102 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



to it, that they would generally savage other 

 horses if they could get at them ; but this, I am 

 convinced, arises in most cases from the mode in 

 which from colts they are stabled. I quite agree 

 that no entire horse, be he as quiet as he may, 

 should ever be trusted in a situation where he 

 can get at other horses ; but I am certain that if, 

 instead of shutting up half a dozen colts in what 

 is tantamount to a cell, they were in boxes, with 

 walls, say five feet high, and the upper part made 

 of iron bars, close enough not to let their noses 

 through, they would become as accustomed to 

 each other as a herd of deer or a pack of hounds. 

 It is not their nature immediately and at all times 

 to attack each other ; if it were, how could they 

 be gregarious ? which, in a state of nature, they 

 are. Even the wild ass, who is, by far, more 

 savage than the horse, is never found singly, but 

 in droves. They — the deer, the dog, or the 

 horse — would at particular seasons have a fight 

 occasionally ; but when they do, it is where the 

 female becomes the object of contention ; it is the 

 undivided companionship of her that rouses their 

 energies to fury and battle, not any natural 

 hatred or antipathy to each other. For the same 

 horses that might be seen with crest erect, tearing 

 each other like tigers at one season, would be 

 found herding sociably together, and knabbHng 

 each other in perfect friendship a few weeks after- 



