[Footnote AE: 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 Arnim[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
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