DEATH-BED WARNING

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 July 1934, Page 9

DEATH-BED WARNING

MOTHER’S WORDS UNHEEDED. Iu entering a verdict of “death by misadventure,” the coroner at Aisby expressed the view recently that nobody was to blame for a fatal attack made on a well-known horse breeder by a maddened stallion. The inquest was held on George Cave, aged 53, of Walkeringham, near Doncaster, who was struck down and bitten by the stal’ion Grangewood Majestic on the farm of Mr. G. W. R; Spittlehou.se. Mr. Thomas Balderstone, horse breeder, who sold the animal to Mr. Cave on the previous day, said: “I have never known anything like this happen in my 50 years’ experience of horses.” He said he remarked to Cave that the horse might be a bit difficult, but Cave replied that he had had 35 years’ experience with stallions, and he would be able to manage it.

Mr. Spittlehouse said the stallion made two attempts to kick Cave, then reared on its hind legs amT brought Cave down, biting his head in such a manner that he died instantly. Mr. Spittlehouse kicked the horse and beat it with a stick, and then it turned on him. ,It was driven into, a paddock and the gate locked while they took the body round to the road to the farmhouse.

“This horse had a wicked temperament,” declared Mr. Spittlehouse, whose son, Mr. John Wililam Spittlehouser said the animal turned round to Cave and rolled its eyes before it attacked him.

Medical evidence showed that the whole of the dead man’s skull was fractured, the injuries being terrible. A death-bed warning which went unheeded is recalled by the tragedy. Cave’s mother told him some years ago. “You will be killed in your boots if you go with stallions,” and she issued the warning to other members of the family who paraded entires. Within a few hours of Caves terrible death a brother-in-law received serious injuries at a farm at Garthorpe, a few miles away, when he ran to stop a runaway horse. He was injured in th ribs, and was removed to Scunthorpe Hospital.