XXV 



HORSE COMPANIONSHIP 



love of animals advice to beginners a long list of 



" don'ts " 



HAVE had a great deal to say about confi- 

 dence and companionship between rider and 

 mount, which I have declared to be better 

 understood in England than in America. 

 The average American seems to look upon a horse as sim- 

 ply a convenience, like the bicycle or the trolley cars, a 

 means by which he may reach his destination sooner and 

 with less fatigue than by walking. He presses a button 

 and the horse is brought to the door, and when he is 

 through with him a groom takes him away again. The 

 horse does not attain to the confidence of his master as he 

 does in England, where he becomes part of the family. 

 There is nothing degrading in the idea of companionship 

 with a horse. When one comes to think of it, many men 

 and some women not infrequently have about them less 

 edifying associates of their own kind. No man, woman, or 

 child was ever the worse for an intimate association with a 

 well-bred horse or dog. 



It cannot be too much insisted on that this companion- 



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