1 8 Our Noblest Friend, The Horse 



A horse is not generous. True, he will go until 

 he drops in many instances, but that does not prove 

 generosity, but rather that he has been punished if 

 he paused, and the one idea associated with progress 

 in harness and under saddle is to go on and on, until 

 the biped in charge signals that enough has been 

 done. One hardly calls the cow generous because 

 she " gives do^wTi " her milk — it affords her relief 

 to do so — and in the same way, the horse hurries on 

 to the shelter, the care, and the food, which past 

 experience has proved always await him at the 

 journey's end ; and in this anticipation he struggles 

 along, goaded further, when exhaustion intervenes, 

 by fear of punishment if he stops. The unbroken colt 

 or the untamed horse does not possess this " gener- 

 osity " for the reasons that no past lessons of reward 

 or punishment stimulate and urge him on. If in 

 company with other horses, he will proceed as long 

 as strength allows — his gregarious nature and his 

 previous association with his kind ensure that ; but 

 brief indeed will be his progress once all such incen- 

 tives are missing, and vain will be any efforts to 



