. THE HORSE FAMILY 



WE HAVE now completed our studies of the wild animals, 

 some of which are the ancestors of such domestic 

 animals as the horse, cattle, sheep, swine, and fowl, which, 

 through breeding and domestication, have been modified 

 by man. In these domesticated animals, as in civilized man, 

 we expect to find the influence of hybridization and muta- 

 tion. The most outstanding examples of the influence of 

 hybridization and mutation are seen in the horse and in 

 civilized man. 



The antelope, the deer family, and the wild ancestors of 

 cattle possess horns for defense against their enemies, the 

 carnivores. The sole defense of the horse is its speed. So 

 effective have been the speed and endurance of the horse 

 that he has spread over most of the grazing world. In 

 geological time the record of the horse goes back about 

 forty-two million years. 



The horse is the sole animal that man has bred for energy 

 alone. It therefore occurred to us in our research into the 

 energy-controlling systems of animals that the long-time 

 modification in the intelligence, power, and personality of 

 the horse, effected by man through breeding, offered a 

 unique means of testing our thesis. If it holds for the horse, 

 we may expect that it will hold for man, and especially for 

 civilized mam 



The types of horse bred and adapted for carrying burdens 

 are the ass, or the burro, and the mule. The type of horse 

 bred for drawing loads is the Percheron. The type of horse 

 bred for riding and light harness is the saddle and trotting 

 horse. The horse famed in romance and fiction, the compan- 

 ion of man in the desert and in war, is the Arabian horse. 

 The horse bred for centuries for short-distance speed only, 

 in contrast with long-distance endurance, is the thorough- 

 bred or race horse. The Shetland pony, a native of the 



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