INTRODUCTION 



The general plan of the present work was conceived by 

 the author some four years ago, and the task of compilation 

 begun. Other engagements, however, soon demanded attention 

 and prevented completion of the work, which the past year has 

 given an opportunity of bringing to a close. Within its 

 pages he has attempted the compression of what is believed to 

 be the greatest body of information about the horse in his rela- 

 tion to drivers, sulkys, tracks, riding, trotting, racing, and the 

 laws pertaining thereto, that has ever appeared in a single vol- 

 ume in this country. In doing this his aim has been to produce 

 a book of reference, the usefulness of which will render its pos- 

 session material to every intelligent individual who breeds, 

 trains, rides, cares for or loves a horse. It is the author's hope 

 that the execution of the work will, in some measure at least, 

 equal what he believes to have been the merit of its conception. 



Within the past twenty years a complete revolution has 

 taken place in the breeding and management of horses, govern- 

 ment of tracks, appliances used on the turf, and the rules of 

 racing. During the last half of this period the most profound 

 scientists in England, France, and this country, have made 

 careful and long continued studies on the anatomy, conforma- 

 tion, and external points of the horse ; while years have also 

 been devoted to an analysis of the laws of motion, the study of 

 speed inheritance, the physical basis of the several gaits, and 

 the laws of breeding. Moreover, all the progress and extreme 

 development in these lines during the period named, has really 

 been crystallized within the past two years into the most won- 

 derful form, as evinced by the use of the pneumatic sulky and 

 the accomplishment of phenomenal speed on the American 

 turf. Yet with these great changes no useful handbook, 



V 



