Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« […] No man can be a fine rider who has not a fine hand — no man can have a fine hand, whose seat is not entirety independ- ent of his hand ; so that the latter can play like a steel spring, giving and returning equally, in whatever position of the horse’s or rider’s body. Consequently, no rider, however excellent in any one style of riding, can be called a good or finished rider. To be a perfect rider, one must have ridden, and be able, more or less, to ride in every conceivable style of legitimate riding — I do not mean posturing or circus-riding ! Posturers and circus-riders, are rarely, or never, good riders !
One must have known horses under him, in almost every conceivable position — rearing, plunging, kicking, terrified, frantic, falling and even fallen, most of all perfectly managed, fine-mouthed and high-mettled — and be able to control them all, before he may call himself a horseman.
Now in America, never has there been any standard book published, pretending to set forward even the commonest rules of stable management, bitting, breaking and mouthing young horses, or even of riding them, when broken.Nor in England has there been any such, since the old clays of the manège , now I regret to say, obsolete — I regret to say it, because although too formal, and savoring too much of ancien regime and precision, it has yet much that is most valuable, nay, essential ; unless it be a few late volumes on cavalry tactics, or cross-country riding, and a few works on the stable.
It is this void which I hope and propose to fill. The book, which I have now the honor to lay before the public, is almost entirely American in its details, and will, I trust, answer its purpose, as what it is intended to be, a thorough and general compendium of all that which most ought to be known, and which will be most useful to the American horsekeeper.
In the compass of two volumes it cannot be expected that I should offer, as I do not pretend to offer, a complete History of the Turf, or of the Trotting Course; but I hope it will be found, that I have seized the salient and distinctive points of both, as regards this almost boundless country, and presented them in such a form as will not only prove entertaining, but useful.
To make a man a rider or a driver, by any written precepts, is not within the range of possibilities; much less do I aspire to give to the horse-owner a work on the veterinarian science, which shall in itself suffice.
One is no more expected to be able to treat intricate and dangerous diseases of bis horse, than he is to shoe him, fire him, or cut him up for the kennel, when in the course of time he may chance to die. Any man I should hold an ass, who, his valuable animal being decidedly ailing, would not send for the best farrier within his reach; therefore, and in one word, I beg to state that this work is meant only to assist the horseman; not to supersede, in two volumes, however full of matter, what can scarcely be contained in half a library. Such as it is, in a word, I intend it to be, and I hope it is, through ; and, as such, I have the pleasure to offer it to my friends and the public — if, which I trust is not the case, I am not bound to make a distinction between them.
The First Volume will be found to contain a brief history, with some account of the natural history, of the horse; a history of the English, and of the American, thoroughbred horse; some accounts of the original thoroughbred stock of different States and regions of the United States; memoirs and descriptions of several of the most distinguished racers of the United States, with full and original accounts of their most remarkable races; essays on the breeding of the thoroughbred horse; estimates and views, both English and American, of the comparative qualities of the English and American race-horse; essays on the points of the thoroughbred horse for racing purposes, and on the true utility of the thoroughbred horse; a list, as complete as could be furnished, from the available means of information, of the thoroughbred stallions and mares imported to this country, from the earliest date to the close of the year 1856; a set of tables, carefully compiled, showing the comparative number of winners, with their comparative performances, respectively got by native and imported stallions, within the last twenty-seven years; and a summary of the results to be deduced from those tables.
[…] The Second Volume, perhaps, of broader interest, will be found to contain accounts of the general horse stock of America; the horse stock of the various States; the various distinct families, as the Conestoga; the Canadian; the Narragansett pacer; the Vermont draught-horse; the Indian pony; a dissertation on the Morgan horse; on the trotting horse; a compendious history of the trotting turf from its commencement, in the year 1818, to the close of the year 1856, with memoirs, pedigrees, descriptions and performances of the most distinguished animals; lists of famous trotters; time tables; essays on breeding; breaking; horsemanship; field, stable, and road management; on stabling, with views, plans, and estimates; on shoeing; and on the diseases of the horse — the volume concluding with the rules of the leading Jockey Clubs and trotting courses of the United States.[…] » Présentation de l’éditeur (1857)

« Two Vols. Vol. I., 522 pp., vignette title, 8 steel-engraved plates of the following horses : — Glencoe, Sir Archy, American Eclipse, Black Maria, Fashion- Pryor, Lexington, Boston, and 13 woodcuts. Vol. II., 576 pp. vignette title, 6 steel plates of horses, viz. : — Ethan Allen, Lady Suffolk, Polkahontas, Flora Temple, Vernol’s Black Hawk, Stella and Alice Grey, Lantern and Whalebone, and 44 woodcuts. M., II in. by 7f in. Dedicated to all true lovers of the horse. » Huth (1890)