HORSE DROPS DEAD

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 4, 28 September 1937, Page 13

HORSE DROPS DEAD

Electrocuted in Street COLLAPSES UNDER RIDER To have his horse drop dead beneath him as the result of an electric shock was the experience of Mr Gordon Spence, a young Morrinsville drover, upon driving cattle along the stock route near the Morrsinville High School at the corner of Studholme and Thorpe Streets. Mr Spence wai cantering along the side of the road to head oflE the cattle at the corner, when his hack, a seven-year-old mare, collapsed suddenly. As Mr Spence attempted to undo the bridle he received a slight shock and realised that the horse had been electrocuted. Some timo ago a horse ridden by another drover, Mr L. Quinn, was electra cuted at about the same plaee. A member of the Thames Valley Electric Fower Board '& engineering staflE, Mr G. P. Lindsay, said that the electrocution of the horse was due to a live wire touching the earth guard of a i power pole, causing a flow of electricity down the guard and into the ground. This power pole was close to the water main, which conveyed the borough water supply into ' the town from Kiwitahi, and consequently the ground between the guard and the water main would be made alive. "Horses are particularly susceptible to electric shocks, owing to the large amount of ground covered by their f our f eet, ' ' said Mr Lindsay. ' ' In this case the electrification of the ground was not sufficient to affect a human being, but was enough to give a fatal shock to a four-footed crepture. ' ' Mr Lindsay added that the previous mishap was due to a fault in workmanship, but this one was due to the live wire making contaet with the earth guard. Alterations to the live wire at this corner had been made so there was no likelihood of the troubla recurrjng.