PREFACE 



TO THE THIRD ENGLISH EDITION 



By long experience it has been fully proved, that the native 

 powers of the horse are susceptible of very much improve- 

 ment. When properly managed in domesticity, his strength, 

 and speed, and endurance, are so much increased, as to render 

 the wild horse a contemptible rival. But the agents by which 

 this improvement is effected are numerous ; and their power 

 is not limited to the production of one change or two, but 

 varies according to several circumstances — such as the du- 

 ration and repetition of their operation, and the condition of 

 the horse at the time they operate upon him. They are also 

 under the direction of men not the most remarkable in the 

 world for suitably adapting means to ends. It might, there- 

 fore, be inferred that they are often mismanaged ; and it is 

 true that they too frequently are so. The stable, the groom, 

 the food, the water, and the work, each should contribute to 

 raise the value of the horse ; but each may be misguided, and 

 each may lend its aid to make him worthless. 



To trace the operation, so far as known, of every agent 

 by which the horse is materially affected — to analyze com- 

 pound agents — to consider the effects of each individually 

 and in combination — and to make practice the master of 

 theory, are the principal objects at which I have aimed in 

 this work. I have labored to obtain all the information that 

 labor could promise me and I have endeavored to arrange the 



