PREFACE 



The author has endeavoured in the following 

 pages to place on a rational basis a subject that has 

 hitherto been taught dogmatically, if indeed it can 

 be truly said to have ever been taught at all. 



The vast wealth in horse flesh, so materially 

 affected by selection of breeding stock, that is in- 

 vested in the civilized world, is the author's excuse 

 for bringing out this little work. 



In the case of the domesticated animals, man's 

 protective interference entirely puts aside the great 

 natural law, the survival of the fittest, which obtains 

 with such salutary effects among non-domesticated 

 animals. Were all the horses of the civilized world 

 gathered into a field, and this field placed side by 

 side with one containing all the antelopes of South 

 Africa, the great law we have mentioned 

 would be most strikingly demonstrated ; one 

 field would exhibit the perfect, the halt and 

 the blind, a medley of beauty, and wretched de- 

 formity ; whilst the other would show only grace, 

 elegance and excess of life. 



The author ventures to assert that our Govern- 

 ment would be doing great service to the nation 

 by taking under its entire control the selection of 



