Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1912-12-13
HORSE HATED men
Viciousness Developed as Result
of Abusive Treatment.
SUFFERED CRUELTY AS A COLT

A Lesson In the Story Of Blue 5Iazes,
the "Man Killer" Who Had Record
In Point of Number of Owners At
tacked-His Own Kind.
The development Of vicious horse
from an innocent colt is described by
Sewell Ford in one of the stories In
Horses Nine" The colts disposition
was first spoiled by ignorant and cruel
handlingson the farm of one Perkins.
Then he was sold, and his subsequent
career is thus pictured;
In the weeks during which he trailed
over the fruit district of southern Mich
igan in the wake of the horse buyer
Blue Blazes learned nothing good and
much that was ILL., He finished the trip
with raw hooks, hoof print on his
flank and tooth marks on neck and
withers. Horses led in n bunch do not
improve in disposition.
Some Of the scores the blue roam colt
paid in kind, some he did not, but he
learned the game of give and take.
Men and horses alike, he concluded,
were against him. If he would hold
his own he must be ready with teeth
and hoofs. Especially he carried with
him always q black, furious hatred OF
man In general.
So he went about with ears laid back,
the whites Of his eyes showing and a
bite or kick ready In any emergency.
Day by day the hate In him deepened
until 1t became the master passion. A
quick football behind him was enough
to send his heels dying as though they
had been released by hair trigger. He
kicked first and investigated afterward.
The mere sight Of q man within reach
ing distance reused all his ferocity.
Toward his own kind Blue Blazes
bore himself deflantly. Double harness
was something he loathed. One was
not free to work his will on the de-
spised driver If hampered by pole
and mate In such cases he nipped
names and kicked under the traces I'M
til released. He had a special antip-
athy for gray horses and fought them
on the smallest provocation or upon
none at all.
AS result Blue Blazes, while know
ing no masters, had many owners,
sometimes three in a single week. He
began his career by filling a three
months engagement as livery horse,
but after he had run away dozen
times, wrecked carriages and disabled
a hostler he was sold for half his pur-
chase price.
Then did ne enter upon his wander
ings in real earnest. He pulled street
caxs, delivery wagons, drays and ash
carts. He was sold to unsuspecting
farmers, but In the natural course Of
events he was much punished.
Up and across the southern PENN
sula Of Michigan he drifted conten-
tiously, growing more vicious with
each encounter, more daring after each
victory. In Muskegon he sent the driv-
err Of a grocery wagon to the hospital
with a shoulder bite requiring cauter-
ization and four stitches. In Manistee
he broke the small bones in the leg Of
a bakers delivery boy. In Cadillac a
boarding stable hostler struck him with
an iron shovel. Blue Blazes kicked
the hostler quite accurately and very
suddenly through a window.
Between Cadillac and Kalaska be
spent several lively weeks with farm
ers. Most OF them tried various tam
ing processes. Some escaped with
bruises, and some suffered serious In
jury. AT Alpena he found an owner,
who, having read something very con-
vincing in horse trainers book, elab-
orately strapped the roan's legs &C.
cording to diagram and then went into
the stall to wreak vengeance with a
riding whip Blue Blazes accepted one
cut, after which he crushed the aveng-
err against the plank partition until
three of the mans ribs were broken.
The Alpena man was fished from I'M
der the roan's Nhoofs just in time to
save his life.
This incident earned Blue Blazes the
name Of IMAM killer" and it stuck. lie
even figured in the newspaper dis
matches. Blue BIazeS, the Michigan
Man Killer" "The UgicSt Horse
Alive" "Alpena's Equine Outlaw
these were some Of the headlines. The
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