The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-07-31

Men Included-Danger TO Colts.
You can never even begin to understand
horses until you have watched them at
grass throughout long summer days. The
understanding is more perfect Il the
watching begins early-say when the fOal
IS trOtting after his sleek, full-uddered
dam. going all the gaiJs, though ne may
be no more than q week old, nipping grass
d3intily. or nuzZling in the feed-trough on
the grOuTb, making a pretense of eating
grain the same as his mother. It is only
a pretense until the saucy fellow is
month old. He is fooled with teeth, but
does not for a while learn the use Of them.
Men are said 10 wear their souls in the
pIneal gland. Horses. If they have souls,
no doubt locate them in the upper lips. II
IS a wonderfully efficient lip. soft as vel
vet TO the touch and sensitive 10 the least
inequality. Il horse sweeps the mangtr
with II almost the instant he begins feed
ing, and if it touches upon knots OF splir-
tiers. keeps wary Of them afterward. Be
fore walloWing, even the duIlest horse
puts down his head until the upper lip
touches the ground. and turns slowly
space upon which he means TO fling HIM
self 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 an
other place. The lip also tells him when
the ground IS mellow enough to make wal
lowing 2 supreme pleasure Though horses
wallow in wet weather, sometimes coming
up coated with mud, they do II apparently
from q sense of duty, with none of the
abandon they display tossing and tumb
ling upon light, sun-warm earth. Often,
Indeed they jump from pasture into pillow
land solely for wallOw exactly to their
minds. The wherefore Of wallOWing is
still u mystery. 1t belong in the category
Of involuntary motions, alcng with
stretching and yaWning.
Wonderful Feats of Horses.
1t strains credulity to hear how far
horse will thrust his lip through an open
ing to reach and bring in a coveted tit
bit. Thus he gets apples lying just inside
a fence, first paving a hole in the earth
upon his side. then half kneeling to reach
under his substitute for fingers. Thus,
too, he brings to mouth lush grass spring
ing up beneath the net Of a dead brier
clump- a thrust of the ip.alsO fips up a
gate latch when he wishes to go through,
as many thrusts, jaTring 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
shaken from its socket. Sometimes. if eX-
perience has taught him that a gate is
weak in either latch or hinges, he runs
violently against ii, bears it down, and is
off Horses in herd have spells when
jumping out or in is a necessity. They
may be full fed, have shade and water,
everything. indeed. TO satisfy a Teas0na-
bic animal, not 10 say well-bred one,
yet out they go. Where there is a big
range-that is 10 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 10 their own
proper quarters.
1t is not only blood horses that race
among themselves, free of girth or rein.
When a storm threatens, horses OF every
sort grow so full Of running that they
needs must race and jump. Then in
wide pasture you may see sights such s
no course can offer. In every herd there
is a leader usually a mare, and oftener
than not a barren one.
As the cloud mounts and the air grows
thick and lifeless, she stops grazing,
turns her nose to the wind, snOrts, then
falls again 10 feeding, but only for a
minute. Her snort was a sort of bugle
call. The rest answer it, some with low
whinnies. She whinnies back. filings up
her head, and starts off in trOt, looking
over her shoulder to see if she is fol-
lowed The rest come streaming after
IT, ,rY,l
round, faster, faster, always faster, the
herd follows. 1t is a race for blood, where
the best horse always wins. Generally it
is not the leader. She may even be dis
tanced in the second round or the third.
Sometimes the pastures circuit Is made
twenty times before stopping. The best
horse gains sometimes a whole round
upon his mates. 1t Is he who ends the
heat. When he has had enough he slacks
Up, turns sidewise, lifts head and tail,
and whinnies shrill triumph. But the tri-
Umph never goes to his head. After 1t he
is submissive as ever, coming or going.
jumping out or staying meekly at home,
quite as the lead mare ordains.
Danger TO Colts.
Until foals are week old they are not
safe in the company of grown-up horses.
Barren mares especially. VIII attack the
little creatures, biting, kicking, and
tr8mping them 10 death That is not in
fallibly the case, but there is always a
chance of it, hence horse breeders are
careful 10 keep brood mares away from
other stock. II is most unusual for brood
mares to harm colts, either their own or
their neighbors' But cases have been
known Of mares still with fOal attempting
TO steal colts dropped in their pasture.
In size hardly any other domestic AMI
nal Is so diverse as the horse. The aver
age weight Of a standard Percherou is
nearly 20O9 pounds. A Shetland. on the
other hand. may weigh less than 200. But
- nj -aL- ..rnsa-Eraa her a-aa he air-ers.