Identifier: scribnersmagazin16newy (find matches)
Title: Scribner's magazine
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors:
Subjects:
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
if theyhave passed over thembut a few times. Thestudies which I havemade on this point showme that the averagehorse will be able to re-turn on a road which heha§ traversed a fewhours before, with lessrisk of blundering thanan ordinary driver.Some well-endowed ani-mals can remember asmany as a dozen turn-ings in a path over whichthey have journeyedthree or four times. Itseems almost certainthat their guidance inthese movements is notat all effected by the sense of smell,but is due to a distinct memory of thedetailed features of the country. Good as is the horses memory, it isdifficult to organize his actions on thatbasis. Only in rare cases and withmuch labor can he ))e taught to executemovements that are at all complicated.Fire-engine horses may be tiained oftheir own will to step into the positionwhere they are to be attached to thecarriage. Some artillery horses will, asI have noticed, associate the sound ofthe bugle with the resulting movementsof the guns and take the appropriate
Text Appearing After Image:
A Hunter. positions, where they may be out ofdanger in the rapid swinging of theteams and carriages. It is parth be- 578 THE HORSE cause of this training received by dis-ciplined artillery horses, that it seemsto many experienced officers not worthwhile to haye militia companies in thisarm, who have to manoeuvre with ani-mals untrained for the service. Al-though some part of this mental defectin the horse, causing its actions to bewidely contrasted with those of thedog, may be due to a lack of deliberatetraining and to breeding with referenceto intellectual accomplishment, we seeby comparing the creature with the ele-phant, which practicalh has never beenbred in captivity, that the equine mindis, from the point of view of rationality,very feeble. The emotional side of the horses nat-ure seems little more developed thanits rational. Although they have a cer-tain affection for the hand which feedsthem, and in a mild way are disposed toform friendships with other animals,they are not rea

Note About Images