A horse can sense an unsafe bridge before its rider does

Evidence

We came to a river over which some logs were laid with some young trees across them. Birdie put one foot on this, then drew it back and put another on, then smelt the bridge noisily. Persuasions were useless; she only smelt, snorted, held back, and turned her cunning head and looked at me. It was useless to argue the point with so sagacious a beast. To the right of the bridge the ice was much broken, and we forded the river there; but as it was deep enough to come up to her body, and was icy cold to my feet, I wondered at her preference. Afterwards I heard that the bridge was dangerous. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 169

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: animal judgment versus human infrastructure confidence — a short essay on the horses and dogs who quietly veto our bad engineering.
• SHARE: One for the horse person in the reader’s life: the pony refuses the log bridge, smells it, and is later proven right.