PREFACE 



A brief treatise on the formation of the horse, so 

 far as it is of importance with regard to his action — 

 of training the racehorse, steeplechaser, and hunter — to- 

 gether with his management in health and disease — has 

 long since appeared to me as wanting in the sports- 

 man's and groom's library. 



I was induced to believe that a work on this sub- 

 ject, published at as small a cost as possible, so as 

 to bring it within the reach of every stableman in the 

 land, might be beneficial in rooting out old and care- 

 fully-cherished prejudices, which have thriven with 

 greater luxuriance in stable management than in any 

 branch of industry with which I am acquainted. 



I am unwilling to lay myself open to the suspicion 

 of wishing to claim for this work any importance as a 

 literary or scientific production. I have endeavoured, 

 in each portion of it, sedulously to avoid all technicali- 

 ties, and never to use two sentences where one would 

 sufficiently explain the matter in hand. 



