THE HORSE 



Value of the Strength of the Horse to Man. — Origin of the Horse. — Peculiar Advantage 

 of the Solid Hoof. —Domestication of the Horse. — How begun. — Use as a Pack 

 Animal. — For War. — Peculiar Advantages of the Animal for Use of Men. — Mental 

 Peculiarities. — Variability of Body. — Spontaneous Variations due to Climate. — Varia- 

 tions of Breeds. — Effect of the Invention of Horseshoes. — Donkeys and Mules 

 compared with Horse. — Especial Value of these Animals. — Diminishing Value of 

 Horses in Modern Civilization. — Continued Need of their Service in War. 



The largest economic problem which primitive people 

 on their way upward towards civilization had unconsciously 

 to face was that of obtaining some kind of strength which 

 could be added to the power of their own weak limbs. For 

 all his eminent capacities of body, man is not a strong animal, 

 nor is he so built that he can apply the measure of strength 

 that is in him to good advantage. There are scores if not 

 hundreds of species with which he came in contact in his 

 effort to dominate nature that are stronger, swifter, and 

 better provided with natural weapons. With the first step 

 upward, as in almost all the succeeding steps, the advance 

 depended on securing more energy than that with which 

 our kind was directly endowed. It is hardly too much to 

 say that the progress of mankind beyond the savage state 

 would probably never have been effected but for the bodily 

 help which has been rendered by a few domesticated animals. 



From the point of view of the student of domesticated 

 animals the races of men may well be divided into those 

 which have and those which have not the use of the horse. 



