A DUEL TO DEATH.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 May 1923, Page 4

A DUEL TO DEATH.

STALLIONS ON BOARD SHIP. A battle fought at sea between two powerful horses was described when th (steamer Margold reached Newark, New Jersey, from Buenos Aires recently, with her decks crowded with horses. The duel ended in the death of one of the combatants, which was worth nearly £IOOO. The two enemies, a black and a hay. owing to some carelessness in slowing the live cargo, were placed in adjoining enclosures. Their natural wildness. I; ;rn of a life on the broad pampas of Argentina, was increased by the strange surroundings, and throughout their first day in the dark hold of the ship shrill neighing followed by the drumming of hoofs sounded continuously. The black, at last driven to a I’ren.a.y by the rolling of the ship, snapped his head chain, and, plunging forward, crashed through the wooden bar behind him. His first act on gaining his freedom was to sink his teeth in the flesh of the hay in the next stall, and, maddened by pain the bav also broke loose. I T!;e pair plunged up and down in the l narrow between the rows of horses, now and then plunging to •Tr.ke oil' with their front hoofs and again wheeling to lash out with their fuels, until they reached a clear space, vs'here they circled cautiously about each other for a time, warily watching for an opening. Then the black suddenly lilted himself on his hind legs and crashed down with his hoofs Hie head ot he udverrurv. j The other so,M,| dazed for an ins(aid. and in that moment the black fastened his teeth in the back of the hay’s nrek. The black, despite the tt’auiie ete-rts oi the elver to separate ihe pair, kore steadily down until ihe bar •. la-ad was pressed against ihc deck. I lien came a sudden twist of the black’s head, a sharp crack was heard, and the hay lay with a broken neck.