like Odysseus, has seen men and cities, knows that there 

 are everywhere equally good liquor, tobacco, and riders. 



By-the-way, the author as- well as the genius of the 

 Anabasis- was one of the most thorough of horsemen. Let 

 me commend his " Horse Book " to your reading. You 

 will find in fifty pages more horse sense than, I fear, there 

 may be found between even these covers. And it serves 

 to prove that man and horse have not much varied through 

 the many centuries since this Yankee of a Greek marched 

 through trials to the sea. 



Apart from geological evidences, in which we riders of 

 to-day are not as deeply interested as we might be, the 

 Orient was the original home of horsemen, and war was 

 the early training-school of the horse. Though this most 

 useful of quadrupeds appears first in history and monu- 

 mental record as a beast of burden, and though riding 



