PREFACE. 



it so effectually that I have not seen it since. While suffering from 

 the shock caused by the loss of five years' toil, I happened to read 

 Professor Marey's Machine Animah\ and before I had got half 

 through it, I grasped the fact that I had been working in an entirely 

 wrong groove, and that my careless friend had, most fortunately, 

 saved me from publishing a comparatively worthless book. In 1885, 

 I went abroad on a horse-breaking tour with the growing embryo of a 

 new book in my brain, and finished this literary task after eight years 

 of hard practical work (breaking, training for racing and chasing, and 

 horse dealing) among horses in India, Burma, Ceylon, China, Japan, 

 Egypt, South Africa, England, and elsewhere. The facilities afforded 

 me by such a life and by the kindness of horse-loving friends, enabled 

 me to obtain photographic illustrations and information which could 

 not have been procured under less favourable circumstances. 



On returning to England, I brought out the first edition of this 

 book, which was so kindly received by the public that it was sold out 

 in six months. Having by that time settled down in Melton Mow- 

 bray, I became aware that the illustrations in the book were far from 

 being complete, and that, to do justice to the subject, it was necessary 

 for me to renew my acquaintance with certain classes of English 

 horses, and especially with hunters. Hence, instead of meeting the 

 demands of the literary market by an immediate reprint, I continued 

 my studies among horses for two years in Leicestershire and one year 

 in Cheshire ; hunting, breaking, training, and practising as a veterinary 

 surgeon. I received such great kindness from horse owners and 

 photographers, that I was able to add 142 reproductions of photo- 

 graphs to the second edition, which was published in the beginning of 

 1897. 



After the second edition came out, I went to Russia three times 

 with horses for sale, was ofificially engaged for six months at the 

 Russian remount depots, had a season's hunting in the Midlands, 

 and went twice to South Africa, during the late war, in veterinary 

 charge of remounts. The varied experience thus gained, impressed 

 on me more strongly than ever the necessity of taking a still broader 

 view of horses, by describing and illustrating by ]:)hotographs the 

 breeds of many countries, and also wild asses, zebras and equine 



