Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-29
APPETITE OF HORSES.
One Ate Raw Beef, Another Garbage
and Third Chewed Tobacco.

From Forest and Stream.
Mr.. Hardy gives an instance of a horse
which ate cooked beef. have in mind some
three different horses which may be said
to have had perverted appetite. One, a
small half-bred Texan, would eat fresh
piece of beef as large as dinner plate
and an inch thick. He ate it just as dog
would, holding it down with his forefoot,
then tearing off chunks of it and swallow
ing them. This horse, which / had for
few months, appetite for fresh beef was so
we'll known that none of 1t was ever left
within his reach except by accident. When
it was whoever left it never saw it again.
The troop that / first served in had a
horse that died in it when he was twenty
three years old. Seventeen of those years
he had put in with the troop, fifteen Of
them under the saddle. He had been shot
several times, once through the neck and
once in the flank, but neither shot had
sent him to the rear. He never had been
sick day.
The last two years oil his life he spent
on the retired list, but was still marked
fit for duty in order to keep him there;
any other horse would have been con-
demned and sold but he was kept as a
matter of sentiment and had nothing to
do but eat and sleep. The only other horse
that l ever knew to be treated this way
was the one which survived the Custer
massacre; he was kept In a troop of the
up and led out in every mounted inspection,
but was never ridden by any one.
This old horse of ours 1--WE called him
Bummer} was never tied .in the daytime,
but let go where he pleased. He paid reg
ular visits to the coOkhouse; there, getting
his head in the slop barrel, he would half
empty the barrel. 1t did not seem to make
any difference to him what he found there
bean soup, stale bread, cooked meat or
potato parings-all went. He did not need
the stuff; he got Just what the other horses
got to eat twice day.
Soon after the close of the war We were
dismounted at Macon, Ga. and sent to
Texas. Here We got the old horses that
the 18th New York had been riding, and
kept lookout for a sorrel, but the best
/ could get was a small sorrel mare. Mares
are never used in time of peace, but for
the last four years before this anything
that could carry saddle would be used
We had three of these mares by the time
We were all mounted. They had been
captured down south; none of them had
been bought My mare just suited me;
she could carry fifty miles a day, then
carry me back again next day if / wanted
her to do it. l had her about two days
when 1 found out that she chewed tobacco.
She grabbed small package of fine cut
out of my hand, and then stood chewing it,
paper and all. Seeing that it did not hurt
her, kept her in tobacco, buying the leaf
sold here then. large hand" of it for
silver dime; that would not have paid the
duty on it had any been paid but the col
lector had not got here yet. When he did
come these men had to stop selling it at
any price. l never went near my mare
without bringing her tobacco. If she did
not get it right away she would begin to
shove me with her nose and keep it up until
/ gave her the usual chew. When we were
ordered to turn in mares a few months
after this / parted with her with more re-
greet than l have since felt when parting
with better horse than she was.
l rode a horse for four years, my race
horse Charley, which would eat half
peck of peaches as fast as 1 could remove
the stones out of them. The same hores
could eat a pound of sugar or candy with
out even stopping.