orse Statue in the Park

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

Lilliland had a very beautiful park system for everyone to enjoy. Visitors were especially fond of visiting the parks with their children to view the flowers, statues and walkways that were always very attractive.

However, one cement statue of a horse kept falling over. The park security thought that it was the work of pranksters, but there was no trace of pranksters around the area.

The problem of the falling horse was called to the attention of Professor Hamblin, the Baron’s chief advisor. The Professor and the Baron visited the site to see for themselves about the condition of the beautiful horse statue. It wasn’t broken or damaged. It had just a few dirt marks from being on the ground. What was the cause they wondered?

The park security decided to hide a guard in one of the bushes near the statue to watch and see what happened. For several days and nights the statue was watched, but the guard saw nothing. Then one afternoon the statue just fell over on its side with no one near. The guard reported that he saw nothing unusual at all.

Finally, the Professor, upon hearing the news that it was no pranksters knocking over the horse, he decided to call in an expert who was a professional in the field of earthquakes and ground shifting patterns.

The professional examined the site where the statue stood and took a few soundings of the ground directly under the horse by the base. He said that he would have a report in a week to see if he could solve the problem

When the report came back, it was determined that the statue was built on a small fault in the earth and periodically that spot would shake and the horse would fall over on its side.

Next a decision had to be made about moving the horse to a safer spot even though where it was located was beautiful.

Finally, Professor Hamblin had an idea that would save the spot and the statue could stay. If the horse became similar to a hobbyhorse, it could rock back and forth when the earth shook. But if the earth shook sideways the horse would still fall over. “Not so,” the Professor added. “The hobbyhorse idea would be a round dish or saucer and not just two blades or runners. The dish at the base of the horse would be inside another dish-type base.” And it was built, and it worked. Now the horse statue stays upright and remains in the perfect place for everyone to see and admire.