214 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



it as Bartholomew's "Equine Paradox," and it contained 

 twelve wonderfully trained horses. My record of this fine 

 performance fills seven pages of a good-sized notebook. While 

 it is too long to reproduce here entire, it can at least be briefly 

 described. The trainer called his group a "school," and of it 

 be said: 



"While I do not say that any one horse knows the meaning 

 of from 300 to 400 words, I claim that as a whole the school 

 does know that number." 



The performance was fairly bewildering; but by diligent 

 work I recorded the whole of it. Various horses did various 

 things. They fetched chairs, papers, hats and coats; opened 

 desks, rang bells, came when called, bowed, knelt, and erased 

 figures from a blackboard. They danced a waltz, a dog dance, 

 a figure-8; they marched, halted, paced, trotted, galloped, 

 backed, jimiped, leaped over each other, performed with a 

 barrel, a see-saw and a double see-saw. Their marching and 

 drilling would have been creditable to a platoon of rookies. 



In performing, every horse is handicapped by his lack of 

 hands and plantigrade feet; and the horse memory is not very 

 sure or certain. More than any other animal, the horse 

 depends upon the trainer's command, and in poor performances 

 the command often requires to be repeated, two or three 

 times, or more. The memory of the horse is not nearly so 

 quick nor so certain as that of the chimpanzee or elephant. 



Dr. Martin J. Potter, of New York, famous trainer of stage 

 and movie animals, states that of all animals, wild or domestic, 

 the horse is the most intelligent; but I doubt whether he ever 

 trained any chimpanzees. Speaking from out of the abundance 

 of his training experience with many species of animals except 

 the great apes. Dr. Potter says that "the seal [i. e. California 

 sea-lion] learns its stage cues more easily than any other 

 mute performer. The horse, however, is the most intelligent 

 of all animals in its grasp and understanding of the work it 

 has learned to perform, and in its reliable faithfulness and 

 memory." 



