THE HORSE 87 



naturally been a far more important helper to the wild folk 

 of the desert lands about the eastern Mediterranean and the 

 Red Sea than to any other race. In those lands horses fell 

 into the keeping of a very able folk. The contrast between 

 the care devoted to the animals by them, and that which 

 our Indians give to their ponies, is a fair measure of the 

 difference in the ability of these very diverse races. 



As a whole, the horse demands for his best nurture and 

 keeping an amount of care required by no other animal which 

 has been won to the uses of man, unless perhaps it be the 

 silkworm. Kept in its best state, the horse has to be sedu- 

 lously groomed. To be maintained in its very best condition 

 some hours of human labor must each day be given to keep- 

 ing his skin in order. The effect arising from a friction on 

 the horse's hide is not confined to the beauty that comes 

 from cleanliness, but in a curious way reacts upon the general 

 nervous tone of the animal. All those who are familiar with 

 horses will, I think, agree with me that much grooming dis- 

 tinctly increases the endurance and elasticity of their bodies. 

 The influence of the grooming process appears to be some- 

 what like that obtained by massage and friction of the skin 

 in the training of an athlete. More than once I have had 

 occasion to observe the effect of this process on some ancient 

 horse of good blood, which for years had been allowed in its 

 old age to go uncared for as an idle tenant of the pastures. 

 Two or three days of assiduous grooming will bring back the 

 strength and suppleness to the aged limbs, and restore some- 

 thing of the olden spirit. The effect obtained from this care 

 is the more remarkable for the reason that nothing similiar 

 to it was experienced by the wild ancestors of these creatures. 

 It is as artificial as bathing in the case of man. The influ- 



