Note AE — Chapter V · EXPLANATION OF THE OBSERVATIONS

All the authors who have given practical suggestions for the training of horses, whether free or with lunging reins, have great faith in the efficacy of calls, but usually recommend a mingling of calls and movements in the way of signs, (thus Loiset,[71] Baucher,[72] von [73]). It therefore cannot be stated just in how far the calls really effect anything. In other cases I am inclined to doubt outright the influence which is ascribed to the auditory signs. Meehan[74] gives an account of a horse that was exhibited in London in the early 90's of the last century. Pawing with his hoof, this horse apparently was able to count and answer questions in arithmetic, and among other accomplishments he was supposed also to be able to understand something of language. In reality, however, he merely responded to cues which were disclosed to the reporter by the trainer. In pawing, the horse was guided by movements of the trainer, and in nodding or shaking the head he reputedly got his cue from the inflections of the man's voice. Is it not probable that in this latter case it was the movements which accompanied speech that were alone effective in inducing the nod or the shake of the head, so that the exhibiter was deceiving not merely the public, but also himself? Perhaps we may also doubt the exposition made by the well-known hippologist, Colonel Spohr.[75] He tells us that it is easy to train horses to raise the left foot or the right foot in response to the commands "Left—foot!" or "Right—foot!" and that it will be the fore foot when one is standing in front of the horse, and the hind foot if one stands near the rear. It cannot be so very difficult, he thinks, even to get the horse to understand the commands "Left (or right)—fore foot!" and "Left (or right)—hind foot!"—and all without any other aids but the spoken words. Should this really be possible without even the slightest kind of designating movement?——The following case, again, I believe is undoubtedly based upon a misinterpretation. Redding[76] relates concerning his nineteen-year old horse that he himself had owned for thirteen years, and had always kept in single harness,——that this horse not only understood the meaning of a long list of words, such as: bureau, post-office, school, churchyard, apple, grass, etc., but he also knew a number of persons by name, as well as their places of residence. If he were told in advance to halt at a certain residence, he would do it without any further aid from the driver. For this reason the happy owner felt certain that the animal possessed a high order of intelligence and "that this horse does reason." What sources of error were here operative, whether signs were given by means of reins, or head or arm movements, could be determined only by a careful examination of the case.

And finally we would exercise some reserve in entertaining the suggestions for the acoustic education of horses which have come from various sources. Colonel Spohr[77] whom we have just been mentioning, thinks that it would not be a difficult matter to get a horse to respond with a walk to one smack of the lips, with a trot to two smacks, and with a galop to three, and then he could be made to slacken his pace once more into a trot in response to one long-drawn "Pst!" and to stop in response to two. Others have gone even further. Decroix,[78] at one time leader in veterinary affairs in France, conceived the idea of working out a universal language as regards the commands that are given to horses, in the humane purpose of sparing them the whip. He called it "Volapük hippique." For the commands "go," "right," "left," and "halt," he suggests these: "Hi!" "Ha!" "Hé!" and "Ho!" respectively. From these it was possible to make eight combinations, such as "Hi! Hi!" for "Trot!" "Hé! Hé!" for "Left about" (while the single "Hé" was to mean "Forward, to the left!") "Ho! Ho!" for "Back!" etc. Decroix thought that the whole system could be inculcated in a very few lessons. He even had a medal struck which was to be awarded to the driver or rider who should first exhibit a horse, thus instructed, to the Société Nationale d'Acclimatation de France (of which Decroix was president). Eight years have elapsed since then, but we have heard of no one who has earned the medal mentioned. In the future greater care will probably be exercised in the putting forth of such suggestions, and two sources of error may be guarded against, viz.: involuntary movements on the part of the rider or driver, and imitation of the horses amongst themselves. (One horse, guarded by an experienced rider, may serve as copy for ten others with inexperienced men in the saddle.)