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horse
person has crammed in his/her tack trunk.
    The reason, I believe, it's often asked, is
because it's usually incompletely and vaguely answered each time.
There is a good argument for cleaning out a horse's feet. In the
wild, horses obviously don't war shoes and don't need to have their
hooves picked out. The rock and uneven terrain of their turf help
to file down their feet and keep them trim.
    As far as the scabs and the chestnuts, there
are probably more infections, and some pretty hefty-kneed horses
wobbling around out there.
    Grooming a horse can be a true joy. It makes
you feel close to your horse; to rub it, inspect it, tidy it. It's
part of the whole horse-loving experience; and although I often
feel like I envy the pictures of the rider coming in from her
evening hack who just tosses the reins to her stable boy, I know
I'd miss the satisfaction of putting my horse to bed for the night.
Of personally rubbing him down, and watching him enjoy a
well-deserved dinner.
    Being able to climb on his back in order to
trot aimlessly around big pastures and circular trails isn't the
only reason we love horses. Seeing that they're the best they can
be: healthy, shiny, alert and happy is as much a goal, and probably
more so, than any riding challenge or skill.

     

Chapter Four
    Horses Are People Too
    Horses are not as smart as Trigger.
    In truth, horses are not as smart as some
pasture rocks. This all came as a big surprise to me. My perception
of the horse was based on the Saturday morning television shows "My
Friend Flicka" and "Fury" as well as Trigger and Velvet's mighty
King; all perfectly capable of going for the sheriff when the ranch
began to burn. So what happened?
    The horses I knew had some polished tricks,
true. They responded to riding commands and were fairly adept at
being ridden--something I assumed horses did fairly naturally from
all the Westerns I'd watched as a kid.
    When brought in from the pasture, they knew
which stalls were theirs.
    Not exactly horse calculus.
    They knew that a bucket hanging on a hook or
even left forlornly on the ground inevitably meant that they were
to stick their noses into it in anticipation of food. They will
usually not run away from you if you approach them in the pasture
waving a carrot. All confirmed skills in The Horse
Bag-Of-Tricks.
    But desperate news for someone who expected,
if not to be saved from a rock slide now and then by her horse, at
least that the creature would have equal the intelligence of her
pet cockatiel. The more time I spent around horses, the more
respect I began to have for the cleverness my friends' pet dogs and
cats.
    "My God! Look at your dog! He's fetching his
leash!!"
    "He always does that when he wants to be
walked."
    "But that's incredible! It's like he's
communicating with you!"
    "Stick around, you can watch him sniff a
tree."
    In comparison to horses, even my pet
Cockatiel--a bird who is literally a pea-brain--began to show
heightened intelligence. Although it's true a horse wasn't terribly
blessed in the brains department (his brain, in relation to this
body, is about the size of a grape), he does have a pretty good
memory and very highly developed senses.
    He can see behind him and in the dark, has
incredible hearing, can supposedly smell when you're uptight or
tense and has a pretty sensitive hide, enabling him to feel, (if
not respond) to the slightest touch.
    In addition, a horse will quite often have
heaps of personality. Which is another important lesson horses have
helped us learn about life in general: just because you have
trouble remembering all the mechanics involved in chewing, (which,
I must say, is a problem a horse never has,) doesn't mean you're
not a fascinating character. Stupid is not always dull.
    This doesn't mean that there are not dull
horses. There are stupid, dull horses. But even with dull horses
there is one thing you can count on, and that is that they are
unpredictable. Even horses that are sweet, gentle,