Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« Of all things that the great Creator has made for the use of Man, the Horse is the most serviceable. It is also the most tractable if broken in when young, but if not, it becomes restive and stubborn. No creature is worse used among the brutish part of mankind.
There are only three kinds of these useful creatures, viz. the Horse , the Ass , and the Zebra , but by crossing the breeds, many different sorts are produced. You may raise a cross breed from a horse, with an ass, but you can go no further. We cannot learn with certainty from history from whence horses came at first, but it is very likely from Asia; although the extensive plains of Africa abound with them; and they run wild in many other parts of the world, where the natives know no other use of them but to eat their flesh.
In more civilized countries the horse becomes more tractable, and then, and not till then, its proper value appears. Our own country may challenge all nations for a good breed of horses, proper for all uses. We have them from 8 to 18 hands high; some as heavy ab any in the world, and some very small, some calculated for swiftness, and some for drudgery; and some which are kept for shew, and are of little use; but that is the owner’s fault, not the horse’s.
Many of these useful creatures are slaughtered by sinful men, and many are illtreated through that abominable practice, and soul-destroying evil — drunkenness; and these poor animals which are so useful to man, are hungered, whipped, and illtreated many ways. A horse is agreeable for its beauty, as well as valuable for its usefulness; but neither of these things prevent wicked men from using him- ill. But it is not my intention to give you a history of the horse in this little treatise, but to inform you how to cure them when out of health. » Présentation de l’éditeur (1820)