Hi,
Fleur here, remember me? I think they described me as a horse with
more looks than brains, something like
that anyway. Ellen and the other horses have given me the job of narrating this
story and to tell you the truth I'm at the best nervous, at worst scared
stiff. Domino, Rosie, Jingle and Ellen
have all told me that this story telling thing is, to use their words, "A synch."
"but how can a story be compared
with a lump of saddle leather?" I
had asked. Rosie turned her head away to
disguise the fact that she was smiling.
I had made a huge mistake but I couldn't see it at the time. Ellen put me out of my confusion after I had
nearly gone spare.
"A cinch is an American phrase which
means that something is easy. Don't ask
me why they use the same word to name a "lump of saddle leather" as
you put it Fleur." Ellen said. I didn't make any further attempt at questioning the English
language. If I had then I'm sure I would
have drowned in my mistakes. Rosie
looked at me with sympathy.
"Do your best Fleur." she said.
I was determined to do my best. I thought hard.
"What can I talk about?" I asked dumbly. Ellen suddenly smiled.
"You used to work in Great Yaremouth
didn't you Fleur?" she said.
"Yes I did." I replied.
"tell your story about that then
Fleur." Rosie suggested. So I'm going to tell you about that. But what can I talk about? Nothing happened. Oh no!
I've dried up already! Ellen saw
that I was confused and frightened. She
tried to nuzzle mee.
"Just tell what happened Fleur. The typist will do the rest." she suggested. So I'll do that. Hmmm well, yes, right, Where shall I
start?
I
began working at Great Yaremouth pleasure beach on my first birthday.
"Get them young and they'll stay for
life." I thought. The
first day at work was spent walking about getting used to crowds of
people. I attracted stares and a lot of
comment.
"That's a beautiful horse you've got
there. What's her name?" I had a different name then of course. Horses in the job I was in had strange
names. Such as Blue Sparkle. I call that more of a code really. I must say I prefer Fleur, it's more usual than Blue Sparkle. What a bloody awful name, Blue Sparkle! I ask
you! Who do they think I was?
The
pleasure beach and it's seafront were very close together. My job was to pull cart loads of humans up
and down a strip of tarmac all day long.
To say it was boring would be too kind.
The work wasn't hard, if it had been more of a challange then I might
have stuck at it for longer. As it was I
was almost falling asleep. Up and down,
Up, down, Up, down,
same old thing. Is that boring
enough for you? Well, I was sick of it from day one I can tell
you! I planned to get out of that job as
soon as I could. But I reasoned that a
horse has no employment contract as such.
So I was stuck there, bored silly
and feeling that I wouldn't mind a few rides on that roller coaster that had
just opened on the Pleasure beach.
"Roller coasters aren't for
horses." I thought.
I'm
going to introduce a few more people into this story so I'll use the name you
know me as and not my "circus" name,that's not a very nice name
anyway. I prefer Fleur as I have already
said. Back to the story. The typist is getting frustrated.
I
only got to talk to one other horse on these lonely trips up and down the seafront. He was named Joe.
Joe
was a chestnutt gelding with sad eyes. I
couldn't have blamed him if he was upset by his job prospects. I was, I'll make no bones about that one. Joe was stabled beside me. That was good for both of us. He treated me with a more than friendly mannerthat showed he liked me a
great deal. I must say I was fond of him
also. Horses get like this when they are isolated from a large herd situation. Relationships get very strong between two
horses in a situation like we had been put in.
Joe looked at me with sadness.
"IT WON'T GET ANY better
Fleur." he said. I felt sorry for him, more sorry than I could
tell him. I can't bare to see someone in
distress! It upsets me too much. I tried to cheer Joe up.
“I don’t know Joe, It’s not that bad. We’ve got each other. Nothing can change that.” Joe smiled suddenly. It was an improvement on five minutes ago.
“Yes Fleur
we have each other.” He said
softly.
The
next day we started work at the same thing we had been doing for the last six
months. Joe and I were tacked up and led
out to our carriages. I was strapped to the carriage. The driver got up behind me and flicked his
whip above my head to urge me forward. I
plodded forward slowly and thought murderous thoughts.
“I wish I could escape from this!” I started to run madly towards the sea. The driver got angry, I didn’t care however! I raced along the seafront until I reached
the end. Then I turned sharply and raced
back towards the Pleasure beach. My
driver was now shouting hysterically.
“Stop!
Stop!” He pulled madly on the
reigns making me even more angry. The
bit hurt my mouth and I was at my wits end!
I suddenly swerved off the tarmac onto the sand and ran straight into
the sea. I ran until I had to swim. Then I swam until the weight of the carriage
almost drowned me. I floundered in the
salty water until my driver released me from the carriage. A crowd had gathered at the water’s
edge. A mass of the great British public
had congregated to watch this unexpected
form of entertainment. I managed
to get back to the shore. I ran
away! Far, far away.
Out of the town, along the motorway,
and into a field with two horses in it.
They stared at me, one with startled amusement, the other with
angar! The furious horse spat on the
ground in my direction.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked.
Her companion took pity on me.
“Leave her alone Ferna. Can’t you see she’s frightened? What’s your name dear?” she asked.
“Fleur, but why? Where am I?”
I asked. Ferna’s companion
introduced herself.
“My name’s Bonny, and this is Ferna. But I think you already know that. Sorry about the outburst when you
arrived. She’s a funny sort.” Ferna turned on Bonny in a savage fury!
“How can you!” she then bit down on Bonny’s ear making her
squeal with pain. I couldn’t watch this
any longer! I had been teased all my
life because I have rather large hooves.
Now they were going to come in useful.
I waded into the fight and struck out at Ferna with all my force. I think at one point my right forefoot
connected solidly with Ferna’s shoulder.
Anyway she was screaming at me to,
“Give up Fleur! Stop it now!”
I didn’t mind a horse screaming at me.
It was only hot air, hooves flying in all directions was much
worse. I looked over at Bonny to see how
she had faired during the fight.
Poor
Bonny. Ferna had ripped her ear and it
was covered in blood. Bonny’s right
forefoot was without a shoe and her nerves were, well, I can’t say for
sure. What I could see was that she was
shaking violently. I walked over to her
and nuzzled her shoulder. Bonny responded
by rubbing back weakly against my nose with her’s.
“Are you all right Bonny?” You might think this a rather stupid question
after the discription above, but it wasn’t really. When I asked Bonny if she was all right, I
meant in her mind. I could see the
physical damage for myself. Bonny looked
with dread at Ferna.
“I want to leave here.” She whimpered.
“Shut up!” Ferna hissed. Bonny buried her head in my shoulder sobbing
with fear. I wondered why Ferna hadn’t
gone for me. I suddenly had a leap of
understanding that doesn’t often happen with me. I had come to the conclusion that Ferna went
for the horse she knew wouldn’t fight back.
She didn’t know me, so I reasoned that she wouldn’t hit me for fear of
getting bashed herself. But Ferna knew
Bonny too well for Bonny’s safety. Ferna
knew she could attack her without risking her own safety. This thought enraged me so much that I almost
struck out at Ferna. I told the
repulsive mare what I thought of her.
Ferna’s reply was to attack me, or try to at least.
I
wasn’t going to go down that easily however.
I’m not a fighter and never really have been. But I can defend myself if the need is
there. My famous hooves came in very
useful that day. The fight was short and
sharp. I didn’t want Ferna busting my
ribs. I hit her with all my force making
sure that she stayed on the grass. When
I had finished I was exhausted and feeling very ill. I got bashed up a bit myself. Ferna’s hooves had bruised my nose, right
shoulder, numerous ribs and to cap it all my head hurt. Ferna on the other hand had faired worse than
I had. She lay on the grass panting for
air and looking in a worse state than I had seen any horse before.
“She’s going to die!” I thought franticly. I had never meant to kill Ferna for one
moment. She groaned pitifully and I
couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. I’m
not a violent horse and I’ll always avoid it as much as possible. It sickens me to think of what I did to Ferna
and how far I could have gone. Bonny
looked down at the horse that had made her life hell.
“I hate her so much but I would be sad
forever if she died.” Bonny said
sadly. I knew what she meant. Ferna
struggled to her feet swearing profusely.
She looked at the two of us with a mixture of horror and dread.
“You’ve prooved yourself Fleur.” She said harshly. I stared at Ferna in confusion.
“You think that I have to beat you up to
proove myself?” I asked
incredulously. Bonny looked at me.
“Come on Fleur. Let’s go.”
She said. So we left the field
leaving Ferna on her own. She watched us
go.
Bonny
and I walked along the hard shoulder until we reached a slip road. Cars and other stuff thundered past us, the
drivers staring at us with too much interest for safety.
“Let’s go away from here Fleur.” Bonny said fearfully. So we left the motorway. We entered another field and walked across
it. We increased the pace to a trot and
then to a gallop as we came across yet more fields. The mad dash was an amazing experience. Bonny and I raced each other across green
grass, ploughed fields, farm tracks and
tarmaced roads. We ended up in a town
about two hundred and fifty miles away from Great Yaremouth. We were very tired and ravenously
hungry. We searched for food finding a
store of hay. We broke the bindings and
ate our fill. We saw no humans during
our meal. Bonny wondered whether the
humans had been driven out of the area. We left the village and carried on
through fields across country.
We
finished up in Suffolk after a long walk.
Bonny and I attached ourselves to a string of horses going to a
fair. We wanted a home fast. Bonny and I were split up and I arrived at
the yard.
“That’s
that.” I said. Rosie looked at me.
“That’s a sad story Fleur.” She said.
Ellen suddenly had an idea.
“Let’s try and get to Great
Yaremouth.” She suggested. Rosie stifled laughter.
“You’ve got’a be joking Ellen.” She said.
But Ellen was quite serious.
“No I’m not joking Rosie.” She replied.
Rosie stared at Ellen in disbelief.
“Have you gone totally crazy?” Rosie asked.
“No, no, I haven’t Rosie.” Ellen replied.
“It seems to me that you’ve flipped
Ellen.” I said. Ellen butted my shoulder with her nose.
“Be quiet you stupid horse.” She said playfully. I engaged with Ellen in a playful rough and
tumble game. She kept out of range of my
large hooves and lost the contest because of this. Jingle came running from her box.
“What’s this about going to Great
Yaremouth?” she asked.
“Ellen’s got this crazy idea of making
the trip to Great Yaremouth Jingle.”
Rosie replied. Jingle regarded
Ellen with a mixture of amusement and interest.
“How do you think we can get to Great
Yaremouth?” she asked.
“We can’t escape from the yard
Ellen.” Jingle pointed out. Domino suddenly appeared seemingly from
nowhere. I watched enthralled as she
crept up on Rosie without the large horse noticing. At the last moment Domino yelled into Rosie’s
ear from close range! Rosie screamed
with shock and pounded off up the yard as fast as she could. Domino smiled roguishly. Rosie turned back towards us and regarded
Domino with something bordering on frustration.
Lately Domino had taken to creeping up on unsuspecting horses and
scaring the life out of them. Rosie had been
scared by Domino once before and had kept a watch out for her for days afterwards. But she had relaxed her watchfulness and had
now paid the price for it. Rosie shook
from nose to tail. She was extremely
frightened!
“Don’t ever do that again Domino!” she said harshly. Domino smiled.
“It’s a joke Rosie.” She said.
“No it’s not! It’s not a joke to me Domino!” Rosie yelled.
Domino flinched. I could see that
Rosie struck fear into Domino when she was acting like this. Rosie advanced on Domino threatening unspoken
things. Domino fled back to her box in
terror.
“Come on Rosie. Let Domino have her fun.” I urged.
Rosie clenched her teeth keeping a lid on boiling fury inside her. She
suddenly ran off behind the stable block towards Domino’s box. I felt so sorry for Domino. She and I are only a year apart and I know
how she feels. We’re young and we wish
to play about. I love life, and it’s got
better since I arrived in Suffolk. My
need for security and all the other things that a horse needs are taken care of
here, I listened to Rosie yelling at Domino.
“Why do you do that?” Domino started to reply but Rosie didn’t let
her finish before she ploughed on.
“You could have killed me! You don’t understand how frightening it is to have a horse scream into
your ear at close range without any form of a warning!” Domino started to protest.
“But Rosie, it was meant as a joke. Can’t you see that?” Rosie obviously couldn’t. She stormed back to her box leaving Domino in
a wrecked state. I felt so sorry for
Domino. She was only having a bit of
fun, I’ll bet Rosie did much the same thing when she was young! No scrap that. Rosie could never have done that sort of
thing. She’s too startched for
that. I know that when Rosie reads this
she’ll go mad at me. But I have to say
it. Free expression of one’s own views
and all that you know.
During
all this Ellen and Jingle had returned to their boxes leaving me and Cleo
alone. Misty, another horse that had had
some mension in the last story was stabled next to me on my right. Cleo was stabled on my left. Misty was about twenty seven years old and
had not much to say on the matter. She
was quiet and unobtrusive and never expressed views on anything much. I wish I had kept my mouth shut when I was in
the field with Ferna. I wouldn’t have had
to drop her on the grass like I did then.
At the time though I felt that telling Ferna what I thought of her was a
good thing.
Now
I come to think about Ellen’s idea of visiting my old workplace. The idea may appeal to the other horses who
might have ideas of going on the largest roller coaster in the world. But I know that roller coasters are not for
horses. I have had many a frustrating
afternoon standing underneath the track of the ride watching it go about it’s
business. On those same afternoons I
have thought long and hard about what it must be like to ride it.
“Perhaps I
might get to ride it one day.” I had
thought on many occasions. But that time
never came any closer.
I
was not surprised to find that two days later a piece of news came back to me
that the Manageress was thinking of helping out some company in Great Yaremouth
because they were short of horses. I
groaned inwardly at the thought of carriage driving along that same strip of
tarmac I had left only three years ago.
Ellen told me about it one day.
“We’re going to help the owners of the
Pleasure beach during their summer season.
Isn’t this great Fleur?” she
asked enthusiasticly. I thought it
wasn’t but kept my views firmly to myself.
Instead I said,
“Oh yeah, that’s great Ellen.” She could tell by the tone of my reply that I
wasn’t in the least interested in going back to work in Great Yaremouth. The only good thing that I could see of my
returning there was that I could meet up with Joe again. I know that all my raving on about the way I
hated Great Yaremouth might sound like it’s a bad place for horses to
work. I had better put the record
straight as it were and say that it isn’t a bad place to work. I just hated the repetitive nature of the
job. I was slightly worried about the
list that the Manageress would draw up for the company. I was almost certain that my name would be on
it. But the Manageress didn’t know about
my past. She had bought me at a fair
from a man who had got no idea about where I had come from. The manageress had bought me because of my
looks and temprament. She could never
have guessed that I had escaped from my old job and was looking for another.
So
the day dawned when our contract started that allowed us to pull carriages for
the owners of Great Yaremouth pleasure beach.
The Manageress had commented on how far we would have to travel to
perform our service but the company had said that they had heard of us before
and would settle for nothing less than the best. So I worked out that the company thought that
the Manageress’s horses were the best so they would work with us no matter what
the cost or the travel expenses. I
reasoned that,
“They make enough money from what they
do so why not pay for the best.”
Jingle,
Cleo, Jinja and myself were loaded into horseboxes and driven the huge distance
to our three week work placement in Great Yaremouth. The Manageress had insisted that she came
with us. We all felt safer when she was
around. Cleo and myself travelled in one
horse box while Jinja and Jingle rode in the other. Ellen,
Rosie and the others were disappointed that they were not chosen for
work this time round.
“Perhaps next time.” The Manageress had said soothingly.
The
journey was long with many stops so that the Manageress could check on us. I understand that the two horse boxes were
escorted by the police.
“So we get special treatment then.” I said to Cleo.
“Yes, well it seams that way. I don’t know for sure Fleur.” She replied.
The check finished we started off on the last stage of the journey to a
new place for three of us and an old and hated place for me.
We
disembarked in a car park in bright sunshine.
I must say I recognised the place instantly. We had stopped near the “BIG ONE.” This is the roller coaster that I spoke of
earlier in the story. |It’s over two
hundred feet high and is said to travel at eighty five miles per hour. I could only manage five or ten at the most,
so how that manages to do eighty five I don’t know. Anyway, there we were, four horses and the
Manageress waiting for instructions from the director of the carriage driving
section of the Pleasure beach. The
Manageress was complaining bitterly about not being able to drive one of the
carriages.
“We cannot let you drive because you are
not licenced to do so.” The director had
explained frostily.
“Well they are my horses!” the Manageress replied. When this was pointed out to him the director
let the Manageress drive the carriage.
“Tell whoever drives the other carriages
to be careful with my horses.” The
Manageress said. The director promised
that he would and we were split up to go our separate ways. I was taken to my old home. Perhaps the Lad recognised me, I couldn’t be
sure. I looked out for my friend Joe
anyway. Sure enough Joe was there. When he saw me he whinnied with delight.
“Fleur! What’re you doing here?” he asked.
“Working, what else?” I replied.
Joe was overjoyed at my return. I
could see that for myself. Joe’s sad
eyes looked somewhat less sad today. Joe
nuzzled my shoulder franticly, butting me hard and rubbing himself against me
in a friendly way. This pleased me
greatly. My spirits were rising to the
rafters.
“How’s life then Fleur?” Joe asked.
“Life’s fine now.” I then told him what I
have told you earlier. Joe listened
atentivly and showed disgust when I told him about Ferna’s treatment of me and
Bonny.
“She sounds like a nasty piece of work.”
He said. I then told him of the fight
between Ferna and myself. He looked down
at my hooves.
“They are large aren’t they.” He said.
“Yes they are, and no comments if you
please.” I replied. Joe shook his head and looked out at the day.
“Here’s work.” He said.
With that two Lads came into sight around a corner and led us out to the
waiting carriages.
“You might be able to meet my friends
Joe.” I said. We started off along the seafront jogging
towards the Pleasure beach. I looked out
for Jingle, Cleo or Jinja. Sure enough I
saw them as I passed the amusement arcades.
They were jogging along the road past me going in the other direction. The Manageress was driving the carriage
pulled by Jingle. Jingle raised her head
and whinnied at me as we passed each other.
The carriages that we were pulling were different. The one that |Joe and I pulled was a larger
version of the ones pulled by Jingle, Cleo and Jinja. Their carriages were smaller than mine. I jogged on towards the tower and turned
right towards the sandy part of the beach.
My mind flashed back to the unplanned swim in the sea I had taken three
years before. I told Joe about the swim
and he laughed about it.
“Thanks.”
I said agrievedly.
“Sorry Fleur.” Joe said.
“No
matter Joe. I replied. We jogged over the sand towards the sea. The people that had hired us wanted to be
taken along the seafront actually on the water’s edge. We splashed along the edge of the sea, our
hooves whipping up spray in our wake. Our
journey took us about an hour to complete.
We returned to our base to recover from the journey. The run and the sea air had stirred in me a
feeling I hadn’t had since I had quit my job there over three years ago. Joe’s eyes held a light in them that I had
not seen before. I think he fancys me, I
can’t be sure though. That night I told
him about Figaro.
“He sounds a very nice horse.” He said.
I blinked back tears as I thought of Figaro.
“You’re still chewed up about his
departure aren’t you Fleur?” Joe asked.
“Yeah.”
I said sadly.
Jingle,
Cleo and Jinja came to visit us.
“Hi Fleur, Joe. How’re you?”
they asked.
“Fine thanks.” We replied.
We compared notes about the day’s work.
“My driver was a complete bastard!” Cleo said with feeling.
“What was so bad Cleo?” I asked.
“Fleur, even you would have lost patience
with him. He pulled, pushed, bullied and
thumped me into submission. I was sorely
tempted to snap and buck!” Cleo replied.
Jinja hadn’t got much to report and neither had Jingle, well, she
wouldn’t, the Manageress was driving her.
Jinja asked,
“Is this all that goes on here?” Joe looked unimpressed.
“Yes, this is the sum of it Jinja.” He replied.
Jinja mumbled something about life in the yard being in his opinion more
interesting than life working in the Pleasure beach. Joe said that he wanted to come with us back
to Suffolk to see where we live. We knew
that when he came with us he wouldn’t want to return to his old home.
So
Joe came back with us. Without
permission of course.
“At this rate there will be no horses
working at the Pleasure beach.” I
thought. We entered the yard glad to be
back in the place where we felt safe and secure. Misty called me over to her as I passed her
box.
“Did you enjoy your work placement
Fleur?” I thought for a bit.
“It was o’kay Misty.” I replied.
Misty could tell that I was less than enthusiastic about my old
employment.
“Did you get to ride the roller coaster
you wanted to Fleur?” Misty asked.
“No Misty I didn’t.” I replied.
“Pity.”
Was Misty’s parting shot.
So
that was the sum of our trip to Great Yaremouth and my first job. It’s not very good but I’m not good at
telling stories. I THINK I’LL LEAVE IT
TO THE EXPERTS. See you later. Oh! I
almost forgot, those comments made about the carriage driver in Great Yaremouth
were Cleo’s comments not mine O’kay!
I, MARTIN WILSHER, here by assert and give notice of my
right under section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be
identified as the author of the foregoing article.
© Copyright Martin Wilsher 1998-2000
Site contents Copyright Martin Wilsher 2010
Email m.wilsher@btopenworld.com
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