Captain tapped four times, stopped, and began to paw in a
doubtful manner. His master scolded him for this, and he tried
it again, but again at the end of four taps, hesitated and
pawed. Mr. Sigbsee told him he knew better than that, and
commanded him to try again. I gave the problem clearly, and
obtained a correct and clean-cut response.
6. Mr. Sigsbee was instructed to give the following commands:
“Pump.”
“Reverse.”
“Laugh.”
“Say ‘Yes’.”
“Wiggle your ears.”
“Scratch your head.”
“Stick out your tongue.”
“Stretch out like a hobby horse.”
I showed this list of written commands to Mr. Sigsbee, but
instead of following my instructions he urged me to give them
myself. It is still a source of surprise to me that this horse,
while blindfolded and with no directive cues from his master
(Mr. Sigsbee stood beside me and neither moved nor spoke),
responded appropriately to these commands. It was necessary for
me to repeat only one command—the last one.
7. At my direction Mr. Sigsbee tied the white strip of cloth to
the blindfolded horse’s left hind leg, and the red cloth to his
right foreleg. At the end of this performance he cautioned
Captain again and again not to forget that the “white rag is on
your hind leg—here (patting the left hind leg), and the red rag
is on your foreleg.” After much patting of both legs and many
warnings against forgetting, Mr. Sigsbee withdrew and allowed me
to decide upon the command. I called for the red strip, and
Captain obeyed without displaying the least hesitation. It will
be remembered that on a previous occasion he found the red strip
on his hind leg.
8. The blindfold was now removed, and was not reapplied. Correct
responses were obtained to the commands, “Bring me a silver
dollar” and “Bring me a quarter.” Mr. Sigsbee stood where it was
impossible for him to direct Captain’s choice by pointing with
eyes, facial muscles or body.
9. I arranged the numerals in the number rack in the following
order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. Mr. Sigsbee stood behind
the horse and gave the following command:
“How many people are there in the front row?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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