THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 177 



was too tall for his little master to mount and who used to 

 put his head down to the ground and allow the boy to 

 bestride his neek and then by gently elevating his head help 

 him to slide on to his back. Horses have been known to 

 allow liberties to children that they would not allow to their 

 elders, a remarkable illustration of which is given by Cap- 

 tain Brown. A hunter who always violently resented any 

 attempt on the part of his grooms to trim his fetlocks, was 

 once the subject of conversation in his master's house, when 

 the master defied any man "to perform the operation singly." 

 On the following day when passing through the stable-yard 

 he was astonished and alarmed at seeing his youngest child, 

 who had been an unnoticed listener to the conversation the 

 night before, with a pair of scissors, clipping the fetlocks of 

 the horse's hind legs, the horse watching the operation with 

 evident satisfaction. It is, however, as between horses and 

 dogs that the truest affinity appears to exist of animals of 

 different families, and numerous anecdotes are told in illus- 

 tration of these friendships. Captain Brown gives the follow- 

 ing: "Doctor Smith, a practising physician in Dublin, had ho 

 other servant to take charge of his horse while at a patient's 

 door, than a large Newfoundland dog; and between the two 

 animals, a very good understanding subsisted. When he 

 wished to pass to another patient without remounting, he 

 needed but to give a signal to the pair, who followed him 

 in the most perfect good order. The dog also led the horse 

 to the water, and would give him a signal to leap over a stream. 

 While performing this on one occasion, the dog lost hold of 

 the reins, when the horse, having cleared the leap, ttotted 

 back to the dog, who resumed the reins." 



"A gentleman in Bristol had a greyhound which slept in 

 the same stable, and contracted a very great intimacy with 

 a fine hunter. When the dog was taken out the horse 

 neighed wistfully after him; he welcomed him home with a 

 neigh; the greyhound ran up to the horse and licked him- 



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