■20- 



Note, too, how worried many a horse geta when his 

 stable companion goes out; he watches for its return, 

 and will, on recognising its step at an incredible 

 distance, begin to call to it, settling down at once 

 on its return. It may be argued that such worrying 

 is bad for a horse, but I would reply that it is quickly 

 over (all outward signs of it passing off if the com- 

 panion is out for any time), while the pleasure at the 

 return is so evident as to emphasise the craving which 

 all horses appear to have for companionship. 



In the Argentine I have often come in from a 

 journey or long day's work with cattle on a horse that 

 was really beat and hungry. Stable management was 

 simple. All that one did was to scrape the saddle 

 sweat with the back of one's big knife and turn loose; 

 but no matter how tired the horse was, he would trot 

 about the home "potrero" until he found his companions, 

 and never settled down to rest or feed until he had 

 done so. Yet men building or altering stables often 

 go to considerable extra expense to doom their horses to 

 loneliness. Solitary confinement is the most terrible 

 punishment that can be inflicted on man, and I greatly 

 fear that horses, although they cannot tell us so, 

 suffer but little less. I think it tends to make the 

 bad-tempered horse worse, and the nervous one more ner- 

 vous. 



But to return to the cob. I hunted her for some 

 seasons, and she was always fit; but she remained 

 vicious in the stable, and very difficult to shoe or 

 clip. Eventually I gave her to a friend to breed from, 

 and after two peaceful years she gave her last squeal 

 and died to feed foxhounds. She never had a foal — 

 maybe just as well with such a temper — but her make 

 and shape made it, I thought, worth risking. 



The moral of the cob seems to me: Never be afraid 

 of risking a cheap one because you think you may not be 

 able to ride it; and, as a second moral, by riding all 

 sorts you educate yourself and improve your horsemanship, 



The next interesting mare I owned was Friendship. 

 That was in 1894, and I had acquired a good deal of ex- 

 perience in the intervening years. Now, the cob's 



