The Horse's Mind 207 



ciation of punishment the Count tells us of a rider 

 whose horse stopped " because he ill-treated him in 

 the mouth with his hands." When the horse stood 

 still he did not punish him, but did so when the horse 

 moved on again. The animal was thereby taught 

 that " to stand still was good and to go on was bad." 

 The author insists on the training of the mind 

 and body together, which is only possible with indi- 

 vidual attention, and points out the danger of hurry ; 

 vicious horses are made, he says, by being asked to 

 do certain things without preparatory instruction of 

 a gradual nature; and he adds that many horses 

 merely from seeing that they have once been able 

 to have their own way become " intractable and no 

 longer liable to control." Develop the mental quali- 

 ties of the horse, he says, and he will become more 

 obedient; he agrees with the ancients, who con- 

 sidered a good brain to be a valuable asset in a horse. 

 Hayes takes the opposite view. In his book, " Points 

 of a Horse," he disapproves of the development of 

 a high degree of mental (i. e., reasoning) power in a 

 horse, saying that it makes him impatient of control 

 by man. His arguments are not convincing, and 

 might equally well be applied to retrievers. In a 



