MENTALITY OF THE HORSE. II3 



certain observable activities in lower animals, similar to 

 certain activities in ourselves,- are the result of the same 

 mental or emotional promptings. 



But why should the whinny of the horse at my approach 

 signify his regard for me personally ? Granting it to be an 

 expression of pleasure, it is quite likely from a verv different 

 source than my pleasure at the approach of a friend. The 

 horse's principal pleasure is in eating, the gratification of 

 which he associates with n:>- approach. Again, in the case 

 of my dog, his purpose in scratching at my door cannot nec- 

 essarily be to make me aware that he is there, and a summons 

 for me to come and open it, for the dog will give this same 

 manifestation of a desire to enter a strange building contain- 

 ing perhaps a choice morsel of meat, or another dog whose 

 company he desires. 



In the horse, action has a strong impelling power in habit. 

 I repeatedly turn my horse to a watering trough along the 

 roadside and he as often refreshes himself with a good drink. 

 Again as we approach the trough, I slack the reins, that is, 

 '■ give him his head," and he turns to the trough of his own 

 volition, as I would turn to a well if thirsty. But this time 

 he does not drink, but merely noses around in an idle sort of 

 way, or, in a rather ludicrous manner, seems to express an 

 in(iuir\- of me as to what he shall do next. Here we have an 

 action, not coordinating with the idea of quenching thirst, as 

 a similar action of ours would be, l)Ut impelled by habit 

 purely. The prestrnce (jf thirst has no influence for, and the 

 absence of thirst has no intluence against the action in 

 this case. 



All who drive have frequent demonstrations of the influ- 

 ence of habit upon the actions of a horse, how he will unex- 

 pectedly turn toward certain roads, lanes, stables, and other 

 places into which he may have been driven a month or more 

 befire. I t ike my horse to the same blacksmith shop regu- 

 larly once a month, and he is shod always by the same smith. 

 One dav he breaks out of his stable and, making a frolic of 



