— li — 



In modem times the horse has been so closely associated with 

 man that he appears in every phase of society, and it is only 

 when his numerous uses are considered that we realize how 

 greatly the human family is his debtor. The knight of the 

 days of chivalry would have been impossible but for the trusty 

 steed which bore him so gallantly in the lists at the tourney, 

 and amidst the deadlier strife of the battle. Before the plow and 

 at the harrow he has multiplied the productions of the earth a 

 hundred-fold beyond what human strength alone could have se- 

 cured. Laboring before the loaded wagon, he has been a steady 

 drudge for man. Harnessed to the elegant equipage or the hum- 

 bler " cab," or bearing along the dusty highway the stage-coach 

 he has performed a thousand offices indispensable to human 

 comfort and advancement. It is not too much to claim for him 

 that civilization itself would have been shorn of something of its 

 present fair proportions but for the valuable services rendered 

 by this noble animal. 



Yet, with all his acknowledged value, the horse has been too 

 frequently the victim of neglect and cruelty ; often iU-fed, poorly 

 sheltered, and harshly treated, till, in many cases, the innate 

 nobleness of his nature has been obscured by vicious habits, con- 

 tracted through the mismanagement or abuse to which he has 

 been subjected, and perpetuated by ignorance and prejudice. 

 Naturally, the horse is usually gentle and confiding ; he is quick 

 to perceive, and possesses an excellent memory, which qualities 

 render him capable of being educated easily, and to an extent far 

 greater than is generally supposed. Added to this, he is capable 

 of deep and lasting attachment. 



What the horse may have been in his natural state is not 

 known, as none at present exist in that condition. The horses 

 which at the present day are found in a wild state in l^orthem 

 Asia and America, are known to be the descendants of individ- 

 uals formerly domesticated. On the prairies of the "West, tiie 

 pampas of South America, and the plains of Tartary, they live 

 in troops, roaming at large; without fixed place of abode, seek- 

 ing the richest pasturages by day, and resting at night in dry 

 and sheltered situations ; these large troops, which have lived ia- 



