The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-10-14
THE HORSES MEMORY.

Before Hans made his debut con temporary largely concerned with the breeding and training of horses opened It's columns for some months to the dis oussion of their mental powers, and though various estimates were gives by different correspondents, they all agree that a horse is wonderfully observant and that it has an extraordinary men- ory. With a memory like a horses, IS common Scotch saying. Instinctive power of observation and natural mem ory are the most valuable raw material which trainer could desire if he wished to teach an animal @perfor- mances." But it is scarcely credible that these would enable a horse to un- derstand an idea such as "Tuesday., Wednesday," or Thursday" or a fraction, or remainder in a divi- sion sum. On the other hand, we think that 1t could very possibly be taught to comprehend the idea of the addition of a few units. We can quite understand, too. that a horse could learn to associ- ate and recognize words like ..oats,n
 saddle" whip" and the name of 6 friendly dog, or of It's groom. But as horses are not in the habit of express ing many ideas by sounds, as monkeys i undoubtedly do, 1t is not conceivable that they should understand the mean 1 ing of many sounds, much less one con noting an abstract idea like that of a particular day in the week.
 The way in which a horse will find it's way home, if 1t has ever travelled the journey before, even once, Is the best l evidence of it's wonderful power of ob- seryation. Horses which have led a ] fairly free life sometimes equal the ele- plant in this respect, though many people forget that the long life Of the elephant endows it with range of ex- perience which no other animal can equal. The gift is by no means absent even in horses kept in artificial sur roundings. TT. F. D." writing in the Live Stock Journal, says:
 Tn 1894 I took a house in country quite new to me. The house was in rather difficult labyrinth of lawns, and the horses lately imported. After we had been but short time hunting I fell into a good run and left off at some distance from home. The horse I rode was one of my Irish mares, and in and out of the stable the most intelli- gent. She was going along quite merri- l ly till in the dark she tried to turn down a lane. I checked her, believing the road we were on to be the right one.
 She obeyed the rein, but instantly her cherry trot became weary jog. I doubted, but held on. Not being very sure of the way myself. I was made
 more doubtful by the way the jog be- came a walk. Still obstinate, thought the mare was really tired, and dis mounted and walked; she began to drag on the rein. I may say that often
 walk up hills after long days hunting,
 and always teach the horse to come along with a slack rein. Now this mare
 had learned this lesson. When I dis
 mounted she usually trotted along by my side like a dog; now she hung back.
 I remounted, and feeling certain that | she thought was wrong, and not feel | ing too sure myself, I let her have her own way. She wheeled. round, broke into a sharp trot, and darted down: the
 side lane she tried before. We reached
 home, though never felt certain about
 the road till I saw the gates of the yard"
 It seems probable that the horse not only knew the way, but slackened it's
 speed when its master went astray, be-
 cause it did not know how much further it might have to travel in it's tired con- dition, while if it were going home by the nearest road it had plenty of reserve