II 



Xenophox, 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-wa}^, 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 

 tlie 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 wo might be, the 

 Orient was the original home of horsemen, and war was 

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

 useful of quadrupeds appears first in histor}'^ and monu- 

 mental record as a beast of burden, and thouoli ridins' 



