INTRODUCTION 



The work to which these few lines are meant to form a 

 preface does not aspire to the dignity of containing any- 

 thing resembling an exhaustive treatise on each, or any 

 of the numerous minor subjects connected with the 

 principal one of Equitation. It is simply a collection of 

 useful and practical hints on matters that pertain to the 

 horse and his management — no study of things abstruse 

 being brought into requisition, or any complicated theories 

 put forward for guidance. The instructions given are of the 

 plainest and easiest description, and are the result of an 

 experience which has in some instances been rather dearly 

 bought ; the experiments described have been duly tested, 

 the recipes tried, the systems explored, and the rules set 

 forth rigidly investigated before being recommended. 



The unexpected success which attended the publication 

 of " Ladies on Horseback " induced the Messrs. Ingram, 

 proprietors of the Lady's Pictorial^ to commission me, some 

 little time ago, to write for them a set of articles of a 



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