HORSE WHISPERING
RAREY, John Solomon.
The modern Art of Taming wild Horses.
Columbus, Ohio State Journal Company, 1857.
8vo, pp. 62, [2 (blank)]; a little light foxing, 2 small paper-flaws to f. 3; a very good copy, stab-sewn in publisher’s blue printed paper wrappers; wrappers chipped and dust-stained.
Rare early edition of Rarey’s method of taming wild horses. The technique of John Solomon Rarey (1827 – 1866) was first published circa 1855 and immediately reappeared in Ohio towns, most often pirated and printed in short runs. His reputation for calming ferocious horses spread quickly, and by 1858 reached the United Kingdom, where his work was published by Routledge and he was invited to tame a horse for Queen Victoria.
There are three Columbus editions dated 1857, with variously 42, 54, and 62 pages. Of the present we can locate a single copy, at the American Antiquarian Society.
Cf. Dingley 520 (1858 London edition); not in Mellon.
