200 HEAD AND NECK. 



he knows more than the animal that will pull at the 

 traces or follow the hounds till he drops. So far from a 

 horse taking delight, as he is supposed by novelists to do, 

 in obeying the wishes of man, he very seldom yields to 

 his would-be master without a struggle. If this takes 

 place in the hoped-for manner, when the horse is quite 

 young, the victory on the part of the man is generally 

 easy, and a few repetitions of it quickly confirm the habit 

 of obedience. If, however, the attempted subjugation be 

 delayed till the animal is " aged " — when he will be able 

 to think for himself without the promptings and influence 

 of man — it will be found that his breaking will be ten, if 

 not a hundred, times more difficult than if it had been 

 undertaken in his early youth. This theory of the un- 

 desirability of a horse knowing too much, which I have 

 applied to refractory animals, appears to hold equally 

 good in greyhounds that run " cunning." In these 

 remarks on the intelligence of horses, it must be clearly 

 understood that I refer to reasoning power and not to 

 power of memory, which is independent of the capacity 

 to draw conclusions from given premises. It is evident, 

 without the necessity of writing a treatise on the subject, 

 that the useful (to man) intelligence of the horse lies in 

 his power of memory and in the quickness with which 

 his muscles act in response to the impressions received 

 by his senses. In other words, his useful intelligence 

 depends on the high development of his instinct, and not 

 of his reason. We demand of the horse ready obedience ; 

 but not obedience matured by reflection, like what the 

 shepherd would expect his dog to display when getting 

 his flock home on a stormy night, or when driving them 

 through a crowded thoroughfare. We do not ask him 

 to take the initiative from the deep affection which he 

 does not bestow on us, nor to reason out problems ; we 

 only want him to remember that if he does certain things, 

 we shall " make much of him " ; that if he does other 

 things, we shall punish him. 



