Wednesday 25 May 2011

Horse diaries (cont)


Well it took us some time to recover from the incident with the cows. Every manhole cover was a cowhole cover; every wheelie bin was a cunningly disguised cow. You get the picture. But gradually things returned to normal (provided, of course, that we avoided cows). Until today.

There we were, pottering along the road in the sunshine, and suddenly we came across a horse-drawn caravan coming the other way.

Titch: WHAT is that?
Me: A caravan. Look. There's horse pulling it.
Titch: The silly bugger. You wouldn't get me doing that.
Me: Well, no-one's asking you to pull it; just to pass it.
Titch: Ooooooh no. I'm going home.

He proceded to do just that. Backwards.

Me: Why are you going backwards?
Titch: Got to keep an eye on it, haven't I?
Me: Don't be so ridiculous. Besides, that's the long way home, and we are going to go the proper way home. Forwards. And past that caravan.

There followed a bouncy prancy little number, choreographed by Titch, with much snorting and clattering of hooves. We were holding up the traffic both ways. It was becoming embarrassing. The people in the caravan looked amused. The people in cars, bored but patient.

In the end, I had to ask the caravan people (who, after all, are also horse people) to lead him past the caravan. It took two of them, all of us telling Titch what a good, brave boy he was (which wasn't true).

He danced his way home, muttering about near misses and narrow escapes, and arrived at the stables dripping with sweat.

Back to square one...

7 comments:

  1. Fabulous picture and great post Frances. Hope Titch feels better now from his experience of seeing the other horse pulling the caravan. Such fun.

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  2. Thanks, Suzy. I suppose it was fun - in retrospect. Fortunately, Wiltshire is a very horsey county, and people are pretty understanding!

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  3. Poor Titch... But how amazing to see a horsedrawn caravan - I didn't think they existed any more.

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  4. You need to write a book about Titch, Frances!

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  5. I always show your stories of Tich to my wife. It reminds her of Toby.

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  6. Thank you for your help with the comments, Frances!

    Poor Titch - I agree with Rosemary, you should write a book about him.

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  7. Alis, horse-drawn caavans are alive and well, especially in Ireland for holidays (though I don't recommend t. I've done it. More romantic than it sounds).

    Lovely idea, Rosemary (and Teresa), but would it sell...?

    Keith, who is/was Toby?

    Teresa, I stil can't believe I actually had the answer to a computer problem. It's made my day. I can't wait to tell my cynical sons! (But please don't ask me anything else - that was definitely a fluke!)

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