>>>>>> No, they really do eat herring sometimes. The farmers would stick a barrel out in the winter and the horses would help themselves.
Years ago, my husband picked up a bucket in the feed room and saw a small mouse in the bottom. He has that universal overgrown-little-boy trait of seeing an opportunity to tease someone (usually me, sometimes one of our pets) in just about everything. On a whim, he turned around to the barn aisle to my old Quarter Horse who'd followed him into the barn, and he put the bucket under his nose - thinking he'd startle him and make him jump back. Wrong. Sundance slurped up the little mouse in about three nanoseconds, live, much to my horror - I don't think Sundance even saw what was in the bucket. I watched him like a hawk for several days (while Cary slept in the doghouse) but he was fine. Actually, everyone was fine except the mouse, but I was only worried about Sundance. (Otherwise, I'd probably be a widow - I was NOT happy with Cary!) That is a true story. However, from that incident, it does not logically follow to say that "Quarter Horses eat live mice." And it REALLY doesn't logically follow to say that QH "should" eat live mice... :) A lot of things happen in Iceland (or in Redneckville, USA) that horses survive, but that doesn't make them desirable. Gotta be careful when assigning cause versus effect. Karen Thomas, NC (Does that story qualify as a "one-rat study"....?)
