INTELLIGENCE. 9 



friendly disposed horse, who inadvertently gives his groom 

 or master a " nip," and then starts back in trepidation at 

 what he has done. The experienced horseman will have 

 frequently remarked in the horse he is riding or driving, 

 hesitation to act according to his instincts, especially if 

 the animal be in doubt if his rider or driver will stand 

 " nonsense." The horse's tentative efforts in this direction 

 seem to be controlled by a certain amount of reflection. 

 The apparently thoughtful manner in which some good- 

 tempered, intelligent horses will refrain, under great pro- 

 vocation, in cases of accident, from obeying their instinct 

 of self-preservation to the detriment of their rider or 

 driver, points to the fact of their being gifted with the 

 power of control. Most of us can call to mind instances 

 of high-couraged horses which, having fallen with their 

 rider in such a way, that if they had not remained perfectly 

 still while he was being extricated out of his difficulty, 

 he would in all probability have been killed. I have 

 known such animals, even during a run out hunting, and 

 without any special training, stop " dead " on their rider 

 failing off and getting hung up by the stirrup. In fact, 

 I have owned and known horses which, if they got into 

 any serious difficulty, out of which they could not safely 

 extricate themselves, would wait patiently for their rider 

 or driver to render them the necessary assistance. Other 

 horses which, on the contrary, appear to be guided solely 

 by instinct, will struggle and dash themselves about with 

 the utmost fury on finding themselves in any awkward 

 " fix." In this respect, mules, I think, generally show 

 more sense, as I shah 1 point out on page 16, than most 

 horses. 



A not very uncommon vice among horses is refusal to 

 go through a comparatively low doorway, on account of 

 the animal having knocked its head on some previous 



