1 7 8 THE HORSE : ITS TAMING, 



combats, which especially occur at certain seasons of 

 the year. The animals are suspicious in the extreme, 

 swift of flight, but bold in defence with tooth and heel 

 in emergency. They range extensively in search of 

 pasture and water, and, when hard pressed by danger 

 of famine, the herds break up. It is said that each 

 troop has a leader and implicitly obeys him ; he is the 

 first to face danger and to give the hint to fly ; when 

 pressed, the horses form a ring with the mares and 

 foals in the centre, and defend themselves vigorously 

 with their heels, or they close in on their opponent in 

 dense masses and trample him to death. It is dis- 

 tinctly proved, then, that there can be no aboriginal 

 or truly wild horses in either America or Australia, 

 though there are tens of thousands of unowned horses. 

 Tradition points to Central Asia as the aboriginal 

 abode of the horse, and there the original stock of 

 wild horses may still possibly exist. The wild horse 

 of the British Islands is now practically the Shetland 

 pony, but he is not the powerful animal described by 

 Caesar. The domesticated animal everywhere, how- 

 ever, reverts very easily to the savage state. His usual 

 paces are a walk and a gallop. The double and the 

 canter are artificial, and it is still a moot question as to 

 whether the wild horse ever trots. 



Although his most frequent paces are the walk and 

 gallop, I have seen wild horses that could and did trot 

 naturally, and some very fast, and could scarcely be 



