The Horse, as Comrade and Friend 



weapon of defence. His sole defence in danger 

 is promptness of action, and his great speed 

 in conveying himself away from its scene. 



It is the foal that is the most wonderful 

 thing in the world. He comes into it equipped 

 mth every muscle fit for action, with every 

 sense developed to its full ; but most wonderful 

 of all, with a brain capable of instant decisions 

 and fortified mth experience. Only under such 

 conditions could the equine race have survived 

 prior to their association with man as their 

 protector. A critical examination of the con- 

 duct of a foal, immediately following his birth, 

 leaves not the shghtest doubt that he is en- 

 dowed with experience of the conditions of 

 his new environment. Obviously this experi- 

 ence has been gained in antenatal days. What 

 does this mean ? It means that he has seen 

 with his mother's eyes, heard with her ears, 

 smeUed with her nose, felt with her nerves. 

 Whatever stimuli of the outer world have acted 

 upon her brain have been transmitted through 

 the nerve connections of the umbilical cord — 

 the most wonderful telegraphic cable that 

 ever was, or will be, because it transmits sight, 

 sound, sensation, smell, sustenance and power, 

 aU in full degree and simultaneously — to the 

 receiving apparatus of the brain of the foal 

 witliin her body, and have acted upon his 

 brain also. When her brain has been at work, 

 his brain has been at work. When she has 



185 



