What did Old West towns do with the carcasses of dead horses?

Bill Rogers
Columbia, South Carolina

Ordinarily if a horse died in town or near the ranch house, folks would drag the carcass to what would be euphemistically called a “boot hill for horses,” except they didn’t bury the horse. The scavengers would take care of the remains. As heartless as that might sound, a horse weighed close to a half-ton and would be hard to handle. Even if they had dug a huge grave for the horse, scavengers would have dug up the remains anyway.

What do you think?