A Warm Evening.

Today wasn't so frantic at school. Busy but not too stressful, well until one child lost a pair of glasses just before home time and we had to search all over the place finally finding them hooked on the outside of a PE bag hanging up in the cloakroom. It has been overcast all day and got rather hot and sticky in the afternoon. Even now , 8.00, as I went for a stroll to say hello to the ponies it is still warm. Some of the ponies are already kitted out in their rugs and the smell of sweaty horse brought back memories of the days I used to look after people's horses in the East End of London. 20 years ago there were a surprising number of ponies and horses being kept under railway arches or in ramshackle stables. Several generations ago there were stables all over the East End when the horse was the means of transport, then as motor vehicles took over people still kept horses to show or for the kids. In my time there were a few wide boys who thought they could be small time horse dealers, (occasionally I'd be asked to ride a horse for a prospective buyer to view), or the real horse men who kept section C Welsh Cob stallions and would show them at national shows. It always had to be stallions, (a macho thing), Welsh Cobs are very gentle which was lucky for me as usually they were driving not riding horses. Hackney horses were also quite popular and would be driven in tiny trotting carts. I used to get as much enjoyment from looking after the horses as from riding them but even though I live next door to a stables I just haven't had the time to spend time over there helping with the horses.