Those Booth Horses Again -

[Wild Bill]

All of this is very interesting. But it leaves out one thing. None of it actually relates to Booth. We do not know if he broke his leg coming out of Lincoln's box. We do not know if he broke his leg on the trail to the tavern. All we know is that by the time he got to the tavern he was on another horse and did no dismount. By the time he was at Mudd's he had a broken leg. Booth left 2 stories. He is dead and neither can be confirmed. None of us can prove either point.

I favor that Booth wrenched his back or slipped a disc in the theater, then fell with his horse in the muddy road and broke his leg bone, because Mudd's employee reported the horse was cut and bruised on the near front shoulder when he stabled him.

You need not buy that. But do not try to tell me I'm wrong. None of you knows enough about horses, to make your assertions ring true to me. Rick Smith rode Hunter seat as a teen and more and I have packed into the Grand Canyon for the US Govt and repaired the trail using mules for 5 years, and rode and shod horses and mules for 30 years. One does not get on a recalcitrant animal in the field with a game leg without a lot help. I do not recall Peanut John providing help--Hey! maybe he did?

I do not wish to be too snotty about this (but I will), but when it comes to suppositions I will lean towards Mike Kauffman over you all and me. He is not infallible (I disagree on his story about the loyal Samuel Mudd that the Mudd family holds dear) but he has researched this more deeply that we. I am only sorry that I cannot do his viewpoint justice since you all poo-poo his website because it does not provide primary sources. Where are yours?According to Kauffman, Booth's injury was the most common horse accident injury of the time, before Henry Ford changed our common mode of transportation. I'll go with him and that's that.