In his diary (the entry of September 24, 1889) Leo Tolstoy
mentions "the superb book by Tikhon Zadonsky" (Dushespasitel'nye
nastavleniya sv. Tikhona Zadonskogo, "The Salutary Instructions of St.
Tikhon Zadonsky," Moscow, 1890) and, in the next entry (September 28,
1889), Tolstoy praises Ertel's novel "The Gardenins" (in which there is a horse
named Krolik).
Incidentally, Turgenev famously said of Tolstoy that in one of
his former lives the author of Kholostomer ("Strider," Tolstoy's
novella about a horse) was a horse. Another indirect evidence that Skonky
(d'Onsky's nickname) is a horse, too.
Alexey Sklyarenko