I WAS pleased to have several readers tell me they enjoyed reading my piece about the heavy horse stallions and the routes they followed in days gone by. Some of you told me it brought back memories.

It becomes more difficult to come up with anything new about the stallions and the men who travelled them. But I do remember one story and I don't recall writing about it before.

This is a true story about a stallion or entire traveller we will call Tommy and it was told to me many years later by a member of his family.

Tommy was both a knowledgeable and fearless horsemen. He had a great love for his charges but, as you may expect, he required them to behave themselves and you may be sure they knew better than to play him up. They could soon tell by the tone of his voice if he was displeased with them.

Tommy wasn't very tall but he was sturdy and lish'. Incidentally, owners tended to employ horsemen or grooms who were on the short side as that made their charges look so much bigger and farmers always liked to see a big stallion.

A bachelor, Tommy travelled entires in North Lancashire for well over 20 years, and here comes the story

As he travelled the lanes on a Monday morning with his newly-rested horse, impatient to be off, Tommy kept his eye open for the washing lines as, of course, Monday was washing day.

He kept his eyes rolling for a line of newly-washed clothes that was close to the hedge and as soon as he spied some socks on a line he would reach over and take them, but if he couldn't reach them he would clamber over the hedge to get them. As soon as he had collared a likely pair of socks he would quickly slip off his boots then, taking off his socks, he would pop them on the line in place of the ones he had removed, quickly put on the clean pair, then his boots and be off on his way. Everyone knew what happened but nobody minded too much, saying "he's a good sort is Tommy". And that has to be the most novel way that I have ever heard of to ensure a clean change of socks each week.

Something that was not unheard of but was certainly most unusual was putting your stallions to work outside the breeding season. Tommy, however, was quite famous for working his entires out of season. He broke them to work in chains but didn't approve of putting them between shafts as he believed it tended to make them "flighty" and as he would say: "Thems flightly enough as it is".

He could be seen regularly ploughing and harrowing with a fine pair of stallions. "Hardens 'em up no end", Tommy would say.

Dialect word: Hind, meaning manager or foreman-manager.

Thought for the day: She: "Someone's taken a pair of towels off the line". He: "Which ones?" She: "the ones we brought back from the hotel on our last holiday".

April 17, 2003 12:00