HUNTER. 
anecdotes relating to the intellectual powers of the Horse, I select the following, some of 
them entirely original, and others very little known. 
An orchard had been repeatedly stripped of its best and ripest fruit, and the marauders 
had laid their plans so cunningly that the strictest vigilance could not detect them. At 
last the depredators were discovered to be a mare and her colt which were turned out to 
graze among the trees. The mare was seen to go up to one of the apple-trees and to 
throw herself against the trunk so violently that a shower of ripe apples came tumbling 
down, She and her offspring then ate the fallen apples, and the same process was 
repeated at another tree. Another mare had discovered the secret of the water-butt, and 
whenever she was thirsty, was accustomed to go to the butt, turn the tap with her teeth, 
drink until her thirst was satisfied, and then to close the tap again. I have heard of two 
animals which performed this feat, but one of them was not clever enough to turn the 
tap back again, and used to let all the water run to waste. 
A careless groom was ordered to prepare a mash for one of the Horses placed under 
his care, and after making a thin, unsatisfactory mixture, he hastily threw a quantity of 
chaff on the surface and gave it to the Horse. The animal tried to push away the chaff 
and get his nose into the mash, but was unable to do so, and when he tried to draw the 
liquid into his mouth, the chaff flew mto his throat and nearly choked him. Being 
baffled, he paused awhile, and then pulled a lock of hay from the rack. Pushing the hay 
through the chaff, he contrived to suck the liquid mash through the interstices until the 
hay was saturated with moisture. He then ate the piece of hay, pulled another lock 
from the rack, and repeated the process until he had finished his mash. 
