PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION ix 



to some of the best known English artists. While endeavouring to 

 convey instruction, I found great help from the use of a few photo- 

 graphs I had by me as illustrations, and accordingly determined to 

 learn photography, and to utilise it in the preparation of the new book 

 on the " shape and make " of horses which I had already begun, though 

 on different "lines" to those on which the lost volume had been 

 completed. On the following year I went abroad on a horse-breaking 

 tour, and have spent the eight years which have elapsed since then 

 in hard practical work (breaking, trainmg for racing and chasing, and 

 horse dealing) among horses in India, Burma, Ceylon, China, Japan, 

 Egypt, South Africa, England and elsewheie. The facilities afforded 

 by such an active and public life have enabled me to procure for 

 this book a number of illustrations which it would have been 

 impossible for me to have obtained under less favoui'able circum- 

 stances. No one who has not made the attempt oneself, can form 

 an idea of the difficulty there often is in getting horses which have 

 the required " points " (bad or good). For instance, I once examined 

 600 horses belonging to a dealer, and only obtained one specimen 

 for my camera. Another time, a search through the troopers of two 

 cavaliy regiments was fruitless of results. For the photographs in 

 this book, I have "run my eye*' over certainly more than 10,000 

 horses ! From this statement my readers will be able to form some 

 idea of the extreme kindness and forbearance with which I have 

 been treated by my horse-owning friends. Having obtained an 

 animal with a required " point," the next thing to do was to photo- 

 graph him, which frequently involved the expenditure of much time 

 and trouble on account of the special character of the work. 



Among the gentlemen to whom I am indebted for having granted 

 me permission to have their horses photographed, I have the honour 

 to number : His Grace the Duke of Westminster, Colonel Anderson, 

 Captain Woolmer, Captain Mowbray of the Black Watch, Mr. W. H. 

 Walker, Mr. A. A. Apcar, Mr. Tom. Jennings, Junr., Mr. Spooner 

 Hart, Messrs. Milton and Co., Messrs. Ralli and Co. of Sydney 

 and Calcutta, Messrs. Cook and Co., Mr. Oscar Dignam, Mr. E- 

 Gregory, Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Steve Margarett of Melbourne, Mr, 

 John Stevens of New Zealand, and Colonel Simpson. I am greatly 

 obliged to Major Nott, Mr. Frank Haes, and Mr. Dixon, 112 Albany 

 Street, N.W., for the negatives they have lent me ; to Sir William 

 Flower for allowing me to take photographs of Figs. 379, 380 and 

 381, in the South Kensington Museum; to Professor C. Stewart for 

 similar permission with respect to Figs. 375, 3^3. 388 and 392, in 

 the Museum of the R. C. S. ; and to the Zoological Society for the 

 loan of Figs. 363, 366 and 367. The action shown in the figures 

 of the paces and of the leap has been adopted from the admirable 



