6 The Horse and his Master 



mals. Second, fatigue, either mental or physical, 

 impairs the memory ; hence we should not continue 

 the work so long as to tire out the animal in mind 

 or muscle. Third, the greater the number of ideas 

 associated with the same event the weaker each be- 

 comes. Thus, each response should be developed by 

 a different event. That is, to teach a horse to stop, 

 have him do so at the command 'Vhoa" ; in teach- 

 ing him to back, have him do so at the command 

 ''back" ; and never give the command ''whoa-back" 

 when we wish him to stop, or when we wish him to 

 back, as this confuses the animal. 



In training the horse's memory, there are two other 

 factors that must be kept constantly in mind. 

 First, there seems to be but slight connection be- 

 tween the two sides of the horse's brain. A horse 

 may be very famihar with an object from one side 

 but when such object is viewed from the other side 

 he may become frightened and much confused. To 

 avoid this confusion, train him to objects first from 

 the ''near" or left side, and when thoroughly famihar 

 with them on this side repeat the process on the 

 "off" or right side. Second, the horse, in his nat- 

 ural state, lives in droves or herds and is never found 

 alone. Because of this tendency to flock together 

 it is easier to drive a number of wild horses than a 

 single wild animal. The domestic horse has not 

 lost this characteristic habit. In view of this, the 

 horse's memory can be more efficiently trained when 



