Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-10-17
HORSE HAS NO BRAIN POWER.
Views of Veteran Circus Horse
Trainer.

Edward Shipp, chief horsetra1ner
for Forepaugh & Sells circus, while
in New York the other day gave AN
interesting talk On, horses to a party
of friends in his hotel. Said he
'My word for it, a horse has less
brain power than any other animal
An ostrich has more sense than a
horse. So has the alligator. That
curious, indefinite quantity known as
instinct is at the bottom of all the
tricks the horse learns. Just as he
eats from instinct, he learns tricks.
Usually the eating is at the bottom of
his entire education He does things
for the most part because he gets
something good to eat after the doing.
It is his natural search after food that
makes him do them, just as he paws
away the snow to get at the grass.
After a while the actions become
habits, and we will say he is broken
Nothing of the sort.
There never was anything to break.
His instincts were simply set in mo-
ton Some men take months to
teach a horse The simplest trick and
weeks to make him bridle-wise. In a
week can have the same horse re-
spending easily to my directions in
simple tricks. 1T isn't the horse; it is
the trainer. Some men exercise an
influence over animals which is almost
hypnotic.
''It is no common thing for horse
to open a feedbox to get at the grain
inside. Some people fancy this is a
proof of intelligence. Really it is
natural nosing after something to eat.
Man is not the only animal whose
heart can best be reached through his
stomach.
There is not the slightest reason to
believe that horse has a. thinking
mind Here is an instance:
During the winter, two of our
ponies that do a pedestal act, and
always get lump of sugar after it,
if they make no mistakes, rehearsed
SO much that their pedestals became
dun-colored from dirt. When we came
into Madison Square Garden to per-
form the little platforms were re-
painted What do you think those
ponies did?
'"They refused to act. When led
into the ring and set at their task,
they looked and shifted at the new
pedestals and didn't make move
ment in the direction of their usual
performance.
''It wasn't intelligence made them
do thus. The same Jumps of sugar
were waiting at the end. They sim
ply had not sense enough to know
their own implements in white paint.
eff a horse is taught to go through
all over again to go through awhile
one. All doors do not look alike to
them
cit takes patience, such as any
man may own to. Also courage-an
enraged horse is as redoubtable a foe
as any creature of temper with no
good sense to back it. Any one who
has even seen human idiot in a rage
can understand the situation. There
is nothing more horrible than blind,
unreasonable, unguided temper.
"Not long ago, one of our finest
thorougnbreds killed his partner. 1t
was in a car. The partner fell down
The other literally trampled him to
death. He danced on him, and reflrs-
ed to stop long after he was dead
''They never dwelt in peace, these
two. From the first days together
they quarreled. The end was inev-
table. We should have seen it.
"But the success of trained horse
is all in it's trainer. The public fan
cies it is in the horse, but it is not.
Without a sensible trainer a trick
horse is nothing"