INTKODUCTION. i 



not adopt their methods, or adhere to their instructions ; 

 and when, it is notorious, that the whole systems of stable 

 management, of field management, of tnrf-handling and road- 

 handling, as practised in England, — owing to the discrepancies 

 of climate and the diflfereut requirements made on the speed 

 and endurance of the animals — must be subjected to many 

 modifications and changes before they can be perfectly adapted 

 to the horse in the United States of America. 



Thus we have Nimrod, on "Summering Hunters;" Nimrod, 

 on "Condition;" Nimrod, on the " Koad and the Turf;" 

 beside " Craven," and " Cecil," and " Harry Hieover," all 

 admirable writers on the subjects which they treat ; viz. the 

 natural or artificial adaptation of English animals to the uses of 

 British field sports and the requirements of British sportsmen, 

 but not only unversed in things as they exist, or as they are 

 required to exist, on this side of the Atlantic ; but actually un- 

 suited — by their too thorough acquaintance with and adherence 

 to the state of matters there — for understanding or appreciating 

 the altered condition of the same matters here. 



I do not intend these remarks to apply to scientific works on 

 the pathology, physiology, or special diseases of the horse, by 

 competent veterinary surgeons, such as Youatt on the Horse, 

 or Spooner's or Morton's treatises on specialities, or the many 

 admirable essays on shoeing, bitting, breaking, the manege, 

 &c. ; which treating of subjects natm*al to and co-existent with 

 the horse, wherever he exists, are, with some small modifica- 

 tions, invariably applicable, and cannot be too much or too 

 closely studied by all the lovers of the horse and horsemanship, 

 in whatever region of the habitable world they may chance to 

 be thrown. 



Again, in a country like this, where the use and employment 

 of the horse, not only for labor and service, but for pleasure, for 

 exercise, for sport, is not restricted to any one or two classes of 



