SIGNALS 89 



some mysterious means they got wind of the 

 fact that twenty of them were to be sent away. 

 Until the detachment actually marched off, 

 their conduct, for twenty-four hours on end, 

 was sulky and mutinous. Afterwards both 

 groups immediately mended their manners. 



Everybody who lives with horses learns that 

 they exchange confidences, arrange for con- 

 certed action and^try to tell us their troubles. 

 Nobody knows how they talk, few of us can tell 

 what they are talking about, but so far as the 

 evidence goes they seem to express their feel- 

 ings rather than their thoughts. Here then are 

 a few of their signals : 



(i) When a horse throws his ears to point 

 forward and down, and he makes a short, 

 sharp snort it means " Wheugh ! Look at that 

 now ! " If he throws himself back on his 

 haunches while he points and snorts, it means : 

 " Oh, Hell ! " If he points, snorts and shies a 

 few yards sideways in the air, he is playing 

 at being in a terrible fright. It means : 

 " Bears ! " He is not really frightened, for 

 when he is tired out he will pass a railway 

 engine blowing off steam without taking the 

 slightest notice. 



(2) One ear lopped torward and the other 

 back, head sideways, gait sidelong, may be 



