It’s another one of those sayings which has been attributed to a thousand different people.
“Horse sense is what keeps horses from betting on people.”
Well, I’m not sure whether you can extend horse sense to other members of the animal and bird world, but I saw a few examples which would qualify in the last few days.
I was driving through a neighbourhood near my apartment building when I saw a woman out for a run with her dog. It was kind of hard to miss seeing them, since they were running on the side of the road right in front of me, in the same direction.
In other words, they were on the wrong side of the road.
The dog kept pulling a little toward the middle of the road, but the woman kept hauling it back.
I stayed back a bit as they (and I) came to a stop sign. The dog was quite prepared to cross the road at that point and get on the correct side of the road, but again the woman hauled it back.
I passed them and continued on my way, wondering how the dog could have a better understanding of the rules of the road than the owner.
I also saw a dog without a leash trotting along the sidewalk. It came to the corner at the intersection, paused for a second, and then made a turn and crossed the street to continue trotting down the sidewalk on that street.
So again, you have a dog who seems to know you’re not supposed to jaywalk; you cross at the corner.
Why can’t people figure that one out?
I also saw a couple of times this week something I’ve seen for years and always get a kick out of.
A couple of crows were pecking at some food that had been dropped on the road. As I got closer to them, they looked up, saw me, and hooped a few steps to the side, crossing the white line to get into the bike lane.
At which point they stopped and waited for me to pass. I looked in my rear-view mirror after I went back, and they were right back at the food.
How do they know that crossing the white line puts them in a technically safer spot than remaining on the main road?
Like I say, I don’t know if you can call it horse sense when it’s dogs and crows displaying it, but it certainly seems like the same thing.