achievement, nature now and then, though seldom--perhaps not oftener
than one in ten million instances--sends forth a horse with three hoofs
to each leg. Two of these are small and lie on either side of the
functioning extremity. Each of these hoofs is connected with a
splint-bone which has in some way suddenly become reminded of its
ancient use, and develops in a manner to imitate the creatures which
passed from the earth millions of years ago. In most cases the
splint-bones have no function whatever to perform. They are indeed
superfluous and injurious parts, and are likely from time to time to be
worse than useless, becoming the seats of disease. In this beautiful
instance, perhaps the fairest of all those showing how the highly
developed forms of our time retain a memory of their ancestral life, we
see how the advance in the series of the horse has been effected against
the resistance ancient organic habit opposes to all gains. We can
therefore the better understand how the building of the hoof represents
the labor of geologic ages during which the slow-made gains were won.
In its present elaborate form, the hoof of a horse is the most perfect
instrument of support which has been devised in the animal kingdom to
uphold a large and swiftly moving animal in its passage over the
ground. The original toe-nail, and the neighboring soft parts connected
with it, have been modified into a structure which in an extraordinary
manner combines solidity with elasticity, so that it may strike violent
blows upon the hard surface of the earth without harm. The bones of the
toe to which it is affixed have enlarged with the progressive loss of
their neighbors of the extremity, until they fairly continue the
dimensions of the bony parts of the leg. Moreover, they have lengthened
out, so as to give the limb a great extension, and this, in turn,
magnifies the stride which the creature can take in running. The result
is that the horse can carry a greater weight at a swifter speed than
any other animal approaching it in size.
[Illustration: On Rotten Row, Hyde Park, London]
The needs which led, in a slow accumulative way, to the invention of
the admirable contrivance of the horse's foot, were doubtless founded
on the necessities of swift movement in fleeing from the great
predaceous animals. Incidentally, however, as this development has
gone on, the peculiarities of the extremity have proved highly
advantageous in defence, and the creatures have acquired certain
peculiar ways of using their feet effectively to this end. The solid
character of the hoof, its considerable weight, and the great power
of the muscles of the hams, which are the principal agents in
propelling the animal, make the hind feet capable of delivering a
very powerful blow. The measure of its efficiency may be judged from
the fact that a lion has been slain by a stroke from the foot of a
donkey, and in their wild state a herd of horses with their heads
together, can beat off the attack of the most powerful beasts of
prey. In using the hind feet for assault or defence, horses have
adopted an effective method of kicking which is unknown among other
animals. Resting on their fore-legs, the hinder feet are thrown
backward and upward, so that they may strike a blow six feet from the
ground. Many of our cloven-footed animals have learned to strike
cutting blows with the sharp hoofs of their fore-limbs--our bulls
will stamp a fallen enemy with great force; but the backward kick of
the horse is a peculiar movement, and is distinctly related to the
peculiar structure of the animal's extremities.
It is an interesting fact that the development of a long and slowly
elaborated series leading to the making of the horse appears to have
taken place mainly, if not altogether, in the region about the
headwaters of the Missouri River. In the olden days when this great work
was done, that part of our continent was a well-watered country, much of
its surface being occupied by great lakes which have long since
disappeared. In the deposits accumulated in these bodies of fresh water
are found the bones of the olden species telling the history of their
series. It is not yet certain that the final step of the accomplishment
which gave us our existing species was effected in this land. It seems
indeed most likely that the ancestral form of our domesticated horses
found their way to the continents of the Old World, and there underwent
the last slight changes, before they were made captive by man. If there
ever were perfect horses on this continent, they had passed away from
its area before the coming of man to the land. The history of our
aborigines would have been quite other than it has been, if they had
had a chance to win the assistance of this noble helpmeet.
Central Asia appears to have been the domicile of the horse when he
first began his acquaintance with our kind. We do not know the
original form of the creature. The wild horses existing at the
present day in that part of the world, and which plentifully occur
in other regions whereunto they have been taken by man, appear to
have been set free from captivity.
[Illustration: Horse of a Bulgarian Marauder]
The first domestication of the horse appears to have been brought
about, at an early time in the history of our race, in northern Asia.
The time when this feat was accomplished antedates our records. The
creature may first have come into possession of the Tartar tribes,
but it quickly passed over Asia and Europe and shortly became the
mainstay of the Aryan and Semitic folk. None other of our
domesticated forms has been disseminated with like rapidity, or at
the outset with as little change in its original features. From the
first the horse seems to have been mainly used as a saddle and pack
animal. It has never served in any considerable measure for food. The
failure to make use of the flesh of this animal appears to be common
to most of the savage or barbaric people who keep horses, and has been
transmitted in a singularly definite way to all civilized folk. The
origin of such a prejudice, despite the fact that the flesh of the
horse is of excellent quality, can only be explained through the
sympathetic motives common to all men. Their association with the
horse, as with the dog, is so intimate as to make the use of these
animals in the form of food more or less repugnant. In a small though
unimportant way, mares have been used for milk, and there seems no
reason to doubt that, if they had been carefully bred for this purpose,
they might have been as serviceable as the cow. It may be that the
failure to use the milk of the horse is to be accounted for on the
same ground as the dislike to its flesh.
The horse was probably at first most valued for its use in war. The
peoples which possessed it certainly had a great advantage over their
less well provided neighbors. In fact the development of the military
art, as distinguished from the mere fighting of savages, was made easy
by the strength, endurance, fleetness, and measure of bravery
characterizing this creature. In the wide range of species which have
been domesticated or might be won to companionship with man, there is
none other which so completely supplements the imperfect human body,
making it fit for great deeds. If the horse had been much smaller or
larger than he is, he would have been far less serviceable to man. It
was a most fortunate accident that the creature came to us with the
proportions which insured a high measure of utility in various lines
of activity. The elephant has been found too large for agricultural
uses, and too powerful to be controlled by the will and force of his
master under conditions of excitement.
[Illustration: Mare and Foal]
Those peoples which early acquired the resources in the way of
strength and fleetness which the horse put at their disposition,
became inevitably the conquerors of the folk who were denied these
advantages. If we consider the conditions which have led to the
domination of the world by the Aryan and Semitic people, and the
races which they have affiliated with them, we readily discern the
fact that they have, to a great extent, won by horse-power rather
than by their own physical strength. Thus equipped by their able
servants, they have pressed outward from their ancient realms and
have in a way overridden the tribes which were unmounted.
So imposing is the effect of the horsed man on all peoples who are
without previous knowledge of the united creatures, that it always
carries fear to their hearts. To such folk the combination appears as
a single terrible being. The ease with which the Spaniards conquered
Mexico and Peru can, to a great extent, be attributed to the awe
carried into the ranks of the savage footmen by their mail-clad
horses. The Greeks, who were wont to represent the forces of nature
and the accomplishments of man by skilfully constructed myths, have
left a record showing their appreciation of the strength derived from
the union of horse and man, in their fable of the Centaur, which
possibly grew up in a time before their people had won the use of the
animal, and when they only knew the creature by chance encounters
with enemies who were mounted upon them. Although the naturalist of
to-day perceives the impossibility of there ever having been on this
earth a form uniting the trunk and fore-limbs of a quadruped to the
upper part of a man's body, such scientific conceptions are a part of
our modern, recently acquired store of knowledge. To the Greeks of
the myth-making age the creature, half man, half horse, added but one
more wonder to the vast store the world already contained. The
currency of this fable shows us very clearly how great was the
impression which the horse made upon primitive peoples.
To perceive the value of the horse in those ancient contests which
opened the paths of civilization, we must note the fact that, until
the invention of gunpowder, success in breaking the ranks of an
enemy depended mainly on the charge. With a large body of vigorous
horsemen it was generally possible to overwhelm an enemy's line of
battle, either by direct assault or by an attack on its flank or
rear. If the reader is curious to see the value of horsemen in
ancient warfare, he should read the story of the campaigns of
Hannibal against the Romans in Italy. The first successes of that
great commander--victories which came near changing the history of
the western world--were almost altogether due to the strength lying
in his admirable Numidian cavalry. The Romans were already good
soldiers, their footmen more trustworthy than those which the
Carthagenian general could set against them; but with his horsemen,
as at Cannae, he could wrap in the Roman line and reduce the most
valiant legions to the confused herd which awaited the butcher.
[Illustration: Cavalry Horse]
Although the invention of firearms has somewhat changed the
conditions under which cavalry may be used, making indeed the direct
charge more costly to the assailant than the assailed, it has in no
wise diminished, but rather increased, the value of horses in
military campaigns. In the line of battle horses have become
necessary for the conveyance of field officers and messengers, and
the right arm of battle, the artillery, could not possibly be managed
except by horse-power. The swift marches of modern armies, by
hastening the issue of contests, have spared the world half the woes
of its great campaigns, and are made possible by the ready movement
of supply trains, which could not be effected except by the help of
these creatures. The result is that a large part of the military
strength of any state rests not only in the valor and training of its
fighting men, but in the supply of horses that its fields may afford.
In this connection it is instructive to compare the military
strength of a country like China, where the horse is not a common
element in the life of the people, with that of any of the western
folk who may hereafter have to wrestle with that populous empire.
Some writers, in their efforts to forecast the large politics of the
future, have imagined that when the hardy and obedient Chinaman came
to receive the European training in the military art, the armies of
that country might prove from their numbers a menace to our own
civilization. Such an issue seems in a high degree improbable, for
the reason that the eastern realm could not provide the horses which
would be necessary for the use of invading armies; nor is it at all
likely that the rigid framework of their society will ever be so
altered as to provide an abundance of these animals.
[Illustration: Plough Horses, France]
Although in the first instance the horse served mainly, if not
altogether, as an ally of man in his contests with his neighbors, its
most substantial use has been in the peaceful arts. As pack animal and
drawer of the plough, the ox appears in general to have come into use
before its swifter companion. The displacement of horned cattle has
been due to the fact that their structure and habits make them much
less fit for arduous and long-continued labor than the horse has been
found to be. The cloven foot, because of its division, is weak. It
cannot sustain a heavy burden. Even with the unincumbered weight of
the body of the animal, the feet are apt to become sore in marches
which the heavily mounted horse endures unharmed. Centuries of
experience have shown that while the ox is an excellent animal for
drawing a plough in a stubborn soil, and is well adapted to pulling
carriages where the burden is heavy and the speed is not a matter of
importance and the distance not great, the creature is too slow for
the greater part of the work which the farmer needs to do. The pace
which they can be made to take in walking is not more than half as
great as that of a quick-footed horse moving in the same gait; and the
ox is practically incapable, because of its weak feet, of keeping up a
trot on any ordinary road. But for the fact that an aged ox may be
used for beef, they would doubtless long since have ceased to serve us
as draught animals. As it is, with the growing money value of the
laborer's time, this slow-moving creature is steadily and rather
rapidly disappearing from our farms. This change, indeed, is one of
the most indicative of all those now occurring in our agriculture. It
is an excellent example of the operations which the increase in the
workman's pay is bringing into our civilization.
The natural advantages of the horse for the use of man consisted in
its size, strength, and endurance to burden; form of the body, which
enabled a skilful rider to maintain his position astride the trunk; and
the peculiar shape of the mouth and disposition of the teeth which made
it possible to use the bit. With these direct physical advantages there
were others of a physiological and psychic sort, of equal value. The
creature breeds as well under domestication as in the wilderness; the
young are fit for some service in the third year of their life, and
are, at least in the less elaborated breeds, in a mature condition when
they are five years old. Experience shows that the animal can subsist
on a great variety of diet, being in this regard surpassed only by its
humbler kinsman the donkey, and by the goats. There are few fields so
lean that they will not maintain serviceable horses. They do well alike
in mountain pastures and amid the herbage of the moistest plainland.
The mental peculiarities of the horse are much less characteristic than
its physical. It is indeed the common opinion, among those who do not
know the animal well, that it is endowed with much sagacity, but no
experienced and careful observer is likely to maintain this opinion.
All such students find the intelligence of the horse to be very
limited. It requires but little observation to show that the creature
observes quickly, and in some way classifies the objects with which it
comes in contact. The fear aroused in it by unknown things makes this
feature of attention to the surrounding world very evident. Almost all
these animals retain a tolerably distinct memory of the roads which
they have traversed, even if they have passed over them but a few
times. The studies which I have made on this point show me that the
average horse will be able to return on a road which it has traversed
a few hours before, with less risk of blundering than an ordinary
driver. Some well-endowed animals can remember as many as a dozen
turnings in a path over which they have journeyed three or four times.
It seems almost certain that their guidance in these movements is not
at all effected by the sense of smell, but is due to a distinct memory
of the detailed features of the country.
[Illustration: Belgian Fisherman's Horse]
Good as is the horse's memory, it is difficult to organize its actions
on that basis. Only in rare cases and with much labor can he be taught
to execute movements that are at all complicated. Fire-engine horses
may be trained of their own will to step into the position where they
are to be attached to the carriage. Some artillery horses will, as I
have noticed, associate the sound of the bugle with the resulting
movements of the guns and take the appropriate positions, where they
may be out of danger in the rapid swinging of the teams and
carriages. It is partly because of this training received by
disciplined artillery horses, that it seems to many experienced
officers not worth while to have militia companies in this arm, who
have to manoeuvre with animals untrained for the service. Although
some part of this mental defect in the horse, causing its actions to
be widely contrasted with those of the dog, may be due to a lack of
deliberate training and to breeding with reference to intellectual
accomplishment, we see by comparing the creature with the elephant,
which practically has never been bred in captivity, that the equine
mind is, from the point of view of rationality, very feeble.
The emotional side of the horse's nature seems little more developed
than its rational. Although they have a certain affection for the hand
which feeds them, and in a mild way are disposed to form friendships
with other animals, they are not really affectionate, and never, so
far as I have been able to find, show any distinct signs of grief at
separation from their masters or of pleasure when they return to them.
Although there are many stories appearing to indicate a certain
faithfulness in horses which have remained beside their fallen and
wounded riders, the facts do not justify us in supposing that such
actions are due to the affection a dog clearly feels.
[Illustration: Horses for Towing on the Beach in Holland]
We have been singularly led astray by a chance use of the epithet
"horse," which has come to be applied to many organic forms and
functions where strength is indicated. Thus, in the case of plants we
speak of "horse-radish" or "horse-mint," denoting thereby spices which
have strong qualities. Horse-chestnut is another instance of the
application of the term to plants. It chanced that "horse-sense" came
to be used to indicate a sound understanding, and in an obscure way,
but in a manner common with words, this has led to a vague implication
of mental capacity in the animals whence the term is derived. The fact
is that our horses, as far as their mental powers are concerned,
appear to be the least improvable of our great domesticated animals.
[Illustration: A Hurdle Jumper]
Little elastic as the horse appears to be on the psychic side of its
nature, in its physical aspects it is one of the most plastic of all the
forms subjected to the breeder's art. It requires no more than a glance
at the streets of our large cities to see how great is the range in
size, form, and carriage of these animals which may be found in any of
our great centres of civilization. We readily perceive that these
variations have a distinct relation to the several divisions of human
activity in which this creature has a share. The massive cart-horse,
weighing it may be as much as eighteen hundred or two thousand pounds,
heavy limbed, big headed, unwilling to move at a pace faster than a slow
trot, yet not without the measure of beauty seemingly inseparable from
the species, contrasts very markedly with the alert saddle animal bred
for speed and grace, and for the easy movement which makes it
comfortable to the equestrian. Between these extremes we may note minor
differences which, though they may not strike those persons who take
only a commonplace view of the creatures, are most marked to the
initiated. The trotter, the coach horse, the strong but nimble animals
which are used in fire-engines and other heavy carriages which have to
be swiftly moved, mark the results of breeding designed to insure
particular qualities, and show how readily the physical features of the
animal can be made to fit to our desires.
Although from an early day a certain amount of care has been given to
breeding horses for saddle purposes, the careful and continuous choice
which has led to the modern variations is a matter of only a few
centuries of endeavor. So far as we can judge from the classic
monuments, the olden varieties were mere varieties of the pony--the
small, compact, agile creature which had not departed far from the
parent wild form. It seems to me doubtful whether any of the horses
possessed by the Greeks or Romans attained a weight much exceeding a
thousand pounds, or had the peculiarities of our modern breeds. The
first considerable departure from the original type appears to have
been brought about when it became necessary to provide a creature
which could serve as a mount for the heavy armored knights of the
Middle Ages, where man and horse were weighted with from one to two
hundred pounds of metal. To serve this need it was necessary to have a
saddle animal of unusual strength, weighing about three-quarters of a
ton, easily controllable and at once fairly speedy and nimble. To meet
this necessity the Norman horse was gradually evolved, the form
naturally taking shape in that part of Europe where the iron-clad
warrior was most perfectly developed. In the tapestries and other
illustrative work of that day, when the knight won tournaments and
battle-fields, gaining victory by the weight and speed which he
brought to bear upon his enemies, we can see this splendid animal, in
physical form, at least, the finest product of man's care and skill in
the development of the lower species.
With the advance in the use of firearms the value of the Norman horse
in the art of war rapidly diminished. This breed, however, has, with
slight modifications, survived, and is extensively used for draught
purposes where strength at the sacrifice of speed is demanded. It is a
curious fact that the creatures which now draw the beer wagons of
London often afford the nearest living successors in form to the
horses which bore the mediaeval knights. It is an ignoble change, but
we must be grateful for any accident which has preserved to us, though
in a somewhat degraded form, this noblest product of the breeder's
art, which, even as much as the valor of our ancestors, won success
for our Teutonic folk in their great struggle with Islam. A tincture
of this Norman blood, perhaps the firmest fixed in the species of any
variety, pervades many other strains most valuable in our arts. The
best of our artillery horses, particularly those set next the wheels,
are generally in part Norman. In the well-known American Morgan, the
swiftest and strongest of our harnessed forms, the observant eye
detects indications of this masterful blood.