INTRODUCTION 



By MAJOR-GEN. SIR A. N. ROCHFORT, K.C.B., C.M.G. 



Late Inspector Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery, Great 

 Britain. 



^T^HE scientific treatment of the art of teaching 

 riding is no novelty, as the works in many 

 languages which have been consulted by Major 

 Birch bear ample testimony, but the variety of views 

 expressed therein by the authors is confusing, and it 

 is apparent that the methods which have from time 

 to time been adopted and then abandoned, only to 

 be rediscovered as something new, partake rather of 

 the nature of haphazard expedients than of princi- 

 ples established on a well-thought-out foundation. 

 That a similar divergence of views and prac- 

 tice now exists amongst authorities on the subject 

 is equally true. 



Under these circumstances I venture to think 

 that the present work will be found most valu- 

 able; the author has by exhaustive research 



