242 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



adapted largely to suit our needs. This latter is shown 

 by all the anecdotes concerning " clever " dogs, horses, 

 etc. But with the loss of their freedom they have also 

 gradually been deprived of the urgent need of self-preser- 

 vation and of the preservation of their species, and thus 

 lack one of the greatest forces that make for psychic 

 development. And often their artificial selection and 

 culture has been with a view to the development of muscle 

 and sinew, fat and wool, all at the expense of brain de- 

 velopment.* Our horses are, as a rule, sentenced to an 

 especially dull mode of life. Chained in stalls (and usu- 

 ally dark stalls at that,) during three- fourths of their 

 lives, and more than any other domestic animal, enslaved 

 for thousands of years by reins and whip, they have 

 become estranged from their natural impulses, and owing 

 to continued confinement they may perhaps have suffered 

 even in their sensory life. A gregarious animal, yet kept 

 constantly in isolation, intended by nature to range over 

 vast areas, yet confined to his narrow courtyard, and de- 

 prived of opportunity for sexual activity, — he has been 

 forced by a process of education to develop along lines 

 quite opposite to his native characteristics. Neverthe- 

 less, I believe that it is very doubtful if it would have 

 been possible by other methods, even, to call forth in the 

 horse the ability to think. Presumably, however, it 

 might be possible, under conditions and with methods of 

 instruction more in accord with the life-needs of the 

 horse, to awaken in a fuller measure those mental activi- 

 ties which would be called into play to meet those needs. 



* BufIon,i24 the great naturalist, expresses himself not less pessimis- 

 tically in his own brilliant manner : " Un animal domestique est un 

 esclave dont on s'amuse, dont on se sert, dont on abuse, qu'on alt^re, 

 qu'on depaise et que I'on denature." 



