"I doubt that many people absently picked their noses while riding in a buggy or on a saddle."

But isn't the horse that knows where to go by habit mentioned often in fiction from the horse era? Delivery carts, riding home after drinking, etc.

You're right, Anita. And now we have the luxury of being just as automatic as the horse -- I've missed a turn often enough by following a habitual path, just like the horse going home when its reins are dropped.

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