LONDON PRINTED BY S P o TTT's WooD E AND Co. New-street square

THE

EIORSE-TRAINER'S AND

SPORTSMAN'S GUIDE;

WITH ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
ON THE DUTIES OF GROOMS, ON PURCHASING BLOOD STOCK,

AND ON VETERINARY EXAMINATION.

BY DIG-BY Collins.
I

LONDON :
LONG MAN S, GREEN, AND CO.
1865,

A BRIEF TREATISE on the formation of the horse, so
far as it is of importance with regard to his action—
of training the racehorse, steeplechaser, and hunter—to-
gether with his management in health and disease—has
long since appeared to me as wanting in the sports-
man's and groom's library.
I was induced to believe that a work on this sub-
ject, published at as small a cost as possible, so as
to bring it within the reach of every stableman in the
land, might be beneficial in rooting out old and care-
fully-cherished prejudices, which have thriven with
greater luxuriance in stable management than in any
branch of industry with which I am acquainted.
I am unwilling to lay myself open to the suspicion
of wishing to claim for this work any importance as a
literary or scientific production. I have endeavoured,
in each portion of it, sedulously to avoid all technicali-
ties, and never to use two sentences where one would

It is a practical subject to which tiresome and longspun paragraphs would be utterly meaningless and irrelevant.

I am encouraged, in laying this before the public, by the conviction that my conclusions have not been arrived at by unprofitable conjectures and high-flown theories; but by careful study of, and practical labours in, each branch treated of.

Perhaps some apology may be thought necessary for treating the veterinary portion of the subject so feebly: but I was less afraid of saying too little than too much, and have endeavoured to direct the course of treatment of diseases which would be the safest, and, if insufficient, at any rate not injurious.

It is impossible, without going more deeply into the veterinary art—which would have defeated the object of this work—to explain the nature and treatment of every disease; and, therefore, it occurred to me that, by setting forth as briefly as possible the nature of some of the diseases most frequently met with, and explaining the symptoms of each in sufficiently clear a manner to lead to their detection and treatment— previous to the services of a professional man being available—I should go as far as would be prudent in addressing the class of persons for whom this work is intended.

It has been my endeavour to explain in every in