The opening of Preface
The study of the Horse, from the first glimmerings of history, sacred and profane, and tracing him from his original home through his migrations until all the peoples of the globe had received their initial supply, may not be a new idea, but it is certainly a new undertaking. Horse Books without number have been written, mostly in the century just closing, but in the history of the horse they are all alike—merely reproductions of what had been printed before. So far as my knowledge goes, therefore, this volume is the first attempt, in any language, to determine the original habitat of the horse and to trace him, historically, in his distribution.
The facts presented touching the introduction of the horse into Egypt, and two thousand years later into Arabia, as well as the plebeian blood from which the English race horse has derived his great speed, will be a shock to the nerves of the romanticists of the old world as well as the new. Taking the facts of history and well-known experiences together, my readers can determine for themselves whether the claims for the superiority of Arabian blood is not pure fiction.