A horse’s memory can navigate home through blinding snow after a single prior visit

Evidence

Then with gusts of wind the snow-storm began, and I had to trust entirely to Birdie’s sagacity for finding Evans’s shantie. She had been there once before only, but carried me direct to it over rough ground and trenches. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 156

Categorization

• CANDY: Remarkable animal-navigation feat: once-visited destination found through a blizzard with no human guidance.
• XREF: connects to: A horse left behind will follow its rider through deep snow for companionship — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 178; A horse’s trail instinct can fail, plunging rider and animal through lake ice. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 254

Broader Connections

• A horse left behind will follow its rider through deep snow for companionship #complicates (0.95) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 178
• A horse’s trail instinct can fail, plunging rider and animal through lake ice. #contradicts (0.92) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 254