O. S. Pratt

Active in the 1870s, O. S. Pratt is best known for The Horse's Friend: The Only Practical Method of Educating the Horse and Eradicating Vicious Habits. The book was published for the author in Buffalo in 1876 and presents him as an experienced teacher of equine education.

In the book's dedication, Pratt says he had spent eight years spreading his system of horse education and teaching private classes in major cities and towns across the United States and Canada. That suggests he was not only a writer, but also a traveling instructor who built his reputation through demonstrations and classes.

His writing is practical and wide-ranging rather than literary. Alongside advice on training and behavior, he included material on farriery, horseshoeing, and trotting rules, which makes his work useful today as a period document of everyday horse knowledge in the late 19th century.