picked up some knowledge of the use and treatment of the animal in question.* Born and bred, I may say, in constant familiarity with a racing - stable, and having been always devotedly attached to horses, the wrongs of those noble animals have constantly been before my eyes, and I have felt an anxious desire to see justice done to them, which, I am sorry to say, according to my observation, is but too seldom the case; indeed, I have often marvelled at the tractability of those powerful animals under the most perverted treatment by their riders and drivers. * It may be well to let my readers know how I became experienced on the road. In the days when coaching was at its climax (and when many county gentlemen indulged in their fancy for the use of the "ribbons "), I became, during a long interval from service, deeply and actively concerned in a coaching establishment of the first order; and those who, some years since, travelling between Dublin and Killarney via Limerick (a distance of about 185 miles), may have happened to hear coachmen and helpers talking of the Captain," will recognise in the writer the individual thus referred to, who was also in partnership with the famous Bianconi in the staging on the Killarney line. Several years spent in such a school will probably be considered a good apprenticeship to the study of one branch of the subject herein treated upon-viz., the management of horses on the road. 66 My object, therefore, in offering the following remarks, is not to trench upon the sphere of the professional veterinary surgeon or riding-master, but to render horse proprietors independent of the dictation of ignorant farriers and grooms. Intending this little work merely as a useful manual, I have purposely avoided technicalities, as belonging exclusively to the professional man, and endeavoured to present my dissertations on disease in the most comprehensive terms possible, proposing only simple remedies as far as they go. When definitions of a case become delicate and incomprehensible to the uninitiated, they obviously belong to those who have studied anatomy professionally, though, for the satisfaction of my readers, I may mention that, as an amateur, I have myself devoted much time and thought to that science, and that any treatment of disease herein recommended, has been carefully perused and approved by a veterinary surgeon. Theories are excluded, and I confine myself simply to practical rules founded on my own experience. Hints and remarks are here offered to the general public, which, to practical men, will appear trifling and unnecessary; but keen and extended observation, carried on as opportunity offered, amongst all classes and in many countries and climates, has given me an insight into the want of reasoning exhibited by men of every station in dealing with the noble and willing inmates of the stable, and has assisted in suggesting the necessity for just such A B C instructions as are herein presented by the Public's very humble servant, "MAGENTA." * * The soubriquet by which the Author is known in his regiment. |