STUD BOOK. 33 



comprehends, or more readily masters, the lessons given to 

 Vnm. The astonishing feats of the horses of the circus are an 

 additional exemplification of this, and their accomplishments 

 are invariably the results of the anxiety of the docile animals 

 to obey their teachers, who know their business too well 

 to make use of any unnecessary harshness towards their 

 pupils. 



In many countries of modern times wild horses have a 

 material influence on the breed. 



There is a great difference between the wild horse of 

 Asia and that of South America. The former, unless taken 

 young, can scarcely be tamed; the latter is remarkable for 

 the readiness with which he becomes domesticated, and that 

 thoroughly, as we shall see when we speak of the Australian 

 horse. It has been conjectured that this readiness to suc- 

 cumb to man's rule is the effect of climate; others, again, 

 produce it as an instance of the improvement in the cerebral 

 development of the South American horse, inherited from 

 progenitors which have been domesticated for many centu- 

 ries, and which is no doubt the correct inference. 



In a wild as well as a domesticated state the sympathy of 

 horses for each other is great. In the thinly-inhabited 

 portions of South America the custom in traveling is to 

 catch a wild horse with the lasso, load him, and proceed a 

 reasonable distance till a fresh horse can be caught If the 

 traveler, on his unwilling steed, should fall in with a troop of 

 wild horses, these will eagerly call to ther burdened com- 

 panion to shake off his load. He is not long in taking 

 the hint; and in such cases nothing but plenty of nerve and 

 strength on the part of the rider, accompanied with a free 

 use of the spur, will prevent the animal from disengaging 

 himself from his burden, and taking to his heels. 



It would be easy to fill an entertaining volume with in- 

 stances of the sagacity of the horse, were this the place for 

 such considerations. His general character may be shortly 

 summed up as possessing patience, willingness, fidelity, and 

 friendship in the highest degree, especially attaching him- 

 self to man when well treated; but he will not, like the dog, 

 preserve those qualities under ill-treatment, evidently taking 

 it to heart, and becoming, in consequence, stupid, spiritless, 

 and generally of little value. He who would ill-use this 

 noble animal, not only acts against his own interest but 

 degrades himself far below the condition of his victim. An 

 unmerciful man to his horse should, by common consent, 

 be a marked man. Any show of good qualities which such 



