DISTRIBUTION AND NATURAL INSTINCTS 9 



but rather avoids his enemies by flight. His senses are very acute. 

 Sight, hearing, smell, all highly developed, warn him of danger, as 

 a rule, long before the hunter has learned that wild horses are near, 

 so that the wild horse is seldom seen and less often caught. He 

 has little curiosity, and does not attempt to observe the appearance 

 or character of an intruder. On the contrary, when he senses 

 danger, he seeks protection in flight, which is swift and long con- 

 tinued. He may travel miles and miles when started, not in a 

 circle to return to the starting point in a short time, but straight away 

 across the desert, to distant feeding grounds, not to return to the 

 spot whence he fled perhaps for months. The horse does not often 

 seek to defend himself when brought to bay. His whole instinct 

 is to get away, keeping to the open, where his speed may be 

 utilized to the fullest extent. He withstands great fatigue, and 

 privations of food and water, so that running down the wild horse 

 would be a stupendous undertaking. 



The conditions that have developed the horse are hard level 

 surfaces and scanty feeding grounds far apart. As he has scoured 

 the plains generation after generation, century after century, age 

 after age, his limbs have grown longer and better adapted to trav- 

 el ; his feet have changed to suit the surface of the ground and his 

 speed and endurance have become wonderfully emphasized. As 

 a result of ages of life under these peculiar conditions the horse 

 has at length become a most marvelous example of specialized 

 organism. No animal surpasses him in powers of locomotion over 

 the hard level plain in the open. In speed and endurance he is 

 the peer of them all, and it is because of this wonderful specializa- 

 tion that he has become so useful to man. No other animal equals 

 the horse in locomotive power. 



Pre-Existing Ancestry 



Recognizing as we must the present high degree of development 

 which the horse has reached, and knowing the conditions under 



Remove the harness and rub n?or horses down during the noon hour. 



