While horses can be magnificent & lively, they also have a calm & sweet side that is part of what makes horse lovers so nuts for them. This handsome flaxen fellow looks calm & content. We also happen to have a thing for blondes!
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Captain and I were great friends. He was a noble old fellow, and he was very good company. I never thought that he would have to leave his home and go down the hill; but his turn came, and this was how it happened. I was not there, but I heard all about it. Read more
There is something eternally magnificent & noble about the equine animal. This image is one of those rare one that captures the spirit of this beautiful animal perfectly. It’s simply a lucky shot of the horse in the foreground looking all alert & elegant, but there is something almost poetic about it.
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The election day came at last; there was no lack of work for Jerry and me. First came a stout puffy gentleman with a carpet bag; he wanted to go to the Bishopsgate station; then we were called by a party who wished to be taken to the Regent’s Park; and next we were wanted in a side street where a timid, anxious old lady was waiting to be taken to the bank; there we had to stop to take her back again, and just as we had set her down a red-faced gentleman, with a handful of papers, came running up out of breath, and before Jerry could get down he had opened the door, popped himself in, and called out, “Bow Street Police Station, quick!” so off we went with him, and when after another turn or two we came back, there was no other cab on the stand. Jerry put on my nose-bag, for as he said, “We must eat when we can on such days as these; so munch away, Jack, and make the best of your time, old boy.” Read more
Is there a better combination than horses & flowers? We didn’t think so. There are many reasons to love this image beyond the simple beauty of the photography itself. There is something very relaxing about watching a horse graze & this image captures that beautifully. Although we are a little worried, too much clover can be toxic to horses!
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As we came into the yard one afternoon Polly came out. “Jerry! I’ve had Mr. B here asking about your vote, and he wants to hire your cab for the election; he will call for an answer.”
“Well, Polly, you may say that my cab will be otherwise engaged. I should not like to have it pasted over with their great bills, and as to making Jack and Captain race about to the public-houses to bring up half-drunken voters, why, I think ‘twould be an insult to the horses. No, I shan’t do it.” Read more
Who doesn’t love a mother & baby shot? There are many reasons why we love this image & cuteness is just one of them. These are Dartmore ponies which are an incredibly old breed (the first documentation of their existence was over a millennia ago!). These are also very obviously dun animals (one of our faves) as we can see that lovely dorsal stripe down their backs.
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I saw a great deal of trouble among the horses in London, and much of it might have been prevented by a little common sense. We horses do not mind hard work if we are treated reasonably, and I am sure there are many driven by quite poor men who have a happier life than I had when I used to go in the Countess of W’s carriage, with my silver-mounted harness and high feeding. Read more
It’s not a super exciting picture, but there is something sweet & tranquil about it. This resting pinto beauty is a Chincoteague pony. The ancestors of these ponies were brought over from Spain during settling of the new world. Their geographical isolation makes them a fairly pure strain of the original Spanish animals. They are left to run wild for most of the year & strictly managed by the local authorities to encourage their success.
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One day, while our cab and many others were waiting outside one of the parks where music was playing, a shabby old cab drove up beside ours. The horse was an old worn-out chestnut, with an ill-kept coat, and bones that showed plainly through it, the knees knuckled over, and the fore-legs were very unsteady. I had been eating some hay, and the wind rolled a little lock of it that way, and the poor creature put out her long thin neck and picked it up, and then turned and looked about for more. There was a hopeless look in the dull eye that I could not help noticing, and then, as I was thinking where I had seen that horse before, she looked full at me and said, “Black Beauty, is that you?” Read more
There is just something really cute about a close up of a horse nose, especially one with a bright lovely white blaze. This is another soft horse nose that we just want to cover with kisses! We also really have a thing for shots that convey the equine personality, which is a lot more refined & humorous than non-horse people will ever understand.
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I should say that for a cab-horse I was very well off indeed; my driver was my owner, and it was his interest to treat me well and not overwork me, even had he not been so good a man as he was; but there were a great many horses which belonged to the large cab-owners, who let them out to their drivers for so much money a day. As the horses did not belong to these men the only thing they thought of was how to get their money out of them, first, to pay the master, and then to provide for their own living; and a dreadful time some of these horses had of it. Of course, I understood but little, but it was often talked over on the stand, and the governor, who was a kind-hearted man and fond of horses, would sometimes speak up if one came in very much jaded or ill-used. Read more