"How do we deal with a 'dead horse'" --- hmm, well being in the museum-biz I would think the answer is OBVIOUS -- we put him/her on exhibit!

There are many fire museums with exhibits honoring their faithful fire horses.  The Toledo Fire Museum has a commissioned paintings of "Jim" a favorite fire horse, while Fire Museum of Texas in Beaumont has saved the headstone that marked several of their fire horse graves.  The Reading (PA) Area Firefighters Museum has a nice framed assemblage containing pictures of their horses, and hair from their tails, (proving that those funeral hair pieces aren't just for humans ya know).

The best solution with "what to do with a dead horse" has got to be found at the fire museum in New Bern North Carolina.  See the link and description below.

-----------------------------------------------------
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/pet/fred.html

   Firehorse Fred
   Firehorse Fred pulled the New Bern fire hose wagon from 1908 to 1925.
   Endemic with so many heroic pets and animals, Fred was beloved by
   the firemen and the townspeople. He died in the harness pulling the
   crew to a false alarm.

   In gratitude, the men of Atlantic Company had Fred's head stuffed, and
   put in the Fireman's Museum when it was built in 1957. Fred's head is still
   on exhibit, stuffed and mounted in its own handsome display case.


Ah, kinda glad I'm not the curator there!  *smile*

In closing, I'll leave you with this poem -

The Auto Fire Engine
by J. W. Foley

"Yes, things are changed, doggone the luck!"
said the driver of Engine Three.
"For they're goin' to fires with an auto truck
and th' horse--he's a used-to-be.
It was sugar and oats and a shiny coat
that was dappled and smooth and clean
And now it's a lump in th' driver's throat
and a tankful of gasoline.

"There was romance then in a driver's work
and somethin' you loved right well;
It was snap of a collar, a cry and jerk
and off in the stress pell-mell.
It was 'Steady, Charlie!' and 'Come on, Dick!'
It was sparks where th' hooves came down;
and many a time that it turned th' trick
of savin' a slice of town.

"There was somethin' then in th' stalls back there
that was human - or purty near;
Big eyes and a shiny coat of hair,
and a beast that a man held dear.
As a life-long friend - but th' auto truck
is oustin' 'em slick and clean.
For oil and grease and a lot of muck
and a tankful of gasoline.

"And a driver, it used to be, could stand
and pet 'em and rub 'em down,
and feed 'em sugar outen his hand,
dapple and gray and brown,
but now it's a crank and a chug and wheeze,
and a rattle and roar and grind,
with a smell of gas to make you sneeze,
and a blue smoke out behind.

"Th' march of science along th' track--
I guess you might call it so;
but gi' me them old fire horses back
and le' me hitch up and go!
For a horse was a human sort of thing,
when he ran with that old machine;
but an auto truck for a fire-by jing!
and a tankful of gasoline.

"Then he rubbed down its nickeled and varnished coat
and he shined up its great glass eye;
he polished the brass with a lump in his throat
and a sorrowful, long-drawn sigh.
He lifted the hood where its metal soul
lay hidden and all unseen,
then unscrewed a cap from a yawning hole
and fed it some gasoline!

-----------------------------------------------------

- David -
David Lewis, curator
Aurora Regional Fire Museum
web-guy for the Fire Museum Network

www.FireMuseumNetwork.org

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