876 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



tail" is the advice of an old proverb.^ This advice is to be remem- 

 bered, for these animals, among which are found especially ticklish sub- 

 jects and pissi/ mares, are inclined to kick and show their evil intentions. 

 They expose persons to all the dangers we have enumerated. 



9th. Timid Horses, Shyers. — Fear, says Littr^,^ is a painful 

 passion which is excited in us by that which appears dangerous, threat- 

 ening, and supernatural. Fright, according to the same authority, is 

 fear carried to a high degree, a great fear. In horse language, timid 

 or easily-frightened horses are known by diiferent names. The horse 

 which is afraid of his shadow or of an object which surprises him is 

 also called skittish. The timid horse is one which is easily frightened ; 

 the horse which is said to be watchful, or a little watchful, is more or 

 less timid. 



Fear, in the horse, does not seem to be ever the eifect of a simple 

 moral influence, such as is observed in some circumstances in man. In 

 most cases the causes are entirely external ; their action is sudden, — 

 one may say instantaneous. Some act upon sight, others upon hear- 

 ing ; most of them affect simultaneously the apparatus of vision and 

 hearing;, and sometimes even that of olfaction. Who has not seen a 

 horse, that has often been maltreated by his driver, prick his ears upon 

 the approach of the latter, open his eyes widely, and pull back or swerve 

 to one side, to avoid the blows with which he imagines he is threatened ? 

 Another one, at the sight of clothing hung out on clothes-lines, flapping 

 to and fro, and blown up by the wind, will plunge to one side and start 

 to run away. Still another will suddenly stop, rear, and turn around 

 on the road, alarmed by a pool of water reflecting the rays of the 

 moon, a velocipede wheeling along rapidly and silently, a field laborer 

 suddenly rising from a stooping attitude, a dog running out of a house 

 into the street, a railroad train suddenly coming out of a tunnel, the 

 bright light emanating from a sky-rocket sent up in the dark by a 

 child, etc. How many horses tied at the door of a blacksmith-shop 

 are frightened by the sparks which fly from the iron hammered on the 

 anvil, prick their ears, dilate their nostrils, snort, pull at the tying- 

 strap, break their bridle, run away, or throw themselves down ! How 

 many, also, unbridled and quietly eating their oats as they stand by 

 the sidewalk, while the driver is taking his repast, are suddenly seized 

 with fear on seeing the flashes of light reflected from the freshly-var- 



1 Bowilli, Proverbes, sixteenth century. 



* Littr6, Diclionnaire de la langue fran^aise. 



