12 INTRODUCTION. 



defence, it is said, which was given to the horse, was 

 on the same principle as that worn by man, and was 

 a sort of sandal made of leather, tied to the horse's 

 foot by means of straps or strings. And, finally, 

 plates of metal were fastened to the horse's feet by 

 the same simple means. 



Here again, as in the case of the stirrupless saddle, 

 when we reflect that men should, for nearly a thou- 

 sand years, have gone on fastening plates of metal 

 under horses' hoofs by the clumsy means of straps 

 and strings, without its ever occurring to them to 

 try so simple an improvement as nails, we have 

 another remarkable demonstration of the slow steps 

 by which horsemanship has reached its present state. 



In the foregoing remarks I have taken the liberty 

 of extracting several facts from a valuable little 

 work by Hollo Springfield. With this short com- 

 ment on the rise and progress of horsemanship, 

 from its commencement up to the present time, I 

 will proceed to give you the principles of a new 

 theory of taming wild horses, which is the result 

 of many experiments, and a thorough investigation 

 and trial of the different methods of horsemanship 

 now in use. 



