A TRUE HORSE STORY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 6, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 45.

A TRUE HORSE STORY.

A REMARKABLE instance of equine sagacity was exhibited this morning which comes to us testified to by several reliable witnesses. Thomas Drummond, a teamster in our city, owns a horse which has been afflicted with lameness for two or three weeks past. This morning Mr. Drummond turned him out upon the common, hoping that fresh air and exercise would benefit the animal. Upon gaining his liberty, the crippled horse hobbled along on three legs direct to the blacksmith-shop of William Eager, entered the shoeing department and stood there holding up his injured foot, with his head turned and his eyes intelligently fixed upon Mr. Eager. This peculiar act on the part of a brute attracted Mr. Eager's attention, and induced him to examine the foot held invitingly up for inspection. The result of that examination was the discovery of a long nail driven into the frog, which was the cause of the lameness. Of course, Mr. Eager removed the nail. Mr. Drummond generally had his horses shod at Mr. Eager's shop, and the suffering brute undoubtedly reasoned that this was the place for him to go for relief. Equine intelligence, according to the common acceptation of the term, is not so rare, but when a horse deliberately concocts and executes a plan for relieving his injured foot of a rusty nail, he certainly can lay claim to a small portion of the reasoning faculties which are supposed to elevate the human race above the level of brutes.—Janesville (Wisconsin) Gazette.