Mental Limitations of Horses 15 



by that, and the reappearance of the object or the 

 recurrence of the incident is doubly horrifying be- 

 cause of the painful associations. The panic which 

 follows is almost insanity; the results are fre- 

 quently of the most serious nature. 



The horse's mind can receive and digest but one 

 impression at a time; and this again is a blessing 

 to us in many cases, a calamity in others. It helps 

 us because, for example, the one idea that resistance 

 is useless becomes paramount to anything else, and 

 we may carry his education to extended lengths, if 

 we are willing thoroughly to accept and to act upon 

 this unalterable fact. What makes a horse break 

 loose from the kindly hands which have led him 

 from his blazing stable, dash back to it, and into his 

 own stall through flames and smoke, and there stand 

 and die, resisting all efforts to remove him? It is 

 because he is foolish; timid, therefore panic- 

 stricken; and being thus, he clings to the one idea 

 that the familiar stall, which has always before shel- 

 tered him from harm, must be his only sanctuary 

 now. Safety is there or nowhere — and to it he 



