X. PREFACE. 



Very slowly, very reluctantly, but very surely, we have lost 

 our faith in long cherished theories and practices, and have 

 learned from Nature, and to bow only to the unanswerable logic 

 of facts. 



Where the results have been constantly and strikingly good, 

 we have concluded that the course practised must be good also. 



In judging of the value of our work, we ask our readers to 

 try it by the same rule. Let our advice be tested by the unerring 

 records of careful practice, and we confidently leave the estimate 

 of our work to the result of that unbiassed testimony. 



It is usual to acknowledge the sources of any information 

 that the author has been able to utilize ; but, so far as it is 

 possible, we have done that in the text of the chapters before us. 

 We say, as far as possible, because it is not possible for the 

 human mind to ascertain all the aids that have led up to its 

 present degree of knowledge upon any subject. Where we could 

 recollect the source we have gratefully recorded it, whether from 

 great names, like Sir J. Forbes, Dr. Dadd, or Professor Rarey, 

 or from a humble American Indian, a Gaucho, an Australian 

 stockman, or a simple Maori family. 



Our readers will see that we have thus literally become a 

 " debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians ; " and, 

 although we have too often proved but a slow scholar, we have 

 had every advantage to be derived from books, from the observa- 

 tion of experts, from a comparison of the different horses and 

 horsemen of the world, from a long practical experience, and 

 from a love of the animal itself, that has been the strongest 

 incentive to our writing the pages of this book. 



