On Acronyms and Coffee Shops

Firstly, on a serious note, a question.  A serious inquiry of which I have not yet had the proper venue to present. This seems as good a place as any. Horses; on calm, temperate days when the flies abound, horses sidle up, side-by-side, in reversed positions, using their tails to swat flies off the other. Alright cool. Smart. Smart animal. My question is, and truthfully the question spans far wider than the breadth of the equines habits, but, do horses react to, what I can't help but think frequent, the gastro-intestinal releases of another? Gas passing? This is something I have honestly been wondering - not trying to be nasty, lewd or shocking. My thought is that perhaps part of the fly-swatting, reverse position arrangement, there is a tacit agreement to control, that is, hold their gas, or politely excuse themselves to another area of the field to do so. From what I understand, horses have a very strong sense of smell and the raw odor of the outgas would trump any benefits received from the fly-swatting arrangement. This, like I said, raises a much larger question, do animals, maybe even just a few species of animals, have a tacit code of conduct in-so-far as it effects their daily living and "arrangements"? As I watch critters live and play together, I can't help but think 'yes'. How well animal etiquette has been studied, I don't know. But there must be instances where, not based on our human values or mores of chivalry or better, animals have developed arrangements to control some of the unpleasantries of life, namely, our digestive systems, in order to maximize utility. Mr. Ed has long past. Thus our chances of getting an articulate verbal answer to this question too, gone.

Well, I guess I didn't even touch on what I wanted to write about today, but that is okay. I hope I gave whoever reads this blog (is there anybody out there?) something to mull over for a couple of minutes. I know I have much to pontificate on this subject. Actually, I am done. Time to work. Peace.