HOMING INSTINCT IN HORSES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2064, 26 April 1907, Page 1

HOMING INSTINCT IN HORSES.

MAN’S FAITHFUL FRIEND. A gentlo argument on the capacity of the horse to find its way home started by a camp fire or in a bush hut nearly always develops int«o a furious discussion (says the Sydney Morning Herald.) Often it ends by tho parties turning in for the night in sulky silence: the horse and its proclivities having been completely forgotten in a storm of personalities. The point most debated in connection with the homing instinct of the horse' is whether the animal, when left to its own devices, will carry its rider home on a dark night. It is proliable that the faith of the person who sets up the theory that all you have to do when you are bushed a! night is to throw the reins oil your horse’s lieclc, and you will pull up at the gate of the homestead, is measured by his inexperience. To tlie man who has tried it frequently, it is apt to present itself in the light of a very pretty romance. . No doubt instances could be quoted in which a horse has taken a fairly direct route for the homestead when the rider has no idea of Ids whereabouts, but as a rule this occurs only when the liorso happens to strike some kind oi a track that it knows. Whether’“the animal 'is really capable of taking a man many miles across country to his

home without guidance will porhrnps never be satisfactorily settled. ’People talk of throwing the reins on the horse’s neck and leaving it to itself; but it is almost always forgotten that tlie man guides the horse with the motion of bis body, and it is unlikely that any rider has over been quite sure that the horse is going in the proper direction. Everybody knows how east becomes west, ami north .out'll, to the senses of the person ivho is lost. Even in broad daylight with the sun shining fully, it fs impossible to realise that the points of the compass arc still in their proper places. Certainly a man is not guided in the least degree by instinct', hut how-

ever trustful ho may be with regard to the instinct of his horse, he will he sure to occasionally fall out with the animal oq, the subject of direction. Tho result is that the movement of the man’s body in the saddle, and the pressure of his knees, must throw the horse out of its hearings, provided that it has any bearings. Bushmen will probably agree that the reason why a horse does not always go straight home with his master, .when the direction is apparently left to its own sweet, will, is that the indiiict 1 , or whatever impels the horse to take up a homeward route,, is not always in active operation. An animal may not be noarly so anxious to strike the homestead gate as the weary traveller who sits in the •saddle, linil it is very likely that it, will wander about for some time before it suddenly decides to make for port. In proof of this idea, we have tho strange ilittings of horses which have lieen settled down for months in some place new to them. ’The animals may he horn and bred and work-

ed in one district, and afterwards remove'] to a part of the country many miles away. They will show no sign of home-sickness, and even though tho new country on which they arc running may be unfenced, it is necessary only to liobblo out one or two in order to keep all tho animals together. They may bo caught every morning, worked all clay, and turned out at night for a long period, and the settler, who was. at first afraid that his workers would desert, becomes’ so accustomed to finding them somewhere about the homestead whenever he wants them, he gives up any thought that tlioy might seek to return to their old homes. One morning he goes abroad for bis horses, and cannot find them. A quick search only satisfies him that they have gone •l little further off the place than usual, but every minute wasted in searching about their customary feeding grounds is really carrying them farther on their journey to the place where they were bred. An experienced hand will borrow a saddle horse from a neighbor, and make tlie best possible time on the road which the horses travelled when they were brought into that part of the country. Sometimes horses which have been kept in paddocks and stables for perhaps a year will escape on to the road througth a gate being left open. This may occur a score of times, and they will he found on the road quite easily. On the twentyfirst occasion, however, they may trot straight off, and without losing much time will make right away to some distant part, which they seem to regard as the land from which they were exiled. I knew a case in which half a dozen horses were turned out at night in a place where they had lived for nearly twelve months. Next morning they wore gone, and the owner mounted about as tough a

little mare as was ever ridden on a journey across country. He lost no time in picking up the (trucks, and by sundown he had ridden over 80 miles, and was then in tho district from which the horses had originally been brought. Hard as the journey was, however, the loose horses were there before he arrived. It is reasonable to suppose that they felt the call lor home immediately after they were turned out on the previous night and that they probably travelled all night and all day, whereas the man rode during the day only. When the distance home is very quickly, anil it is a common thing for men to ride an animal some short distance, take off the. saddle and bridle, and turn it adrift, being quite sure that it would start for homo as soon as it was free. In this case, however, the horse lias come over a beaten track on which it has frequently travelled, and it certainly holds a groat advantage over the. animal which is carrying a lost rider ill tho bush on a dark night. The chances are that the horse, which has become lost, through the rider not knowing where he is going, would not find its own way home if it were turned adrift until its instinct suddenly decided its course, and this is the real reason why the pretty theory that all you have to do when you are thoroughly bushed is to trust to your horse,often breaks down in hard practice. There is no denying that locality is firmly impressed on the brain of the animal. The impression may become somewhat dormant through the horse being used in beaten tracks, but' it is doubtful if it over dies right out. Some peculiar combination of circumstances, or perhaps even some well-remembered odor, may set tho instincts working, anil then the impression is more or less vividly revived and acted upon. I knew an instance in which a marc was sold by a farmer to a neighbor who lived only a mile away from the home of the seller. For some two years the new owner of the nniro worked her on his farm and drove

her in his drays to and from tho township. She was turned out, frequently, but never found her way to her old quarters until one night when the farmer stayed late in the .township and passed an unusually festivo evening. That night tho fanner owner of the marc, hearing a noise, in front of his house, walked cut, and there was the mare and cart, with tlie festive farmer sitting last asleep on the shaft. Alter two years the mare, left; to herself, had turned to her old home, bringing the dray in tho front gate and ip to tho spot where two years before it was customary to pull up in order to take out the parcels which wore usually brought in the dray from tlie township. Sometimes it is stated that if two horsemen are lost at night, tho best plan is to turn one horse loose, double bank ttie other, and follow tlie loose horse. The free horse, in such cases, will often strike a track, but it is doubtful whether even this plan can lie commended to the new .chum as being a reliable way of getting home before daylight. Evidently tlie horse, like its master, makes for home when it wishes to get there, and is not always anxious to get there, and is not always anxious to set out on the journey. Some men never go homo while there is anybody in their company who is willing to listen to wliat they have to say, and they certainly do not set out until they have concluded that home is tlie only place left for them to go to. The same men will very unreasonably expect their horses to strike out a path for them, and-carry them to the homestead at any moment they may desire, to be carried in that .direction. To say the least of it, this is expecting too much from an animal which is not supposed to be a thousandth part as intelligent as his lord and master.