THE GREAT WATERHORSE DEBATE: Dale Drinnon

Cloven hoofprints are sometimes reported in Celtic Water Horse traditions, and Water Cows or Water Bulls are universally said to leave cloven hoof-prints the size and shape of cattle tracks. The Celtic Water horses are sometimes said to have the hooves turned backwards, but a horshoe turned the other way around is still giving the impression of a cloven hoof.

Water Horses reported with cloven hooves are not really rare and are otherwise reported in Lake Monsters from Sweden to Maine--the long way around--and both Loch Ness and Lake Okanagon have a distinct and direct identification of the cloven hooved feet corresponding to the description of a moose.

The 1933 MacLennan sighting at Loch Ness was one of the ones on shore. Mrs. MacLennan described a large animal with cloven hooves like pig's feet but larger. Burton explained this as an otter and Costello as a seal but neither candidate is adequate for that description. Mrs. MacLennan mentioned that it was 25 feet long and that it had a humped back but that it looked longer, with more prominent humps in the water. She was describing the wake of the animal in the water swiming away when she said this. She saw it end-on when it was on shore and did not see the creature on land in a position where she could have made an accurate guess as to its length.

Costello mentions the Ogopogo tracks as being round in shape, but at the exact size of moose tracks. The Ogopogo tracks are mentioned by Costello in In Search of Lake Monsters on page 226 as being found on shore in 1949 and six inches across. Mary Moon also describes similar examples, sometimes found submerged right along the shoreline. The tracks of a moose are typically five to seven inches across and resemble cow tracks.

One of the recent sightings of a 'Water horse' in Maine said that the animal had come ashore and left 'clawmarks' on the shore. 'Clawmarks' can be understood to mean cloven hoof-prints.

Coleman and Huyghe's Field Guide to Lake Monsters... has a 1997 Water horse sighting off Newfoundland on pages 122-123 with the large eyes and ears described (there seems to have been some confusion as to whether it had large ears or horns, and also whether it was hairy or scaly) but it is clearly another rather poorly seen and poorly described swimming moose report.