INTRODUCTION 9 



most place, and the success they have achieved has been 

 recognised by ahnost every civilised country, nearly all 

 of which have repeatedly sought our best breeding stock, 

 to raise the character of their own home produce. More- 

 over, up to now, other countries do not seem able to 

 maintain the same high standard through their own efforts, 

 and owing to some peculiarity in the climate of these Isles 

 it is found necessary to return again for fresh supplies from 

 British breeders, after every few generations, to prevent 

 deterioration setting in. 



Whether the first use of the horse was for riding or 

 driving is hardly likely to be ever known for certain, though 

 to get upon a horse's back necessarily requires less prepara- 

 tion than to provide means for draught, even of the simplest 

 construction. On the other hand, although the Cave-dweller 

 may have surmounted the initial difficulty when he had 

 got on the animal's back, he had to manage to remain there, 

 which is not such a very simple matter if the steed 

 disapproves of such liberties being taken, and resents them 

 accordingly ! It is not to be supposed that these early men 

 would be troubled with very refined feelings, and their 

 methods of reducing a rebellious steed to subjection would 

 be likely to be efficacious, if somewhat unpleasantly drastic ; 

 but then comes in also the question of whether they were 

 troubled with nerves ! Probably at that remote date they 

 did not know what fear was, though by the time the 

 Romans appeared on the scene Horace tells in a familiar 

 passage how '' atra cura'' sits "post equitein," which the 

 schoolboy felicitously translated, "He was in a blue funk." 

 As the size of the animal was so diminutive it seems 

 probable that it would be used for traction rather than 

 riding, at the earliest period of its subjugation by man. 



