VI INTRODUCTION. 



think 1 should never liave undertaken to write reafardintr them. I 

 will not speak lightly of the horse literature of the day in this con- 

 nection ; it has been of value to me, but that which has taug'ht me 

 most, was my mingling with and close study of the animals. 



I am not a journalist, and have no interest in one. I never wrote 

 an article in my life for pecuniary recompense. In my sketches of 

 the various trotting stallions I have at all times declined recompense, 

 being unwilling to be placed under any obligations to the owners — 

 other than that which 1 owed to the reading public — to be fair and 

 faithful in portraying excellences or in delineating faults. In some 

 instances the owners of prominent stallions have tendered me the 

 compliment of the gratuitous service of a stallion — which, as a breeder 

 I have felt at all times at liberty to accept — but in no case at the 

 expense of an unfair or unfaithful expression of o])inion with reference 

 to the particular animal or any other. 



My readers have the assurance that the opinions herein expressed 

 are my own — so far as they purport to be— and no one else is to be 

 held accountable for them or accredited with them. Whether they 

 be apjM'oved or assailed, as they have in each case, in the past, makes 

 no difference with me. Such is the privilege of every one in this 

 country. 



That my methods of studying and describing horses have been 

 novel to some of the writing gentlemen, is not singular. They never 

 studied horses in that way, and it may also be said, that from their 

 descriptions in many cases, their readers never derived much informa- 

 tion. Superficiality has never been one of my standards in the inves- 

 tigation of any subject, and if my delineations of the composition, 

 blood traits, conformation and characteristics of horses have differed 

 from the stereotyped form long in use, it has been the result of the 

 diff(>rence in my methods of study and investigation pursued. 



Some regard it as a matter of delicacy to write or speak of the 

 respective merits of other people's stock — and it is said that this stal- 

 lion business is a sensitive spot : I have no such feeling. All breed- 

 ers have a common interest in the general improvement of stock in this 

 countrj', and information relative to the subject is the property of all 

 who can fairly obtain it. 



If a stallion possesses qualities unknown to the public, they look, 

 in great part, to the stock journals to learn his value; and if a rank 

 has been given to or claimed for an animal which is not justified by 

 his merits, any o»>R desiring to read, has a just right to correct infor- 



