CHAPTER II 



OUR DEBT TO THE ABAB 



IF I seem to be dwelling too long on the blood 

 lines that go to make up our modern breeds, 

 I can only say that, without a clear percep- 

 tion of the why and wherefore of things, any 

 really intelligent grasp of the science of horse- 

 manship is impossible. There are many sea cap- 

 tains who have learned to take observations and 

 work them out by certain formulas which they do 

 not understand, but which, nevertheless, give them 

 the ship's position on the chart. Such men make 

 shift to get around, it is true, but they never be- 

 come such skilled and expert navigators as those 

 who not only apply the required formula, but 

 know exactly why they do so. 



Among the different horses you have owned 

 there have been some whose skin was thinner and 

 whose coat finer than the others, who, when 

 warmed up a little, would show a fine network of 

 veins under the skin, and when put to some un- 

 usually long and hard journey would finish with 

 a nerve and energy that were more and more ap- 



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