INTRODUCTION. 



Ix the spring- of 1876, I began the preparation of a series of 

 articles on The Trotting Stallions, for publication in the jVational 

 .Lii'e'/Stock Jotfnu//, of Chicago. The scope and design of the same, 

 at fii'st limited, was enlarged during the progress of the chapters 

 which extended through the year. The consideration which those 

 articles received from the readers of that and other journals which in 

 part copied them, was gratifying to me, and the numerous letters and 

 words of commendation received from every part of this country and 

 beyond the Atlantic, have gone far toward inducing me to put the 

 treatise thvis imperfectly outlined into more complete and permanent 

 form. 



My study of the Trotting Horse has extended through a period of 

 several years, and I have not studied the subject as most editors of 

 journals devoted to kindred subjects have usually done, with no actual 

 contact with the animals — being mainly a matter of theory on pajaer. 

 On the contrary, while I have also been closely engaged in profes- 

 sional pursuits, I have been more or less concerned with agricultural 

 enterprises and aifairs almost continuously for the past twenty years, 

 and for the past ten years have been a horse breeder, having bred in 

 the States of Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Kentucky and Wisconsin, 

 in addition to the keeping of a large list at home most of the time. 

 I speak not of my successes — they have been mainly for the benefit 

 of others, as I think a man wlio riuis two professions at the same time, 

 as I have done, will not be likely to advance his own interests at 

 eithei-; but for all this, my opportunities for studying horses have been 

 something of which I may speak. 



While I have known most of the gentlemen who are breeders of 

 horses in different parts of the country, and have read the greater 

 part of the current horse literature for the past ten years, I must still ' 

 be allowed to say that I have learned more from the horses themselves 

 than from all other sources. I have received my best lessons from them, 

 and have learned the importance and value of studying the a!iimals,and 

 in them learning their conformations, compositions and blood traits. 

 Had I never made the animals a study in all their essential parts, I 



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