The evening times., 1900-09-07
THE Ways OF TEE HORSE
Long and Thorough Study Re
quired to Understand Him.
Races Betvyeen Themselves Free of
Amy Control of sEun-Their Conduct
During storrns-'Fhoroussl. l.s,reds of
Various Descriptions-CoIts Nuke
Fine PIaymutes for the Children.

You can never evea begin to understand
horses until you have watched them ::
grass throughout long summer days. The
understanding is more perfect if the
watching begins earIy-say, when the foal
is trotting after MS sleek dam, going all
the gaits, though he may be no more than
a week cid, niDpirg grass daintly or nuz-
cling in the feed trough on the ground,
making q pretence of eating grain the
/ same as his mother It is only pre-
| tence until the sauey fellow is a month
| old. He is f0aled with teeth, but does not
! for while learn the use of them,
/ Horses, il they have souls. no doubt 10
/ cate them in the upper lips. It is Won
| deTfulIy efficient lip, soft velvet TO the
/ touch and sensitive to the least inequality
! A horse sweeps the mauger with ii almost
! the instant he begins feeding, and If it
! touches upon EnGts OF spiinteTs keeps ware
of them afterward. Before walIowing, ev-
en- the dulIest horse puts down his head
until the upper lip touches the ground.
| and turns slowly round and round feel
/ ing thus all the space upon which he
means to fling himself down and roll with
/ all his force. II he finds sharp stones or
! stubs or sticks he lifts his head and goes
! in search of another place The lip also
| tells him when the ground is mellow
| enough to make wallewing supreme
! P4SH9tlF' iiVdSH tVi5CS n0ItVN III WI
! weather, sometimes coming up coated with
| mud, they do it apparently from a sense
| of duty, with none of the abandon they
| display, tossing and tumhling upon light,
| sun-warmed earth, Often, indeed they
| jump from pasture into ploughland solely
! for a waiIow exactly 10 their minds The
| wherefore of wallOwing is still a mystery.
| II belongs TO the category of involuntary
/ motions, along with stretching and yawn-
! ing
! Ii strains credulity to hear how far
horse will thrust his lip through open
! ing to reach and bring in coveted titbit.
TnuS he gets apples lying Just inside
/ fence first paving hole in the earth upon
his side then half kneeIing TO reach under
/ his substitute for fingers. Thus TOO. he
brings 10 mouth lush grass Springing up
/ beneath the net of dead brier clump. A
thrust OF the lip also ffips up gate latch,
/ when he wishes TO go through many
thrusts, jarring up and down, work loose
! the pin that fastens his stall door.
/ Draw bars he learns TO take down with
! his teeth, catching the bar fast and shak-
ing his head sideWise until one end IS
jiggied from the socket Sometimes If
: experience has taught him that a gate
+ is weak in either latch or hinges, he runs
| violently against il bears it down, and is
| eff, Horses in herd have spells when
! jumping out or IN Is a necessity They
I LLdN NC Lui4 leu nave SHdLt dl4ii Ndttit .
! everything. indeed. to satisfy reasonable
| animal. not 10 say a well-bred one yet
I out they go. Where there is a big range
/ that Is TO say, wide commons-they often
run for ten miles as hard as they can leg
/ it, then come trotting back in the most
innocent fashion to their own proper quar-
! Ters.
/ II is not only blood horses that race
! among themselves, free of girtb or rein.
! When a storm threatens, horses of every
/ sort grow so full OF running they needs
/ must race and jump, Then in a wide pas
tuTe you may see sights such as no course
can offer In every herd there is a leader.
/ usually d mare. As the cloud mounts and
the air grows thick and iifeless, she stops
grazing. turns her nose tn the wind, snorts
then falls again TO feeding, but only for
minute Her snort was sort OF bugle
+ call The rest answer it. some with low
/ whnnies. She whinnies back filings up
( her head and starts off on a trot, looking
/ over her shoulder TO see If she is followed
! The rest come streaming after. She breaks
into sweeping run. Round. round. fast
! er faster always faster, the herd follows
It is a race for blood, where the best
horse always wins. Generally it is not the
leader She may even be distanced in the
/ second round. or the third Sometimes the
pastures circuit is made twenty times be-
+ fore stopping. The best horse gains some
! times a whole round upon his mates 1t
: is he who ends the heat. When he has had
/ enough he slacks up turns sideways. lifts
head and tail, and whinnies shrill triumph
! But the triumph never goes to his head
| After e he is as submissive as ever. COM
! ing or going jumping cut or staying meek
! ly at home. quite as the lead mare or
! dains.
IN size hardly any other domestic ami
! nal is so diverse as the horse. The av
erage weight OF a standard PeTcheTon is
/ near 1000 pounds: a Shetland on the other
/ hand may weigh less than 200. But ami
/ mails cross bred between the diverse races
! are true horses. not hybrids, such as re
! suit from interbreeding Of Asiatic and
South African asses. Thoroughbred stock
all traces back to Arabia, Percherons to
| the barbs left behind by the Moors whom
| Charlemagpe overthrow in battle. Only
| the PeTcheron bulk could have carried the
| weight of knights in aTmOr. But it is
| demonstTabIe that. weight for weight. the
| thoroughbred is stronger, both in bone
! and muscle than his big, handsome feath-
/ er-Iegged compeer.
A thoroughbred has bone something BE-
| tween ivory and flint for hard compact
ness Pereheron bone is soft and spongy.
| The big breast pulls great loads over
| smooth roads hut in mud soon becomes
| leg weary. 4 blood cross, otherwise a
| thoroughbred one, gives staying power
| enduranee-to any stock, and very often
| symmetry as we'll Pure blood is p-epC-
tent-that Is to say, it impressas itself
consistently upon offspring. BY thorough
| bred blood one means always running
| blood Trotters are in a class apart. They
| have been developed by judicious admx-
ture of running blood with common road
stock. and fixed and perpetuated by care
| full breeding for trottilg conformation
| from trotting stock, with still more
| crosses of running blood.
| The young horse, kind and prankish is
| the very best piayfellow in the world Al
| least. one solitary child found it so. The
| said, indeed. she wouldn't nebber git
| mar ied-nebber in dis worI'-widout she
| took Il stopped the boy-walk and boy-ways
| she had" But the tomboy did not very
| greatly mind anything so lcng as she had
! Princess-and time TO frolic with her
| Princess was three years old, blood bay,
with black points gentle as dog, full
| OF froIic as d kitten. She paStured all
! summer in big old field, but her mistress
| was hardly over the fence of it before she
| came prancing and Whickering to meet her
| Then, when the two of them had pow
vowed. when the sugar or apples had been
| eaten and The salt basket hung on a high
! sapling Princess stretched herself till her
| back was low enough for her playmate TO
| lean unon it then went careering off, with
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