Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« […] In bringing forward any work before the public, it should be no light consideration with an author what title he selects ; for if the title is judiciously chosen, it frequently prevents the reader being disappointed in not finding the Avork embrace matter of a different order from any the author may contemplate. For instance, had I designated this volume " A Manual of Horsemanship," — " A Treatise on Horsemanship," — or, worse than all, " The Complete Horseman,"— he would naturally expect to find in it all the minutlas of manege, principle and practice ; and on such style of riding, more or less, have nearly all works on Horsemanship treated. That such w^orks are of a superior order to that now in the reader’s hands, I have not the slightest objection to admit : whether to the ordi- nary rider they may be more useful, is quite another matter. It is not to the generality of men that all the perplexing intricacies of any pur- suit are necessary ; to the majority they would be useless; and I do not hesitate to say, that two thirds of what is discussed in elaborate works on Horsemanship would only perplex the ordinary pupil, without doing him any good. They are highly creditable to the professors; and if my reader contemplates becoming one of these, let him read them, and throw this aside, for its title only holds out as its object the hope of assisting him in becoming a practical horseman as a private individual. The design of the present book did not originate with myself, but was suggested to me by others, who flatter me by thinking that I could write what might be acceptable and useful to many, on the subject of general practical horsemanship. Of course, wherever, and whenever, horsemanship is displayed, be it of what sort it may, it is practical ; but I mean by the term to indicate such horsemanship as is in every-day use.[…] » Présentation de l’éditeur (1850)

« London, 1850; 1856. » Huth (1887)