HORSE SENSE 63 



holes and glare ice on the mountain tops. 

 Because I cannot swim I have stayed in the 

 saddle swimming lakes, rapids, and rivers 

 which run sand. Still worse are beaver 

 swamps under a tangle of deadfall timber, and 

 old avalanches. All these and sundry other 

 kinds of evil ground a horse accepts as fate so 

 long as he trusts his man. It is not his busi- 

 ness. It is the man's affair. One begins to 

 think that, hke a savage, he lacks continuous 

 purpose of his own and is merely the meek 

 victim of his destiny. And that is exactly 

 where the man is fooled. When a horse really 

 wants grass, water, or to get home, he rivals 

 the white man in sustained purpose, and does 

 his own job with an intelligence and courage 

 which he never gives to that of his employer. 

 In other words, the difficulties of travel 

 between grass and water gave to the ancient 

 ponies the highest possible quaUties of endur- 

 ance, valour and skill. These qualities are 

 latent in every horse. 



There is a more important lesson to be 

 learned by practical study of wild range. 



The range has two types of herbage, the 

 bunch grass and the thorned or aromatic 

 bushes. The bunch grass is the staple food, the 

 bushes a reserve in time of drousrht The use 



