Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« Nothing is so well known as the usefulness of a horse yet nothing fo little understood, as the right management of him. The best of these noble animals, are but too frequently spoiled through the ill usage or unskilfulness of the rider; and a creature, that stands in the first rank of quadrupeds, for beauty, spirit, strength, and service, is, through ignorance or inattention, rendered not only useless, but mischievous. A horse is naturally docile and tractable, if proper means are used to instruct him; and whenever you fee one that is vicious, restive, or refractory, you may depend upon it, he had either wrong or defective lessons given him by his first rider or breaker, or has since been in very unskilful hands, who, knowing nothing of horsemanship, make no difference between a common hack, and a horse of the finest qualities, but treat them on the same footing and the generous spirit of this animal, not brooking ill usage, no wonder if he flies out into a thousand vagaries, and plays all manner of pranks, to avoid it.[…]
Many Treatises have been wrote upon this subject, and new improvements and observations added, from time to time, by authors as they have succeeded one another. From the best and most experienced of these writers, as well as from my own observations, I have selected such lessons and instructions as I judged the most useful and necessary, for attaining the true art of horsemanship. As I have studied brevity, fo have I endeavoured to avoid obscurity; and the whole is brought into so narrow a compass as not to burden the memory; yet treated in so plain and intelligible a manner, as to be comprehended by a common understanding.[…] » Présentation de l’éditeur (1765)