WITH the possible exception of the dog, the horse is more nearly man's boon companion than any other animal. He accompanies man on all his great adventures while the faithful dog stays behind often nearly eating his heart out with loneliness because he cannot go too. It was a very common picture in the days of old, to see the master of the house represented as riding away upon his trusty steed, while the poor dog stood at the gates gazing pathetically after them.
The horse has played a most important part in history. His fleetness has many a time turned the destinies of nations, and decided great policies. All the great generals of the world have sat upon the backs of famous horses and watched those battles which have decided the world's history. The names of some of these horses have become as household words. Rarely is a great general pictured either upon canvas, or in marble, but that he is mounted upon his favorite horse.
Men on foaming horses have carried important papers upon the delivery of which depended human life. Fearless riders have galloped ahead of floods and fires warning the people of coming destruction.
Cavalrymen, with their quaking knees pressed against the sides of their favorite mounts, have gone into battles which have made the world shudder.
Cowboys mounted upon fiery pintos have galloped wildly before stampeding herds of cattle, mad with fright; a misstep, a wrong motion and both horse and rider would be ground to pulp.
Indians on their wild cayuses have galloped on the outskirts of the Thundering Herd of Buffalo, almost touching the points of their arrows against the sides of the frantic bison as they shot.
The story of man's adventures with the horse extends far beyond the Christian era. It is found in biblical and other ancient history. The chariots and horses of the Pharaohs figured in song and story before Rome was even dreamed of. The Assyrians also were great horsemen, and their cavalry was the terror of the far East.
Roman chariot races are comparatively modern, but of unsurpassed glamour. Imagine if you can the great amphitheater, seating two hundred and fifty thousand people packed with the excited multitude while the gorgeous chariots, each drawn by four shining, gayly trapped horses, rushed madly by, each charioteer jockeying for position and weighing life and limb as of little moment compared with a victory in the race.
Such were the stirring parts that the horse played in the drama of these early centuries, before the Christian era.
But it is probable that we can go even further back than that for stirring events in equine history.
The Tartars were wonderful horsemen, and their cavalry was a great factor in the conquest of Asia. The Arab is celebrated in song and story as a horse worshiper. He makes his long trips across arid deserts upon his fleet horse, who is almost as much a desert animal as is the slow plodding camel.
In early biblical history little is said about the horse, but in later centuries he is freely mentioned.
The crusaders stormed the holy city of Jerusalem upon their chargers of Norman blood. For it was not until after the Norman conquest that England possessed really fine horses. The knights of old went upon their quest of adventure mounted upon steeds who figure almost as much in the stories of that period as did their masters.
A wonderful and dramatic scene was that enacted upon the coast of Spain when Sir John Moore left his cavalry horses behind as the English fled precipitately from Spain. The last they saw of the faithful horses, they were drawn up in battle array waiting the bugle call to charge. The old battle instinct was so strong within them that they performed riderless and with no hand upon the rein.
Not only has the faithful horse engaged in all of man's dramatic scenes, but he has also taken an important part in the solemn scenes of his masters. He has figured in all the great historic pageants and cavalcades. Often in somber trappings he has drawn the beloved master to his last resting place.
The horse has more varied characteristics than almost any other animal. He has the fleetness of the deer, and the strength of the ox; the boldness of the lion and the timidity of a rabbit. He will thunder into the hell of modern war with his rider, seemingly unafraid, while on other occasions he will shy at a piece of paper by the side of the road. He is sensitive to a degree, yet will often stand abuse that would break the heart of almost any other animal. His fleetness and strength are the wonder of the animal kingdom, yet colic or distemper often carry him off without seeming reason. He is gentle and tractable almost beyond belief, yet sometimes most vicious.
There is no domesticated animal under the sway of man so easily spoiled as the horse. A fool can do in an hour what a wise man cannot undo in a month.
The horse when in the hands of a skilful handler is as plastic as wax. He can be taught tricks seemingly marvelous, and his memory is often better than that of his master.
He is never lost upon the trackless plains, or in the forest jungle. When his master is lost if he has sense enough to give his faithful steed the rein, he will usually carry him safely home.
The range of the horse in size, color and general makeup is very great, all the way from a diminutive little horse found upon some islands in the Pacific, which weighs only about forty pounds to the mighty draft horse, weighing nearly a ton. There is as much difference between a thoroughbred racing horse and a Percheron draft horse as there is between a gazelle and a bullock.
Often the horse is wise beyond the belief of man to understand, yet often confused and terrified by the little things.
Such is the strange ingredients of which the horse's blood is made. His temperament and disposition are almost as varied as the number of horses. No two horses can be treated exactly alike.
What will make one horse, will spoil another. But kindness, all horses are amenable to. The horse who will nicker and paw at the sight of his master coming into the barn door, is a lovable fellow.
While the horse who will go frantic if you merely laugh at him is another expression of this strange horse temperament.
Having horse sense is a proverb which needs to be qualified. When sensible, a horse's sense is of the highest order, but sometimes he loses all sense and becomes very scatterbrained, because of his sensitive disposition, which some foolish driver may have upset.
Those who have not been on a horse's back can have no idea of the thrill which comes from feeling that sentient bundle of nerves and muscles galloping easily with his rider. There is a rhythm about it which no musician has ever caught. It goes to the blood like wine. The rider seems to catch the madness of the wild motion till horse and rider are one. And that is what makes a good rider, to be one with his mount.
While the horse has been admired by good men always, yet no domestic animal has occasionally been so abused. Man's relations with this noble animal, in some of its phases, forms the most shameful pages in human history. Often have men bartered away for a few paltry dollars the love and fidelity which goes with a score of years of faithful service and the old horse who had really earned a green old age is doomed to wear out his last years in terrible drudgery, beneath the lash of an inhuman master. So his last years which should have been sweet with pleasant memories are filled with pain and anguish of mind and body. The men who sold Joseph into slavery are gentlemen compared with these horse Judases who betray the old steed. Where in modern literature can one find so thrilling a description of the warhorse, as this excerpt from the book of Job?
"Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?
The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.
He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, "Ha, ha' and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting."
It is a great pity that the authorship of such a gem as the following toast to the horse is unknown. But it was found written with a piece of charcoal on the walls of a Baltimore stable many decades ago and the poor groom who wrote it did not leave a clew to his identity. But all horse lovers will applaud the sentiment to the echo.
"Here's to that bundle of sentient nerves, with the eye of a gazelle, the heart of a woman, the courage of a gladiator, the docility of a slave, the proud carriage of a king, and the blind obedience of a soldier. The companion of the desert plain, the one that faithfully turns the furrows in the spring, that all the world may have abundant harvest, that furnishes the sport of kings, that, with blazing eye, and distended nostril, fearlessly carries our greatest generals through the carnage to renown; whose blood forms one of the ingredients that go to make the ink in which all history is written; and who finally, in black trappings, draws the humblest of us to the newly sodded threshold of Eternity."