A. Stewart MacDonald D.F.C., M.D. C..M. 
     
    
   
   
    
     HORSES 
     
    
   
   
    
     The first horse I drove was when I went to dances, 
     
     when I was about 14 years of age. You had to work your 
     
     way there as the horse hated to go away from home, but 
     
     on return he was always anxious to get home, and one 
     
     only had to speak to him and off he started to trot. He 
     
     had considerable speed for a farm horse. In the spring my 
     
     father would take him along the long stretch of broad ice, 
     
     settling on the sands along the Northumberland Strait. The 
     
     next evening others would be there, and soon there would 
     
     be enough horses to have a race. It took a good horse to 
     
     pass that early horse I drove. I still can see the sparks 
     
     hitting the sleigh, when one was going fast over clear spots 
     
     on the road. 
     
    

    
     One of my first explorations was at a dance in 
     
     Hopefield when I was in my early teens. I decided to 
     
     drive a girl home after the dance, to Glen Martin beyond 
     
     Caledonia church. On my way home, I came to a fork in 
     
     the road, one going to Murray River, the other to Little 
     
     Sands. I was not quite sure which way to turn, the horse 
     
     wanted to go one way, but I the other. I guess it was my 
     
     first lesson in navigation, not to depend entirely on one’s 
     
     ”feeling" which way was south, etc. Instead of going to the 
     
     west as I should have, I went east. This lesson stood me 
     
     in good stead in my navigation years; I always depended 
     
     entirely on the compass. As a result of depending on 
     
     ”feeling" of direction, I learned that horses could always 
     
     find the shortest way home. The next change in the road, 
     
     the horse looked to the right but I, who felt that no animal 
     
     was telling me how to get home, pulled him to the left. As 
     
     I travelled along the road I had a feeling that I was not on 
     
     the right way home but heading to Wood Islands, and 
     
    
   
   
    
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