The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-24
HORSES HAVE IDEAS.
They Possess Varied Talents and Are
Swayed by Superstitions.
From the Cincinnati Times-Star.

! From the Cincinnati Times-Star.
| "Horses are almost as superstitious as
men, but, unlike men, they can be rea-
soned with and made broad minded, lib
eraI, free thinking philosophers. The
horse is the noblest animal that walks
the earth He has most of the good traits
of the human race with some of the bad
ones"
Prof Bartholomew, who spoke in this
exalted strain about the horse, sat in his
dressing room at the Grand opera house
where the electric light playing over the
| 200 diamond stud on his scarf half
| blinded the reporter to whom he was
| talking. The celebrated horsemau went
on to explain about the horse supersti-
| tions. ...-..-.-s... ..s.--...-.
'FTake, for instance" said he, ''those
! horses raised on the big ranches in Cal
| ifornia, where l got my first training
! There are lot of parallel valleys, each
of which may be the property Of sep
| crate ranchero. but the horses have free
| access among them all, and once in a
! year all the rancheros club together and
| have a giganic round up,
| Several thousand animals of a dozen
| different brands may be rounded into
one herd. The cowboys ride round them
continuously to prevent any breaking
| away, anu LuuS the WDOl6 H6fu IS kept IN
| constant motion. When a creature tries
to break out he is pursued and whipped
back, till he realizes that his only escape
| from punishment is in remaining with
the herd. All this time cowboys are rid
! ing a bOut in the nerd cutting out the diff
ferent brands Every maverick is roped
| and branded with the mark of the older
| horse it is following The branding is
cruel work and the horses never forget
it.
"They seldom, if ever, see a man afoot,
but they associate the idea of the pain
with that of a mounted man and brood
over it till it grows stronger. The sight
of Il horseman is 10 them frightfu! and
they are desperate in their attempts TO
escape from his presence. The older they
grow the stronger is their dread of
mounted men. and it is inherited by the
colts till it has all the features of super
stitiOn. Still it can be educated out of
them
"Then again there may be individual
supersttions. Say, for instance, a horse
falls Oft cliff and is badly bruised. He
may be fearless at any other pass, but he
will carefully avoid this particular place
where he was injured. One horse may
fear one thing and another another. I'M
tanned ranch horses may have different
superstitiOns from those of the real wild
animals that have never been disturbed
by man. Among these there is a pro-
nOunced fear of rattleSnakeS and certain
wild animals.
"When youth / was a COW boy and
one of the best rough riders of the west.
Like other cow boys delighted in a buck
ing bronco, but l soon learned that the
widest horse can be tanned in an hour
so that he will follow his rider about and
let himself be ridden without a struggle
! have tanned hundreds of horses fresh
from the prairies and never failed to
make complete conquest in a short time.
/ treat horses as intelligent beings, and
after manner ask them if they can do
things. Often they refuse, and again
they say as plain as if they used words,
why, yes, | can do that, and they do it.
in selecting horses for exhibition
ignore the useful rule, which is that an
intelligent horse is broad between the
eyes, with a small nose, broad between
the ears and with small ears. Horses
are like men. You can't tell by the shape
of a mans head whether he is a philo-
sopher or a fool You will find heads in
congress as awkwardly shaped as in a
lunatic asylum, and in the latter place
will be seen faces apparently as intelli-
gent as the wisest in congress.
II trained my horses in classes. l take
| a dozen and ask each to % a certain
thing Some will stare blindly, while
others will step up briskly, and say: Yes,
can do that Then l ask them to do
something else, and then those who
were quickest at the first act will halt,
while those who made no response before
are anxious to do the thing. Thus l soon
learn the class of work each is especially
/ fitted for, and develop them along their
/ especial lines. | have tried numerous
ways of making a living outsideof horses,
but always fail and drift brick to my
/ hobby.
Horses are like men in the amount Of
| courage they can muster up. If want a
/ horse to do extra long jumps l select a
/ creature that is finely built and has all
/ the physical qualities, but perhaps he is
/ a coward and is afraid to leap Some
/ little half-developed creature possessed
/ with dare devil spirit may Guido him
| In every respect