Viii. PREFACE. 



demanding that their ill-fed rausoles should replace those of the 

 ox or the horse, are now quite able to see that their elevation 

 must come in the opposite direction, and that their own heads 

 must take, at least, a part in the ascent. 



They nDW earn the price of three bushels of wheat with less 

 effort than their ancestors earned the price of one. They have 

 learned to toil less and to accomplish more. They no longer 

 demand to raise their weary arms in a physical competition with 

 the strength of the ox, or the power of the steam engine. They 

 thrash, but not with the flail ; they dig, but not with the spade ; 

 they mow, but not with the scythe ; they reap, but not with the 

 sickle ; they grind, but not as Sampson ground. 



A few minutes thought of what the world would be without 

 the horse, leads us to a true estimate of his value, and enables 

 us to realize what our lives would lose of pleasure, power, profit, 

 and picturesqueness, without the animal that brings such great, 

 yet such controllable powers to our aid. 



Our earnest aim in the following pages has been to help on 

 the triumph of mind over the agencies placed at its disposal ; to 

 put the best muscles completely under the control of the best 

 brains, and to show that unthinking brute force is not the weapon 

 with which man can hope to make the best of his most willing 

 and most timid servant, the horse ; but that his superior intel- 

 ligence, applied in a spirit of humanity to the relationship, will 

 make this powerful ally far more useful and more happy than he 

 is now found to be. 



By carefully observing the nature and peculiar instincts of 

 any animal in our charge, and meeting them with some humane 

 resources within our reach, we can generally insure obedience to 

 our will, cure most of his bad habits, and secure our own safety 

 by some simple stratagem, We only convert his eccentricities 

 into formidable dangers when we combat them with unmanly 

 cruelty. 



We are only too conscious that no effort, literary, legislative, 

 or moral, will ever keep the horse from falling into hands unfit 

 to arbitrate the fate of any sensitive creature. 



From the nature of things the most worthless and the most 



