a sick horse treated with snake meat

???
That's a new one on me. I've eaten rattlesnake, it didn't 'cure' me of anything.. but it also DIDN'T taste like chicken.

Can't imagine the origin of that notion. What do you need the horse to be 'sick' with? I've got a horse 'care' book from the mid 1800s... has some interesting stuff in it.

I'm no historian, but I suspect that a sick horse at that time either got better quick or wound up as food. Instead of an illness, how about infertility? Maybe they want a concoction that will either help their highly admirable mare get pregnant, or help her keep this foal, after losing the last one pre-term.

Where is the story set?

If the horse is supposed to eat the meat, I can't see that happening. I've had a lot of horses over the past 40 years and none of them, not even the greediest, would eat meat. They'll eat the bun off the cheeseburger, but not the burger. We've got a pony here who will eat almost anything, but she won't eat meat. She will eat cheese pizza, bagels with cream cheese, almost anything. I suppose if you ground the snake up and mixed it with applesauce.

Just my experience, perhaps someone else has a carnivorous horse.

I have never heard that. I've heard a lot of strange old wives tales some of them horrendous, but that's a new one to me.

As I understand it, medicine at that time in Greece was largely reliant on knowledge imported from Egypt. If you look at http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/medicine.htm and scroll down to Herbal medicine, there are some suggestions for the kind of ingredients that might be used. Bear in mind, this is all fantasy.

jeseymour said:

If the horse is supposed to eat the meat, I can't see that happening. I've had a lot of horses over the past 40 years and none of them, not even the greediest, would eat meat. They'll eat the bun off the cheeseburger, but not the burger. We've got a pony here who will eat almost anything, but she won't eat meat. She will eat cheese pizza, bagels with cream cheese, almost anything. I suppose if you ground the snake up and mixed it with applesauce.

Just my experience, perhaps someone else has a carnivorous horse.

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For the record, mine ate part of a hot dog and a piece of pizza with the pepperoni. (Someone offered him the hot dog thinking he'd turn his nose up at it...he grabbed the pizza out of the pizza box at a horse show)

But then...he was weird...

Phaedo said:

How weird? I am hooked now

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Just...weird. I mean, he was a Morgan, so he was weird by nature. (My family raised Morgans...they're a funny bunch...I love 'em)

Let's see, what else did he do?

He proved to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that animals CAN sense earthquakes WELL before they happen. It's kind of a long story...but...trust me. He knew it was coming.

A bear once came up to his fence, and they started licking each other in the face. When the bear left, the horse threw a FIT.

I looked out the window once and saw him "herding" 3 fawns. Like, teeny, still had their spots, TINY fawns. Lord only knows where their mother was, but Dusty was having a grand old time herding the terrified little things into a huddle.

He was virtually bombproof on the trails...except if kids were jumping on trampolines.

He was seriously shy about peeing. If you looked at him while he was peeing, he'd pin his ears at you, and if you were close enough, he'd snap at you.

Like I said...weird.

Phaedo said:

that is sooo cute!
the fawns -- ah! moments you wish you had a camera ready.
and bear? no way! that's a prize winner. wow.
*hugs Dusty and smooches him on the neck*

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Funny thing is, I usually HAVE a camera ready, but didn't that day. Go figure. I wasn't there for the bear thing, but I'm told it was adorable.

ETA: I think I'll add that earthquake to my story. Thanks for this.

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Do you want some info about what they do (or at least what Dusty did) when a quake is coming?

lol No problem.

The quake was a 5.4, and we were about a mile from the epicenter, so use that for what it's worth.

He was fine while I was grooming him and getting him saddled, as far as I can remember. On the way to the arena (about 100 yards away from the barn), he started getting unusually agitated. He's normally a very mellow horse, doesn't balk/shy at much of anything, and certainly doesn't misbehave just to misbehave...but he WOULD NOT go through the gate into the arena. It was really bizarre. He planted his feet, clenched his teeth, and wouldn't move. I thought he was just being stubborn and smacked him on the butt with the reins (I was leading him), and he finally went into the ring. (This was about 30 minutes before the quake)

Dusty was normally the type of horse to stay RIGHT on the rail all the time. He was a show horse, so, go figure. That night? Not so much. I couldn't keep him on the rail to save my life. He kept trying to go towards the middle of the arena, and every time we'd GO to the middle of the arena (i.e., if I was making a small circle or whatever), he'd stop. He was very sluggish, didn't want to do much more than a walk, couldn't get him to canter to save my life.

About 20 minutes before the quake actually happened, he started acting like he had something in his ear. His ears flopped and he kept shaking his head. I got off of him three or four times, checked his ears, couldn't find anything, etc. This was my first clue that something "odd" was going on. I mean, he was behaving strangely anyway, but THAT was just weird.

We continued with our ride, and he kept getting more and more agitated. I swear it was like he had the worst case of ADD in the history of horses. He was normally a very focused horse, always responded to cues instantly, but that night, he was anywhere but there. I thought if we just kept working, he'd settle down and focus. I FINALLY got him to canter, and right as we came around one corner, it started hailing. Dusty almost jumped out of his skin, so I rolled my eyes and decided, "Fine, if we'll stop and wait out the hail, THEN you will work."

We went into the middle of the arena and stopped. That's when I realized it wasn't hailing...there wasn't a cloud in the sky, actually (it was after dark, BTW)...it just SOUNDED like it was hailing, because the aluminum roof was making all kinds of racket. The ground wasn't moving much yet, I couldn't even feel it moving, but Dusty started shaking (like, scared shaking, not earthquake shaking), and I went "oh shit". I decided I'd be a bit safer on the ground (whatever was happening, I didn't have a clue yet), and RIGHT when my foot hit the ground, the ground moved out from under me. (That's an odd feeling in and of itself)

Dusty planted his feet and stared at me (I swear there was some "I told you so, you moron" in his eyes, but mostly he was TERRIFIED). There seems to be this misconception that a horse will run during an earthquake, but they don't: they won't move.

When it was over, we went back down to the barn. He was shaky and agitated, broke out in a sweat, and didn't really calm down completely until hours later. (He never quite forgave me, either, and we both almost jumped out of our skin any time the arena roof creaked after that)

It wasn't a massive earthquake by any means, but he DEFINITELY knew it was coming.

Glad it helped. It was easily one of the scariest things I've ever experienced - I'm terrified of earthquakes anyway, but I was always petrified of being on a horse during one (and what were the odds??? I think "winning the lottery" will be my next biggest fear...)

And yeah, I'm the same way - very sensitive to my horse's behavior. When they start doing weird stuff, I listen, especially after that quake.

What a great thread! Can't say I've ever heard the snake meat thing, but I did know a horse once who ate a couple of bites of a cheeseburger. Which I told him was practically cannabalism, but he didn't care.

My horse once watched a tornado coming. Dufus. He was terrified of thunder, lightning, rain, heavy clouds, and wind (also dogs, mailboxes, calves, and neighbor kids) -- yet -- on the day of the tornado, he was super calm. I wasn't there, but my dad said he went down to the barn to check the horse and found such a "calm character" that he decided to stay. So here's my unnaturally calm father and my even more unnaturally calm horse standing in the barn, watching tree limbs blow about. It was not a big storm, but it was big enough to tear the roof off the neighbor's garage and bring down a lot of trees. Yet through it all, my "calm character" (first time in his life he'd ever been described THAT way!) stood watching, not even flinching, still chewing his hay. Horses are such goobers.

What's that branch of science where "like treats like"? I forget what it's called. Perhaps the symptoms of snakebite cause similar symptoms to what you want to treat with the snake meat, and that's why it's recommended to give this.

Here's some more "food for thought". . . pun intended, on the horse medicine idea. I'm a veterinarian and a beekeeper, honey is one of the most ancient of medicines, dating back to the time of the Pharaohs and beyond. Besides treating allergies and digestive disorders, its best role may be for treating wounds. It is still used today for that both in human and veterinary medicine. In fact, medical grade honey has recently become available in the U.S., it has been around in Europe for quite a while.

Re: horses eating meat - In the horse circles my parents ran in, there used to be a Shetland pony named Booger, who would eat anything the kids ate. Hot dogs, hamburgers, you name it. He wasn't real bright.

We also had a mare that went nuts over peanut brittle.

(my worthless input for the day is done. )

Horses have been treated with snake *venom*...fair bit of scandal surrounding the practice, but it's out there. Snake meat I've never heard of, but well, there are lots of stupid anecdotal things out there.