In one such village we found the mare which proved less interesting than anticipated. She refused to move in a stubborn and uncompromising way when I tried her out. When I gave up and got off she just looked at me with the same sort of look Parisians sometimes give foreigners who cannot speak French. She had been used as a cart horse which tends to turn horses into donkeys in the opinion of my friend the horseman and marabout Haidara in Djenne.