Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-04-23
A PLAYFUL BREED OF HORSES.
The Hafiingers OF the TyroI-A Rough
Game.


The Hamingers OF the TyroI-A Rough
Game.
OF horses the most companionable
are doubtless Arabs. They have lived
for generations in the tents OF their
masters and assimilated human ways
of thought. Barbs and half breed
Arabs in Europe run the pure Arabs
very close in this respect. hey make i,
noble friends, but on lower level, as
plnymates for the lighter hour, I know
no breed that comes up to the Haf-
finger, writes correspondent of the
London News. In the Tyrolese valley
from which they. take their name L
suppose they live as much in the COM
pany-of their owner. as do the Val
vognian cows with theirs. But they
are exported far and wide. All Aus
trian baron, who buys them up and
does what he can to impart style"
and fine manners to these queer look
ing cobs, has sold two to the Prince
of Wales. The travelling carriages of
Switzerland are largely horsed by
Haffiingers. In that popular health
resort, Meran, they do nearly all the
draught work. '.Cob" is perhaps
misnomer. They nre cobs in their low
measurement from the ground, but big
horses as regards girth, length of
body and size of hoof. The heads
are huge and very plain.
Hafiingers have been compared
with hippopotami and giant "sea
horses" and with very good reason.
Spiritually they are described as "the
dachshunden of the stables" because
daxies are ''the ways of the kennel. I"
IL may be that people have refused to
take seriously the oddly shaped horses
and the oddly shaped dogs, and that
both have thus come to look upon
themselves as good joke. Comical
ity sits in the Hatilinger's little eye.
He laughs in his sleeve, just like
daxie. Both waddle in their gait, ow-
ing to their absurdly short legs.
Haffiingers ought to make the for
tune of any circus master. They
like daxies again) delight in playing
tricks, and will learn rough games,
such as schoolboys love, and will
play them, too, strictly according to
rule. l have watched two Hafflingers,
with their owner and his man, playing
sort of hide and seek, hurryipg and
scurrying about cobble paved yard
in pursuit of the men, lovally abiding
by the marks that meant safe home"
and never furnishing player that had
not blundered. They understood that
they might kick or bite the man who,
(being hidden, sought and found)
failed to run fast enough to 'safe
home" One who was not quick
enough saw taken by the waistcoat,
shaken gently and dropped, kneeling,
none the worse! The horses who
were playing were over 10 years old.
They relinquished the game most re-
luctantly when their breathless owner
called Time" and enforced his mean
ing with fourishes of a formidable
four in hand whip. Then these ma
ture but mobile boys at play" rushed
for each other-squeali like pigs in
articolo mortis, showing enormous rows
of teeth, twisting around in sudden
gyrations to lash out at each other, one
sometimes catching the others hogged
name or getting pinch of his smooth
coat in bite, but never doing real
mischief
One of the two I speak of taught
little game to a ider, and insisted ON
playing it, to while away the tedium
of three hours ascent at a foot's
pace. The game on the horses part
consisted in catching the riders toe
between his teeth. 1t was the riders
part to prevent this. All the way up
hill the rider had the best of it. But,
returning by the almost perpendicular
track, the Hafflinger gained an easy
victory. He did not squeeze the Loot,
but shook it as you might shake a
friends hand-heartily, not roughly
and for the remainder of the road he
rested on his laurels, playing no more
that day.
Hafflingers show their affection by
lavishly kissing with the tongue, like
dogs They are extremely self-willed
again a trait in common with the
dachshund. Their PAGES are neces-
sarily slow, but their staying power is
enormous and their surefootedness n
proverb with Tyrolese mountain
guides and drivers.