Vlll PREFACE. 



picked up some knowledge of the use and treat- 

 ment of the animal in question.* 



Born and bred, I may say, in constant famil- 

 iarity with a racing - stable, and having been 

 always devotedly attached to horses, the wrongs 

 of those noble animals have constantly been be- 

 fore my eyes, and I have felt an anxious desire 

 to see justice done to them, which, I am sorry 

 to say, according to my observation, is but too 

 seldom the case ; indeed, I have often marvelled 

 at the tractability of those powerful animals under 

 the most perverted treatment by their riders and 

 drivers. 



* It may be well to let ray readers know how I became ex- 

 perienced on the Toacl. In the days when coaching was in its 

 perfection (and when many county gentlemen indulged in their 

 fancy for the use of the "ribbons"), 1 became, during a long 

 interval from service, deeply and actively concerned in a 

 coaching establishment of the first order ; and those who, some 

 years since, travelling between Dublin and Killarney ma, 

 Limerick (a distance of about 185 miles), may have happened to 

 hear coachmen and helpers talking of the " Captain," will re- 

 cognise in the writer the individual thus referred to, who was 

 also in partnership with the famous Bianconi in the staging on 

 the Killarney line. Several years spent in such a school will 

 probably be considered a good apprenticeship to the study of one 

 branch of the subject herein treated upon — viz., the manage- 

 ment of horses on the road. 



