Chapter XI 



ENIUS is rare, common 

 sense rarer still, horse sense 

 rarest of all. Horse sense 

 is a two-edged phrase. The 

 pity of it that men never 

 know horses intuitively, un- 

 erringly as horses know 

 men ! No less than a poet, a horseman must 

 be born, and get fine making afterward. 

 The proportion of horsemen to horse masters 

 is about as one to five thousand, yet only the 

 horseman born and made can fitly master a 

 creature so worthy and so wise. 



Horse sense upon both sides is really know- 

 ledge distilled by time and love into wisdom. 

 Upon the human side the first essential of it 

 is negative — you must simply not know how 

 to be afraid of anything on four hoofs. Next 

 comes generous kindness, next justice strongly 

 tempered with mercy. Horses are very wise. 

 They understand when punishment comes 



