258 Next to the Ground 



round about. There are of course idiosyncra- 

 sies in wallowing. Some horses wallow three 

 times a day, others three times a week. Some 

 likewise get up and down half a dozen times 

 before they are satisfied, while others find 

 that one long, strong roll suffices. However 

 that may be, in getting up, all of them rise 

 first upon the fore feet, setting the hoofs firm 

 and full on earth before lifting the quarters. 

 Getting up from sleep, or even from rest, 

 it is just the other way. The quarters are 

 raised first, not full height, but squatting so 

 as to about equal the height of the fore legs 

 at the knees. When the fore hand is up on 

 the knees the quarters rise all the way — 

 then it is a simple matter of flexing the fore 

 legs to stand upright. 



Horses learn very quickly how to flip up 

 an easy gate latch with the flexible, almost 

 prehensile, upper lip ; also to unpin a stall 

 door with it, or to jar down draw bars. They 

 reach under fences with it to pull out apples 

 lying just inside, and dexterously stretch it for 

 the sweet, untainted grass growing in shelter 

 of thorny brush in a closely cropped stretch 

 of grazing ground. In horses, as in men, it 

 is the mouth which is truly expressive — 

 helped out, it is undeniable, in the horse's case, 

 by ears that not only hear everything, but say 

 a great deal. An angry or vicious horse 



