THE HORSE AS A SCOUT

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 24, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 17.

THE HORSE AS A SCOUT.

Major Burnham, the famous American scout, who fought with the British forces in South Africa, in a recent interview in a London newspaper, greatly appreciates the advantages of a “quick-witted” horse to a scout. “We can get important lessons in scouting from the animals,” says Mr. Burnham. “The horse is especially well worth watching. Many times, when out on the plains alone with my horse, I have lain down and gone to sleep in perfect security, while the horse grazed close at hand. However exhausted I might be, I would wake up instantly if the animal stopped grazing. And it would be instructive to watch him then.

“You could tell by the way he held his head that he was saying to himself, Didn’t I hear something a little unusual then? He would cock one ear back and listen behind him, and then go on grazing if convinced that everything was all right. But sometimes, when so far as the human ear can tell there is no sound, the horse holds his head high, with his ears pointed steadily in some particular direction; then it is time to make investigations.”

“There is as great a difference in horses, of course, as there is in men, and it behooves a scout to travel with an intelligent, quick-witted horse, and to study him thoroly, especially the language of his ears.”