PREFACE 



Much as Englishmen pride themselves on being good 

 "judges" of a horse, the fact remains that exact ideas on the 

 important subject of Conformation are current neither in the 

 traditions of our " horsey " people, nor in our literature. The 

 few English authors who have written on it, have done so 

 in a fragmentary manner, and have contented themselves 

 for the most part with laying down rule-of-thumb maxims 

 for the blind acceptance of their readers. The French, on 

 the contrary, have written on rexterieur^ several elaborate 

 books upon which they have expended an amount of scientific 

 knowledge that does them infinite credit. It must be ad- 

 mitted that although they have proved themselves, in this 

 respect, much superior in scientific research to our country- 

 men ; their works seem to show that their experience has 

 been gained more in the study and dissecting room, than in 

 the stable and in the field. Both classes of authors, I venture 

 to submit, have erred in trying to make general rules suitable 

 to all kinds of horses, instead of pointing out that the standard 

 of shape should, to a great extent, vary according to the work 

 demanded. I may mention that illustrations of horses or of 

 special "points" of these animals drawn without the aid of 

 photography, having a bias difficult to be repressed, render 



