I always thought up and down was yes and side to side was no.”[/quote]

Not in Bulgaria. “No” is nodding your head; “yes” isn’t shaking your head (rotating on your neck/axis) but tilting it back and forth between your shoulders.

I guess that may apply to eastern Europe in general, but haven’t visited those countries yet.

Sorry, off-topic…

Fabulous article!! (Wish I’d seen “Equus”…damn, off-topic again!)

JT

When I was a kid, our family raised some pet goats. No conventional fence could hold them in — they’d find a weak spot and ram it until it broke open. Eventually we set up an electric fence, which kept them stumped for at least a couple of weeks.

Turns out goat horns are rather good insulators. The buggers would push up the bottom wire with their horns and slide right under, then head up the road together to party. Luckily, if you clapped your hands and shouted at them a couple times, they’d know the jig was up and sheepishly (hiyo!) turn around and march back into the pen.

Are goats off-topic?

Wished I had gotten it on video, really interesting, yet funny at the same time. With her jaw touching the ground, she would weave her head back and forth like a snake while pulling her body forward by the inch using just the fore legs with her rear legs dragging behind. Not a normal sight one would expect to see a horse in. Yet it worked and she could get to the forbidden pastures to the envy of the rest of the herd. Adding a third strand to the setup stopped her wanderings. It was quite funny watching her after, walking back and forth along the hot fence, head hung low as she examined that cursed third wire. Seeking an area she would feel confident in breaching.

This mare would also step over the pig panels and trot over to the pig feeders, flip open the feeder’s top panel with her nose, and eat the grower grain. I used some snow-chain rubber bungees to strap down the lids. Nope, she learned to use a hoof to pop the rubbers off. Next I surrounded the pen with elevated mounting poles and hot fiber wire. This one took her a week to get around. She learned to break branches off some pasture trees and if she dropped them on the fiber wire, she could cross without getting shocked. This caused the hot wire to ground out when it touched the pig panels. Finally I installed a lock and hasp to beat her at this game.

Once again I wished I had videoed it. She would push her rump against a lower limb until it snapped. The she would complete the break by stepping on it with a front hoof. Once freed from the tree, she would grasp it in her mouth and drag it to the pig enclosure, dropping it onto the hot wire. As far as catching her and riding, all I had to do was whistle and call. She always came running and stood patiently as I saddled her, due to her size and length, a real pleasure to ride.

As a side note, she was not the only animal that we’ve owned that displayed high intelligence.

The Don