Remarkable Sagacity in a Horse

The following singular circumstance is related in the Universal Theological Magazine for April, 1802.

About twenty years ago, I was well acquainted (says the writer) with a team of horses belonging to the Earl of Macclesfield, in Oxfordshire; one of them was naturally vicious and ill-tempered, and one quite the reverse. Next to the latter was placed, in the stable, another, which had the misfortune to be blind. In the summer season they used to be turned out to grass with some other horses, and this very good-tempered creature constantly took his blind friend under his protection. If, at a turning loose, the blind horse happened to take a wrong direction, and get at a distance from his companion, he would discover the greatest distress, by neighing and running about the field, where his friendly guide used to place himself in such a position that he might run against him, when, after smelling to him, he would begin to feed with the greatest confidence and composure.

But what appears still more extraordinary, this horse was naturally of so peaceable a disposition, that he had incurred the character of being a coward when only himself was concerned; but if any of them made an attack upon his blind friend, he would fly with such fury, that not a horse in the field could stand against him! Whenever it happened that the horses broke the fence, and went astray, this faithful creature never once left his unfortunate companion, though he has sometimes conducted him through the gap into the adjoining field; nor did he ever sustain any injury from several deep pits to which he was exposed. This singular instance of sagacity, I had almost said humanity, in a horse, has often struck me with astonishment; and, thought I, “MIght not this put many to the blush, to whom the Almighty has given more knowledge than to the beasts that perish!”